Peter J. Otey

Who was Peter J. Otey?

Peter Johnston Otey was a U.S. Representative from Virginia.

Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Otey attended private schools in Lynchburg, and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington in 1859. Otey joined the Confederate States Army in 1861 and served as a major throughout the Civil War.

He started out his professional life as a cashier for the Lynchburg National Bank and was later named the general manager of the Rivermont Land Co. Starting in 1887 he organized and built the Lynchburg & Durham Railroad and became president of the company which in 1892 merged with the Norfolk and Western railway. He retired from the railroad on June 21, 1891

Otey was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1895, until his death. He served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1896. He died in Lynchburg, Virginia, May 4, 1902 and was interred in the Presbyterian Cemetery.