William Thomas Outten, the eldest son of Thomas and Charlotte Outten, was born January 31, 1859. He attended school at the Washington Schoolhouse and Flowerton, and the Seaford High School. Like his father, he was a farmer, and he also enjoyed hunting and fishing. In 1880, he had a very severe attack of Typhoid fever, and he never recovered the effects of it. He continued to live with his parents most of the time, until the death of his father, when he was more than thirty years old.
On December 24, 1889, he was married to Martha Williams, daughter of Isaac Williams, and they were the parents of six children, the youngest of whom died in infancy, but they succeeded in raising all the others. Their eldest child was Nellie. She was born October 25, 1891, and she married Herman J. Ockles, who was born July 4, 1887. They were married March 30, 1913. Their children are Edward Lee, born June 18, 1914; Florence J. born September 12, 1916, and John Thomas, born on the same date. He was married December 3, 1938, and has one child, Jacqueline, born October 22, 1942. William Howard was born June 6, 1920, and he married Joan Outten, daughter of Lee Outten, January 27, 1943. They have one child born November 24, 1943. Bernice Hester was born May 24, 1927; Herman John was born August 12, 1931, and Reuben James was born August 12, 1935.
Lee Outten, the second child of William and Martha, was born in 1893 at Seaford Delaware. He attended the U. S. Radio School, and was graduated in December, 1917, after which he was wireless operator on the Steamer Tacoma. He volunteered his services to the U. S. Government shortly after the War was declared with Germany, and he joined the Navy. He was sent to the War Zone in 1918, and was the wireless operator on several different warships. He married Elsie Johnson, and they were the parents of two children, Mildred, born in 1918, and Joan, born in 1920. Joan married her own cousin, William Howard Ockles, January 29, 1943, and they have one child, born November 24, 1943. Lee is, at the time of this writing, a merchant in Wilmington, Delaware.
Norman Outten, the second son of William and Martha, was born in 1895. He was drafted in February, 1918, and sent to Camp Greenleaf, at Fort Oglethorp, Georgia. Then he was sent to Camp Jackson, Columbus, S. C. After which he was sent with the American Expeditionary Forces to France, where he served till the War closed with an Armistice. His address was Private James N. Outten, Base hospital No. 60, P.O. #731, American Expeditionary Forces, France. After his return from the War, he was married to Florence Moore, a trained nurse, and they have one child named Norma. He is a fisherman and a mechanic, and lives near Preston , Maryland.
Florence, the second daughter of William and Martha, married John Ellis, and they have three children: Nellie, Agnes, and Robert. Frank, the youngest son of William and Martha, is married and lives in Ohio. They have a daughter who is married, but the writer knows nothing more about Frank and his family.
William Outten purchased the John Harris farm about two miles from Seaford in 1900, and he spent the rest of his life there. In 1915, he became interested in our family history, and it was through his influence that the writer began a search of the old family records. Together we searched the records at Georgetown and Snow Hill, and visited the old graveyards where members of the family are buried. He copied hundreds of names and dates from old family Bibles and tombstones, and talked with hundreds of people who are now dead, for the purpose of obtaining the facts which are recorded in our family history.
In January 1929, he was taken down with pneumonia, and the case was very serious from the start. He died January 23, only eight days before his seventieth birthday, and he was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery at Seaford. Martha then moved to Seaford, where she died April 20, 1933. They had lived together nearly forty years, and she was buried by his side.
The writer will acknowledge that he was altogether unprepared for the death of his brother William. Our family history was incomplete, and no one living could give as much information as he when he died, but at long last he decided to continue the history the best he could, and at last leave it for some more competent genius to complete.
William Outten possessed the most even temperment of any man the writer has ever known. He was never angry, and never too highly elated over any matter at any time. He never spoke unkindly about anybody, and he was always just the same every day, all the time and everywhere. He was six feet and three inches tall, and weighed about two hundred pounds. His complexion was dark, his voice was weak and his eyesight poor. He was in the twenty-first year of his age when he had typhoid fever, and it left him with a weakness the he never could overcome. Yet he worked hard on his farm, where he made a substantial living, and he told the writer, just before the end of his days, that he did not owe a cent in the world.
If there is any credit due any one for the writing of this family history, let it be given to William T. Outten, and may the memory of his life and character be an inspiration to the whole Outten family.