CURTISS, Frank, b 1834; 1905 Bio, Mesa County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/delta/bios/curtissf.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 4, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- Frank Curtiss Sprung from a martial strain, and ardently devoted to the welfare of his county in peace and war, giving special attention always to the section in which he lives, Frank Curtiss, of Delta county, one of the prosperous and progressive fruit-growers in the neighborhood of Paonia, where he has twelve acres of valuable orchards located about three-quarters of a mile northwest of the town, has been a useful citizen and has demonstrated in many ways his ability to meet the requirements of his situation in a manly and masterful way. He is a native of Ohio, born on the first day of April, 1834, and the son of Samuel and Lucretia (Brooks) Curtiss, who were born at Durham, Connecticut, the mother on December 31, 1786, and the father on July 17, 1787. The father was a fifer in the war of 1812, and Mr. Curtiss still owns the fife he used in that contest. In 1843 the family moved to Illinois, and three years afterward to Wisconsin. The father was a farmer all his life, and died in Wisconsin, on November 26, 1846, where the mother also died, passing away on March 29, 1869. Their son Frank remained at home and aided in the work of the farm until he reached the age of fourteen, receiving a common-school education at the district schools. In 1848, being eager to make his own way in the world, he went to the town of Berlin, Wisconsin, and there secured employment in a hotel. A little later the proprietor of the hotel opened a store in the town and put Mr. Curtiss in it as a clerk. He remained there so employed three years, then in 1851 returned home and passed a year at school. During the next three years he was on the road with a concert company, then returning to Illinois, he remained in that state until 1861, when he enlisted as a Union soldier in Captain Graham's company of independent cavalry. In the ensuing winter his company was consolidated with the Eighth Kansas Infantry, and in that regiment he passed the rest of his three years of service, being discharged at the end on account of physical disabilities incurred in the service and with the rank of captain, to which he was promoted for meritorious conduct. He participated in the battle of Shiloh, the battle of Knoxville, and in fact, all the leading engagements in that part of the country, and received two slight wounds. After his discharge from the army he went back to Illinois and engaged in the lumber trade until 1873, when failing health brought him to Colorado and located him at Manitou, where he built a home and lived until the autumn of 1875. Then the boom having started at Lake City, he moved to that enterprising camp and followed mining for a year. In the spring of 1876 he was elected town clerk and treasurer, and after filling the office creditably three years, moved in the spring of 1879 to the site of the present town of Pitkin, where on the first day of March he drove the first stake for the future city in three feet of snow, camping under a spruce tree until he could build a house. In the spring of 1888 he became a resident of the North Fork valley and located a ranch on a part of which he now lives, buying forty acres on Pitkin mesa, which was so called because the first settlers there were from Pitkin. During his residence at Pitkin he served as postmaster from the establishment of the post office until he moved away from the town. In his new location he paid three hundred dollars of his forty acres of land and started to raise cattle. Some little time afterward he sold his live stock and turned his attention to raising fruit, then a new industry in that section. His land rose rapidly in value and having more than he cared for, he sold twenty-eight acres to one man at eight dollars per acre, then bought eleven acres, for which he paid ninety dollars. The twelve acres of his original purchase which he still owns he holds at twelve thousand dollars, but has no desire to sell it. It yields him an average annual income of about three hundred dollars an acre, and is steadily increasing in value. Mr. Curtiss was married on November 14, 1861, to Miss Martha M. Goss, of Genesco, Illinois, who was born on July 24, 1840, at Chicago. Her mother died while the daughter was an infant, and after that sad event the father returned to his old home in Boston, where he remained until 1851, than again became a resident of Illinois, where he died in November, 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Curtiss have two sons, Horace L. and John G. The former, who is thirty-eight years of age, is living at home with his parents and caring for them. The latter, aged thirty-four, is married and has a ranch of his own. In politics the father is a Republican, and fraternally he belongs to the Masonic order and the Grand Army of the Republic. =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. 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