JOHN OTTO WITMAN was the son of Benjamin Witman and Margaret Otto. He was educated at private schools and the Reading Academy. He was a clerk in the Surveyor General's office under Gabriel Hiester, during Governor Shulze's administration; studied medicine under Dr. Luther Reily, attended lectures at University of Pennsylvania in 1826-27; was physician to the Dauphin county almshouse in 1827-28; received the honorary degree of M. D. from the University of Maryland in 1843; commenced the practice of medicine in Harrisburg in 1827, and continued till 1832, when he removed to Gratz, Dauphin county, Pa., where he practiced till 1837, when he returned to Harrisburg and associated himself with Doctors Luther Reily and E. L. Orth, which continued until 1840; then removed to Halifax, Dauphin county, Pa., where he continued in an active and extensive practice till the fall of 1870, when bodily infirmity compelled him to relinquish all except office-work.