Last updated: November 19, 2025
Person
Otis Orne
Quick Facts
Significance:
Boston Vigilance Committee member
Place of Birth:
Lempster, New Hampshire
Date of Birth:
January 16, 1819
Place of Death:
Boston, Massachusetts
Date of Death:
November 18, 1902
Place of Burial:
Weymouth, Massachusetts
Cemetery Name:
Village Cemetery
Grocer Otis Orne served as a member of the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee.
Born in Lempster, New Hampshire to parents John and Betsey (Doak) Orne in 1819, Otis Orne later moved to Boston where he ran a grocery business.1
In 1850, following the passage of a new Fugitive Slave Law, Orne served as a member of the third and final iteration of the Boston Vigilance Committee. The organization provided support in the form of shelter, clothing, money, passage, and other aid to freedom seekers coming to Boston on the Underground Railroad. While Orne is listed as a member of the committee, his specific contributions remain unknown.2
In addition to his work as a grocer, Orne served the public as a Ward Officer for the City of Boston in the 1850s and 1890s. Orne lived in Boston until his death on November 18, 1902. He is buried in Village Cemetery in Weymouth, Massachusetts.3
If you are a researcher or descendant of Otis Orne and can provide any further information on his work with the Boston Vigilance Committee or the larger Underground Railroad network, please e-mail us.
Footnotes
- The Boston Directory, (Boston: Sampson & Murdock Company, 1850), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015066720635&seq=258&q1=orne; “Otis Orne,” Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Records, 1840-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013, Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Records, 1840-1915 - Ancestry.com; “Otis Orne,” Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch, 1850 United States Federal Census - Ancestry.com.
- Orne is mapped at his location on the Vigilance Committee broadside, 14 Oxford Street. "Members of the Committee of Vigilance," broadside printed by John Wilson, 1850, Massachusetts Historical Society.
- “Municipal Election Yesterday,” Boston Evening Transcript, December 11, 1855, 1; “Orne,” Boston Globe, November 20, 1902, 11; Documents of the City of Boston for the Year 1857, (Boston: Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 1858), 145, Document : Boston (Mass.) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive; Reports of Proceedings of the City Council of Boston, (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1894), 612, Reports of proceedings .. : Boston (Mass.). City Council : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive; Quincy Daily Ledger, November 22, 1900, 8.