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Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",  published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.


     SEBASTIAN OTT is the proprietor of the Hotel Ritzville, Ritzville, Washington.  He came to this county in 1895, direct from Germany, where he was born on February 24, 1856.  He was reared in Bavaria and for forty years of his life he was a citizen of that country, where he lived on a farm and in younger life was educated in the common schools.  He was a non-commissioned officer in the German cavalry at one time, the Fifth Chevauxlyer Regiment, and was a soldier in that branch of the service for three years.
     The parents of Mr. Ott were Geoerge V. and Barbara (Reis) Ott, both native Bavarians.  The father died in 1881 and the mother in 1859.
     In 1895, Mr. Ott came to the United States and to Ritzville, bringing with him one son, and later he was followed by a brother who brought the remainder of the family.  The brothers brought with them capital to the extent of twenty-seven thousand dollars.  They at once invested ten thousand, five hundred dollars of this in the grist mill formerly owed by George Benninghoff.  They conducted this mill, and made a success of it until January 29, 1901, when they sold it to the Centennial Mill Company.  Mr. Ott upon arriving at Ritzville, built his present hostelry, and conducted it as a lodging house for two years, then leased it for three years, and again in November, 1901, he commenced running the house himself.  His building includes forty-four bed rooms, a private dining room for commercial travelers and other apartments.  Besides his hotel, Sebastian Ott owns a residence in town, and with his brother, Andrew, his only brother outside of Germany, he owns two sections of wheat land near Irby, Washington.
     Another brother of Mr. Ott's is Jacob, a German farmer.  He has one sister, Margaretha, wife of Jacob Schmitt, a Bavarian farmer.
     On November 10, 1883, occurred the marriage of Sebastian Ott to Christina Hege, born in Eppstein, Germany, August 4, 1860.  Her parents were both native Germans, named Johannes and Maria (Yotter) Hege, and both are now dead, the father dying in 1893.  Mrs. Ott has one brother, Heinrich Hege, a German farmer.
     To this union have been born six children, whose names and ages are as follows: Elise, eighteen; Jacob, seventeen; Johannes, fifteen; Amanda, thirteen; Maria, twelve; and Richard, six years.
     Mr. Ott was so unfortunate as to lose his wife by death, August 21, 1897.
     Sebastian Ott is a member of the Brotherhood of America.  He is a genial character, and a man of many friends.  Politically, he is a stanch Republican.  He and his family attend the Congregational church.
 
 

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