Florian Otto Wittichen (1836-1899)

Otto's family was heavily involved in the wool trade for which Montjoie (now Monschau) was known for several hundred years. They were successful and were related to the wife of Johann Heinrich Scheibler through her first marriage. Scheibler was very successful in the local wool business and built the Rotes Haus (Red House), one of Monschau's major tourist attractions today. Unfortunately, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the cottage industry of woolmaking in Montjoie began to suffer. It was too remotely located for it to be a profitable source of fine wool cloth. So, facing this dilemma, Otto's father sent him abroad to drum up business. That is how Otto found himself in New York in 1859.

Otto's stay in America was brief, though. He returned to Germany, probably to avoid the Civil War and may have been conscripted into the Prussian Army. He returned to America in 1865, once again to New York, but by 1870, he had moved south to Virginia and become a farmer.

By 1873, he had established a fertilizer company in Virginia, and settled in Wayside, in Prince William Co., VA. In nearby Warrenton, John Murray Forbes, a former member of Virginia's House of Burgesses, made his residence. Probably through his fertilizer business, Otto made contact with Mr. Forbes and came to meet his young daughter Kate. Kate's older sister had married a German immigrant, so she may have found Otto interesting. Also, she was in her mid-twenties, a bit old for an unmarried woman in those days. At any rate, they were married in 1878 in Warrenton and moved to Otto's home in Wayside. Around 1881, after having two daughters, they relocated to Catonsville, a town outside of Baltimore, MD. Here they would have 5 more children and by 1890, Otto had partners: James E. Tate and Louis Muller. In 1893, Otto had a portrait commissioned of his wife for her 40th birthday. All seemed very well.

In 1896, the fertilizer factory closed and it is hard to say why. Some sort of calamity may have befallen the business, but I doubt if we'll ever really know. This probably caused much stress for Otto and he died three years later. Having no relatives in Catonsville, she decided to move to be near her brother Thomas Semmes Forbes in Birmingham, AL. Money was tighter for the family, but I doubt they were in dire straits. Several fine pieces made the trip with them, including two fine silver pitchers from her parents, her portrait and an item with a Ramsay family crest on it. In January 1900, the family relocated, probably by train. A new town and new opportunities awaited.

Children

 * colspan="5" bgcolor="#FFfce0" |Florian Otto Wittichen and Catharine Ramsay Forbes
 * colspan="5" bgcolor="#FFfce0" |Florian Otto Wittichen and Catharine Ramsay Forbes