Johann Otholt was born on May 14, 1888 at Koloa, Kauai to Johann Otholt & Helena Margaret Müller, German immigrants that came to Koloa Plantation just one year earlier. He was the 6th child to the couple, but the 2nd living child. Johann attended the government school until the 8th grade and began his work for the sugar plantation.
In 1903, at the age of 15, Johann was working for the Koloa
Plantation as a watchman for the reservoir.
In the 1910 Census, at the age of 22, Johann is working as a
machinist at the Koloa Sugar Mill. He is also going by the name “John”. From
1911 to 1913, John worked as an assistant engineer at the plantation.
By 1914, he was living in Waialua on the island of O’ahu.
Sometime before 1920, John married Louisa Reyher, the
daughter of Ernest Reyher Sr., a German immigrant and Wilhelmina Tavares, a
Portuguese immigrant. Louisa was born on May 19, 1896 in Koloa, Kauai.
In the 1920 census, John Otholt was 32 years old and living
near his brothers in Waialua. His wife and his wife’s younger brother, August
Reyher, is living with them. John is working as a machinist at the Waialua
Sugar Mill.
On December 25, 1923, John Otholt was onboard the ship S.S. Maui, sailing from Honolulu to San
Francisco. He was 35 years old and no other member of his family was onboard
according to the passenger list. I am unsure what his reason was for going to
San Francisco.
John’s wife Louisa gave birth to their first and only child,
Lionel John Otholt, in 1928 in Waialua.
John Otholt is missing from the 1930 census but reappears in
1940. He is now 52 years old and living in Mill Camp #7 with his wife Louisa
(age 44) and son Lionel (age 10). John still works as a machinist at the sugar
mill making $3000/yr.
In 1949, John is listed as an engineer at the Waialua
Plantation.
John Otholt and possibly his wife, Louisa, in the background.
Louisa died on September 22, 1962 in Waialua. Two years later on Monday morning, June 22, 1964, John and Louisa’s son
Lionel was in his bedroom, waiting for his driver to pick him up and go to
work. Before the car came, John heard a gunshot from the bedroom. Lionel had
shot himself in the head. No reason was given. Lionel was 36 years old. The
only other thing we know about Lionel is from his cousin who says, “he was a
cowboy of some sort”.
John survived his wife by 10 years and died on February 20, 1973 in Waialua.
There are no known descendants of this line.
Memories
From the memory of John’s niece: Louisa was part German and
might’ve had a little Portuguese. I don’t remember seeing her smile at all.
She, like Auntie Anna, stayed indoors most days and the only time I had a
glimpse of her was when she walked to the store to shop. They did not own a
car. Uncle John worked as a sugar boiler boss at the mill. He spent a lot of
his non-working hours on his front porch reading the newspaper, smoking a pipe.
He sometimes looked up to see who was walking by. This idleness upset my mother
because his back yard was a complete jungle of weeds and she thought he should
be cleaning it. Uncle John’s front yard was neatly mowed but the back yard
remained in its natural state for years.
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