Norman L. Otis (1834-1916) was born in Newfane, New York, and died in Bloomer, Michigan. He was a minister and a farmer. He married Elizabeth C. Otis (b. Morgan) in Barry, Michigan, in 1855. She died in 1863, and later that year he married Ann M. Otis (b. Copp), who at the time was a schoolteacher in Maple Rapids, Michigan. She went on to become a student of Mary Baker Eddy's and a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. They divorced sometime after 1880. From 1863 to 1865 Otis served as a chaplain in the 8th Michigan Infantry of the Union Army in the American Civil War, and afterwards he served as the pastor of the Congregational Church in Crystal, Michigan. He also farmed in Bloomer for over forty years.

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