James Otis

James Otis (October 12, 1836 – July 22, 1898) was a Republican member of the New York State Senate and a society leader during the Gilded Age. Early life Otis was born in New York City on October 12, 1836, as a member of the prominent Boston Brahmin Otis family. He was the son of James William Otis (1800–1869) and Martha (née Church) Otis. His elder brother was William Church Otis, who married Margaret Sigourney (their daughter Violet was married to William Greenough Thayer). He was the grandson of Harrison Gray Otis, a U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative from Massachusetts who was one of the wealthiest men of Boston during his time, and a great-grandson of Samuel Allyne Otis, a delegate from Massachusetts to the Second Continental Congress who served as the Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the 1st Secretary of the United States Senate. He was also the granduncle of Sigourney Thayer, the theatrical producer, and Robert Helyer Thayer, the U.S. Minister to Romania under Dwight D. Eisenhower. Career During the U.S. Civil War, Otis was a member of the Union Army, achieving the rank of colonel with the 22nd New York Regiment. He began his career working as an East Indian commission broker.