John Bressler Otto, plasterer

As a complement to last week's post about an increasingly less likely possible family excommunication, here's a small newspaper advertisement for the business of my great-great-grandfather, John Bressler Otto (1837-1906). 

It's from the July 28, 1887, Hazleton (Pennsylvania) Sentinel and states: "John B. Otto, Plasterer and dealer in plastering material. Cornice Work a Specialty. Office on Laurel St., Diamond Addition."

I learned that he was a plasterer from his death certificate. Various tidbits of information have now allowed me to piece together a little bit of John Bressler Otto's timeline (complicated by there being a lot of John B. Ottos in Pennsylvania!):

• 1837: Born in Hegins, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, of which his grandfather (William B. Otto, 1761-1841) was one of the early pioneers.
• 1863: Was a private in the volunteer 173rd Pennsylvania Regiment, Company F, during the Civil War. The regiment participated in the pursuit of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, from July 12-24, following the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
• 1869: Living in Hazleton when my great-grandfather, John Algernon Otto (1869-1963), is born.
• 1887: Living and working as a plasterer in Hazleton
• Sometime in the 1890s: Family moved to Allentown
• Late 1901: Family moved to Easton, where he was buried in 1906

Upon further review, I think this timeline makes it extremely unlikely that John Bressler Otto was the "John B. Otto" who was briefly excommunicated from First Reformed Church of Easton in 1903. I don't think he could have become a deacon after moving there so recently. I'm still very glad I did that post, though, because it's a great story that should be remembered.

Oddball movie connections

I love oddball connections or inspirations that people have in jumping between wildly different movies. So the above comment that I saw last week on Facebook really made me chuckle. It must be the first (and only?) time that the corny and overlong Children of the Corn horror series led someone to Godfrey Reggio's non-narrative and meditative documentaries Koyaanisqatsi (1982), Powaqqatsi (1988) and Naqoyqatsi (2002).

Ashar and I have our own running joke surrounding Children of Corn. On August 14, 2022, we were watching the 1984 original — the one where Courtney Gains runs around yelling "Interlopers!" — and making fun of how bad it was, with its idea of a deity that walks between the rows. Then we got hit by a monsoon with hail and straight-line winds that tore out a huge tree in our front yard and scared the hell out of the cats. 

Ever since, Ashar and I have joked that if it's too dry and we need to summon some summer rain, we should watch one of the Children of the Corn movies. I have the one with Naomi Watts on standby, just in case.