Dr. Bodo Otto–Physician Patriot of Berks County

Re-printed from the MedicalRecord, February 15, 1999.

As we look back over 175 years of service to the country, it is appropriate to recognize those physicians who have set the standard for our performance, professionally and personally. One such personage who makes up an important part of that history is Dr. Bodo Otto, who came to Reading to establish his practice in 1773 and volunteered to serve with George Washington during the winter of 1777- 1778 at Valley Forge. But lest I get ahead of myself, I should start his story at its beginning.

Bodo Otto was born in 1709 to Christopher Otto and his wife of one year, Maria Neineken, in Hanover, Germany, where his father was in the service of Baron Bodo von Obergs, one of the Kings noblemen. He did well in his early scholastic studies, and his family arranged to have him apprenticed, at the young age of 13, for the study of medicine under several masters at the city of Hamburg, including experience in the treatment of several epidemic diseases, which would serve him well in his service yet to come at Valley Forge.

At 12 years of apprenticeship, he presented to the City Hall of LUNEBERG in 1736 for his oral examination. He was less qualified to practice with the physicians and surgeons of Germany and in the same year married Elizabeth, who bore him a daughter in 1737; but his wife would unfortunately die in 1738. Doctor Otto remarried in 1742 to Catherine, who bore him four children, three sons and a daughter. (Two sons would train in America to become physicians.)

Three years after the death of his father, Doctor Otto at the age of 44 and his family made a decision to leave Germany for America. We can only wonder what would lead a very successful physician, with an established family, to make the decision to risk everything, including the lives of his family, to move to the largely unknown new world. Like so many of our ancestors, Dr. Otto and his friends, seeking religious freedom and an opportunity for their children, decided to risk all and leave for America. They left Germany for Amsterdam in May 1755, and after an 8-week voyage aboard the Neptune, arrived in Philadelphia in October 1755.

Doctor Otto’s services during the smallpox epidemic of 1755 gained him a favorable reputation, and he rapidly developed a respected practice period between 1755 and 1766; he had practices in Germantown, southern New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Catherine died in 1765. He married Maria Paris in 1766 and returned to practice in Philadelphia until 1773.

Like many of his countrymen who were moving into the developing America, Dr. Otto left Philadelphia with his family in 1773 and moved up the skull valley to Reading, where he took over the Apothecary Shop of Dr. Kuhn and established his new practice period; the revolutionary spirit would soon be spreading among the colonies, and Dr. Otto was to become part of that effort.

He was chosen in 1776 to be a delegate to the provincial conference in Philadelphia, and he soon volunteered to serve as a surgeon to the militia unit formed in Berks County, losing all of his medical supplies and equipment in the battle of Long Island. He and his two physician sons would volunteer to serve General Washington as surgeons at the various hospitals set up at Valley Forge and Reading, among other sites.

Doctor John Otto would service the Reading Hospital, at Trinity Lutheran Church, while the senior Bodo would serve as senior surgeon at Valley Forge and Yellow Springs (Chester County) at the age of 65, and an age most of us are making plans for retirement, never mind volunteering for military service under the very desperate conditions.

Dr. Bodo Otto, physician patriot, was certainly a model of professionalism and service to our citizens... and for all of us who serve in the profession today.

Doctor Otto’s training and experience with epidemic diseases such as smallpox, typhus, and cholera stood him well in this service, since these were the pavilion issues during that dreadful winter. He left his service of the army in 1782 at the age of 73. With his son John well established in Reading, he returned to a practice in Philadelphia and very transiently in Baltimore.

He would return ultimately to Reading at the urging of his son, where he practiced for two more years prior to his death in 1787. In addition to his professional contributions, he had been active in community affairs at the Trinity Lutheran Church, where his remains are at rest.

Dr. Bodo Otto, physician patriot, was certainly a model of professionalism and service to our citizens... and for all of us who serve in the profession today.