The Ottmann (and Ottman) Family in New York City, and Ottman & Company.
Welcome to my page about my Ottmann family.
Here you will find information about:
The Ottmann Family, starting with Philipp Ottmann (1832-1876) who came to America in 1849, followed by his sister-in-law Margaretha Becker Ottmann and her 8 children between 1859 – 1864. The children are pictured in the portrait below, left to right: Louis, Jacob, Charles, Elizabeth, Philipinna, Katherina, Philipp and William.
Philipp Ottmann & Co., William Ottmann & Co.,, and Ottman & Company, the four successive meat purveying firms founded in the Fulton and West Washington Markets of NYC starting in 1859. Philipp Ottmann & Company operated at the Fulton Market between 1860 – 1876. Wm. Ottmann & Co. operated at the Fulton Market between 1876 – 1925. Ottman & Company operated at the West Washington Market between 1918 – 1986. Ottman Custom Processors operated in Worcester, MA as Ottman Custom Processors, from 1986 to 1999.
Family Gatherings: Five Generations of Ottman Family Recipes (2000). Recipe book now available at Amazon.com. Listen to the HeirloomRecipes.com radio interview with Jacquelyn Ottman.
J. Ottmann Lithographing Company, printers of the Puck Magazine. Link here to another page on this website for information on J. Ottmann Lithographing Company, and for info on Jacquelyn Ottman’s collection of Puck prints at the New York Historical Society, and the Puck at Puck Exhibit she staged in 2009.
This page was created and is managed by Jacquelyn Ottman (b. 1955) Contact me at: JacquelynOttman [at] gmail [dot] com with questions.
The Ottmann Family in America
Ottmann Family in NYC, ca 1865. All of the boys would join their uncle Philipp Ottmann in the meat business except Jacob (far left) who would founded J. Ottmann Lithographing Co the printers of Puck Magazine.
Philipp Ottmann (b. 1832), was the first member of my Ottmann family to come to America, (from Meisenheim am Glan in Prussia, now Germany). He arrived in 1849, as a teenager of 17 and, using his family’s butchering skills, later set up a butcher shop, Philipp Ottmann & Co. at the Fulton Market. It employed all five of Philipp Ottmann’s nephews who later arrived between 1850 – 1864.
Upon his uncle’s death in 1876, his eldest nephew renamed the firm Wm. Ottmann & Co. Thirty years later, Wm. Ottmann’s nephew opened his own firm, Ottman & Company in the West Washington Market (what is now referred to as “The Meatpacking District”) on the far west side of Manhattan. It ran from 1918 -1986. Ottman’s grandson, John A. Ottman Jr. later relocated the firm to Worcester, Massachusetts, working under the name, Ottman Custom Processors, and ran it until 1999.
The only one of the five sons of Margaretha Becker Ottmann (pictured right) who did not make a career in the meat business was Jacob Ottmann (b. 1849). He went on to become a leading lithographer, founder of J. Ottmann Lithographing Company. His firm built the Puck Building and printed the famous Puck Magazine, and exhibited at the Columbia Exposition of 1893. See sep page on this website to learn more: J. Ottmann Lithographing Co
Ottman & Company, Meat Purveyors in New York City’s
Meatpacking District, 1919 – 1986
Principals of Ottman & Company in the West Washington Market, 1918. The firm descended from Philipp Ottmann & Company and William Ottmann & Company of Fulton Market
Listen to the Talks below, and buy the book, “Ottman & Company: Meatpacking District Pioneers” (2022)
Click on the image below to listen to Jacquelyn Ottman’s presentation to the National Arts Club on June 8, 2021 about her family’s storied meat purveying business, Ottman & Company, and the two family businesses that preceded it: Philipp Ottmann & Co., that operated in the Fulton Market between 1859-1876, and William Ottmann & Co, that succeeded it from 1876 – 1925.:
Click on the IMAGE below to listed to the talk Jacquelyn Ottman gave to the Village Preservation on October 14, 2021:
Click on the IMAGE below to view the video of the talk that Jacquie Ottman gave to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation on June 7, 2016
Video link of Jacquie Ottman’s 6/7/16 Talk: Cut and paste this link into your browser if necessary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS9Y0SrzuKE
Photos of the 6/7/16 Event: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gvshp/sets/72157668623881270
Before the High Line, before all the tony shops, galleries and restaurants in Greenwich Village’s “Meatpacking District”, there were the meat purveying businesses of the West Washington Market. What did these firms do exactly? Where did they go? And what did they contribute to the reputation of New York as purveyors of world class steak?
Jacquelyn A. Ottman, 5th Generation New Yorker, will answer these questions and more when she shares her own remembrance of a business that formed an integral part of her family for five generations.
Ottman, an art history maven, sustainability expert, and a ‘school break’ veteran of the business herself, will take us inside the walls of Vincent Astor’s Arts and Crafts Style “One Little West Twelfth Street” building that once housed her family’s Ottman & Company. She will share fascinating details about Philipp Ottmann & Co., and William Ottmann & Co., the two Fulton Market businesses that preceded it, providing culinary, architectural, historical, cultural, and personal perspectives on NYC’s meaty past, her family’s businesses, and the lasting contribution its pioneering ways made to the way we all eat today.
She will conclude with an intriguing look at the ways the industry is preparing to feed billions of meat eaters around the world more sustainable in the future.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OTTMAN WALKING TOURS AND LIVE TALKS ABOUT THE MEATPACKING DISTRICT
Learn more about the in-person walking tours and online and in person talks that Jacquie Ottman gives about the historic meatpacking district by linking to this separate page on this website: HERE
Read this article written in Our Town about Jacquie Ottman’s 2016 talk: Unpacking the Market’s History,
Buy a copy of Ottman & Company: Meatpacking District Pioneers, on Amazon.com: HERE
Ottman & Co: Meatpacking District Pioneers Amazon sales information
For info on J. Ottmann Lithographing Company,
Printers of Puck Magazine, link here.
Ottman Family Recipes
Family Gatherings: Ottman Family Recipe Collection
Jacquie Ottman edited Family Gatherings: Favorite Recipes from Five Generations as a Christmas 2000 gift for her extended family.
Jacquie grew up in and around NYC as the daughter of a meat purveyor that supplied meats to restaurants, hotels, and steamships back in the day. So listen up to hear Jacquie’s wonderful story of food and family and to hopefully get inspired to put together your recipe book, just as she has done!
Listen to Jacquie Ottman’s Heirloom Meals.com Radio Interview here: http://heirloommeals.com/shows/jacquie-ottman
Purchase a copy of Family Gatherings at this link at Amazon.com: https://amazon.com/Family-Gatherings-Favorite-Recipes-Generations/dp/B0977S1YZT
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