Yolo-Colusa-Sacramento County CA Archives Biographies.....Curtiss, Wilbur C. 1838 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 14, 2006, 5:22 pm

Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

WILBUR C. CURTISS

    In the activities that fill an eventful existence Mr. Curtiss has run the
gamut of human experiences, has realized the alluring vision of success and
endured the disheartening discouragements of failure, has enjoyed the fruits of
his labors in a merited prosperity and accepted with philosophical resignation
the reverses inflicted by an unkind fate. As the elation of success failed to
deteriorate or corrupt his manly qualities, so, too, repeated losses failed  to
undermine his deep faith in the permanent possibilities of his home county or to
lessen the courageous optimism, the cheerful outlook and the genial good nature
with which he faced the world. Whether the seasons as they came and went brought
him vast crops or only flooded fields, he remained the same energetic worker and
loyal citizen. As success did not unduly elate him, so also reverses have not
dismayed him, and he is working with the same patience, the same enterprise and
the same fidelity that characterized the efforts of his years of greater
physical strength.

    Although a resident of California from the period of his early childhood
memories, Mr. Curtiss claims Michigan as his native commonwealth, his birth
having occurred in Lapeer county, that state, May 15, 1852. The family had been
identified for years with the development of New England and his father, L. M.,
had been the one to seek the larger opportunities of the unknown regions to the
west. After he settled in Michigan during 1840 he began to improve a tract of
raw land and engage in farming. The discovery of gold in the far west attracted
his immediate attention, but it was not until 1852 that he left his wife and
children at the old home and started on the voyage of discovery to the new
country. The trip was made by way of New York City and the Isthmus of Panama,
and upon its safe termination he began to earn his livelihood as opportunity
offered, but eventually became an extensive farmer near Woodland, Yolo county.
During 1856 he was joined by his wife with their two sons and one daughter, and
the family settled on a tract embracing five hundred and sixty acres situated
between Woodland and Knights Landing, Manly traits of character attracted a host
of warm friends and when he died in 1871 his funeral was among the largest that
had ever been held in the city of Sacramento. To his widow he left a large
property, but unfortunately the greater portion of this was subsequently lost.
While much of his accumulations has vanished, the memory of his kindly
character, shrewd foresight and generous disposition will remain in the hearts
of family and friends as long as life shall last.

    When only fifteen years of age Wilbur C. Curtiss took charge of his father's
extensive farming interests and from that time to the present he has filled a
man's place in the world. For the most part he has given his attention to
agriculture, although there was a time when mining allured him by its bright
promises, only in the end to leave him with but a remnant of a once valuable
property. After the age of twenty-seven he gave his attention wholly to farming
and in time he became one of the largest grain-growers in California. In
addition to the original tract of five hundred and sixty acres he acquired five
thousand acres of bottom land in Yolo county, two thousand acres in Colusa
county, besides residence property both in Woodland and Sacramento. The five
thousand acres comprises a tract near Cacheville known as the Kay tract, which
he bought in 1885 from an English nobleman, Sir John Lester Kay. At one time
there were cattle and other live stock, machinery and implements on the various
estates valued at fully $30,000. During 1888 he harvested from his own lands and
from rented tracts (fourteen thousand acres altogether) one hundred and
twenty-four thousand and five hundred sacks of grain, which would require twenty
trains of fifteen cars each, of over twenty tons capacity, to carry it to tide
water, and would load fully four large wheat ships. The gross income during that
year aggregated more than $250,000, but naturally the expenses were very heavy,
particularly that incident to the plowing of the land, which was done with three
powerful steam engines made at the Benicia agricultural works.

    A continuance of favorable weather for many successive years allowed Mr.
Curtiss to accumulate the vast estate previously mentioned, but unfortunately
there was a change in the seasons and the elements seemed to conspire against
him. Year after year the rich bottom lands that he farmed were flooded by
continuous rains until crops were ruined and great financial losses incurred.
Knowing so well the richness of the soil, he kept on in the hope that each
season would permit him to atone for the losses of the preceding year, but
finally his health became so impaired that he was no longer able to work with
the remarkable energy of youth. Since then he has engaged in farming on a small
scale with moderate success. Remarkable indeed is his disposition to make the
best of circumstances beyond his control. When untiring efforts did not enable
him to retrieve his lost fortune, he accepted his fate with a cheerful courage,
relinquished his large holdings of tule lands and since has devoted himself to
smaller although no less important farming interests.

    December 18, 1876, in Peoria, Ill., occurred the marriage of Wilbur C.
Curtiss and Miss Elizabeth Summers Todd, who was born in that city and received
her education at Perry's Seminary in Sacramento. Her father, Capt. Henry Clay
Summers, was born in Peoria, being the son of Leonard F. Summers, who became a
pioneer of the Illinois town. Reared and educated there, he was a young married
man at the time the Civil war began. Fired with patriotic loyalty, he enlisted
as a volunteer and was elected captain of Company G, One Hundred and Eighth
Illinois Infantry. With his company he went to the front and served under
General Grant. After their last battle in 1865, while on the way to the station
to telegraph the news of the northern victory, he was wounded from ambush and
captured by guerillas under the leadership of "Dick" Davis, who afterward shot
all of the prisoners. The widow received a sympathetic personal letter of
condolence from General Grant, who had appreciated the courage and military
skill of the young captain.

    The mother of Mrs. Curtiss was Georgina Gelston Durham, who was born near
Washington, Tazewell County, Ill. The grandfather, John Gelston, a native of
Baltimore, Md., and an attorney, became a prominent citizen of Peoria, Ill., and
for three terms served as its mayor. In early days he owned large tracts of land
in Illinois and Iowa. His wife bore the maiden name of Mary Gregory and was born
in Richmond, Va.; the demise of both occurred in Peoria. A few years after the
death of Captain Summers his widow became the wife of John Albert Todd, who was
born in Philadelphia, Pa., but grew to manhood in Peoria, Ill. At the age of
seventeen years he crossed the plains to California, where he became interested
in the lumber and planing-mill business. For years he owned and conducted the
lumber yards located on Fifth and L streets, Sacramento, and in the same city he
built up the John A. Todd carriage manufacturing plant. At the age of
thirty-nine, October 4, 1874, death cut short his prosperous career. Of his two
children only one survives, Martha Ellen, who was educated at Van Ness Seminary,
San Francisco, and is now the widow of the late A. D. Porter, of Woodland. To
the union of Mr. and Mrs. Curtiss there were born four children, the oldest of
whom died in infancy; Genevieve V., a graduate of Ursuline College in Santa
Rosa, is now residing in San Francisco; Matelese died at the age of sixteen
years; and Hagar was educated at Mills College and resides with her parents.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]




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