Harrison Gray Otis (publisher)
| Harrison Gray Otis | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 10, 1837 near Marietta, Ohio |
| Died | July 30, 1917 (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | newspaper publisher |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Eliza Ann Wetherby (m. 1859–1904, her death) |
| Children | Lillian Otis McPherson Marian Otis Chandler Mabel Otis Booth |
| Parent(s) | Stephen Otis Sara Otis |
| Relatives |
Mike Chandler (great-great grandson) Marilyn "Missy" Brant Chandler (first great-granddaughter-in-law) Bettina Whitaker Chandler (second great-granddaughter-in-law) Norman Chandler (grandson) Otis Chandler (great-grandson) Dorothy Buffum Chandler (granddaughter-in-law) Harry Chandler (son-in-law) |
Harrison Gray Otis (February 10, 1837 – July 30, 1917) was the president and general manager of the Times-Mirror Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times.
Otis was born near Marietta, Ohio, on February 10, 1837, the son of Stephen and Sally (Dyar) Otis. His father was from Vermont and his mother, a native of Nova Scotia, Canada, came to Ohio from Boston, Massachusetts, with her family. The young Otis received schooling until he was fourteen, when he became a printer's apprentice at the Noble County Courier in Ohio.
Otis and Eliza Ann Wetherby were married in Lowell, Ohio, on September 11, 1859, and they had three daughters, Lillian Otis McPherson, Marian Otis Chandler, who was secretary of Times-Mirror, and Mabel Otis Booth.
He was a Kentucky delegate to the Republican National Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he left his job as a compositor in the office of the Louisville Journal to volunteer as a private for the Union army. Otis fought in the 23rd Ohio Infantry. He was promoted through the ranks and was made an officer, a lieutenant, in November 1862 and left the Army in July 1865 as a captain.
He was wounded twice in battle, was "twice breveted for gallant and meritorious conduct" and was promoted seven times.
After the war, Otis was Official Reporter of the Ohio House of Representatives, then moved to Washington, D.C., where he was a government official, correspondent and editor. In 1876, he and his family moved to Santa Barbara, California, which had a population then of about 3,000, and he purchased a local newspaper, the Santa Barbara Press, from C.W. Hollister, effective March 11 of that year. He gave up journalism temporarily in 1879 when he was offered the post of chief government agent or special treasury agent of the Northern Seal Islands, now known as the Pribilof Islands, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the newly acquired territory of Alaska. He left that position in 1881 to return to Santa Barbara.
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