OTTUMWA  , a

city and the county-seat of Wapello county, Iowa, U.S.A., on both sides of the Des Moines river, in the S.E. part of the state, about 85 m . S.E. of Des Moines . Pop . (1900) 18,197, of whom 1759 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 22,012 . It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Wabash railways . The site on which it is built forms a succession of terraces receding farther and farther from the river . In the city are a Carnegie library, a city hospital and St Joseph's Academy . Ottumwa is the headquarters of the Ottumwa Division of the Southern Federal Judicial District of Iowa, and terms of United States District and Circuit courts are held there . The city is in one of the richest coal regions of the state, and ranks high as a manufacturing centre, pork-packing, and the manufacture of iron and steel, machinery and agricultural and mining implements being the leading industries . The value of the factory product in 1905 was $10,374,183, an increase of 19.5% since 1900 . Ottumwa was first settled in 1843i was incorporated as a town in 1851, and first chartered as a city in 1857 .