WILLIAM T. OTTO.
Was born in 1816, in Philadelphia, Pa., and was educated in Philadelphia at the. Academy of Wylie and Engles, and at the University of Pennsylvania in 1833. He studied law with the Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll. In 1836 he removed to Indiana and engaged in the practice of law until 1844, when he was elected by the Legislature, Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit, then embracing the counties of Floyd, Clark, Scott, Jackson, Washington, Orange and Harrison. He served in that capacity till 1852. During several years (from 1847-52) of his term of office he was Professor of Law, in conjunction with Judge David McDonald, in the Indiana University. Judge Otto received the degree of A. M. in course from the University of Pennsylvania, and the honorary degree of LL. D. from the University of Indiana in 1852. He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Interior by President Lincoln, in which position he remained till 1871, when he was appointed the arbitrator on the part of the United States, under the treaty between the United States and Spain, which provided for the adjudication of claims of American citizens for wrongs and injuries committed against their persons and property l)y the Spanish authorities in Cuba. This position he resigned on his being appointed, in 1875, by the Supreme Court of the United States, as the Reporter of its decisions, resigning this office in 1884. Since that he was a delegate from the United States to the Universal Postal Congress, which met at the capital of Portugal in the spring of 1885.
