Marshall-Nemaha-Brown County KS Archives Biographies.....Curtis, Samuel 1857 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 23, 2007, 11:01 pm Author: Emma E. Forter (1917) SAMUEL CURTIS. Samuel Curtis, one of Marshall county's most substantial citizens and the proprietor of the largest farm operated under individual management in this county, his ranch just east of Vermillion being one of the best-equipped farm plants in this part of the state, is a native of the state of Michigan, but has been a resident of Kansas since he was twenty years of age. He was born on a farm in vicinity of Ovid, in Shiawassee county, Michigan, May 14, 1857, son of Edwin Marcus and Mary Ann (Blanchard) Curtis, natives, respectively, of Massachusetts and of Vermont, both members of old Colonial families, who settled in Michigan and became substantial farming people in the Ovid neighborhood. They later moved to Laingsburg and spent their last days there. Reared on the paternal farm in Michigan, receiving his schooling in the neighboring schools and from boyhood trained in the ways of farming, Samuel Curtis remained in Michigan until he was twenty years of age, when, in 1877, he came to Kansas and began farming in the vicinity of Caney, bringing to this state with him seed wheat from Michigan. He made a success of his first crop, but the second crop was taken by cinch bugs. Mr. Curtis then disposed of his interest at Caney and in 1879 moved to Brown county, where he remained, further engaged in farming, until his marriage in the spring of 1881, when he moved over into Nemaha county and bought a farm of eighty acres of unimproved land in section 31 of Center township, that county, near the Marshall county line, northwest of Vermillion, going in debt for the same to the amount of eight hundred dollars. There Mr. Curtis built a house, broke the land and at the same time broke an "eighty" adjoining on the north. As his farming operations developed he leased three other "eighties" and there he continued farming quite successfully until 1890, in which year he disposed of his home tract to advantage and moved over into Marshall county, buying the northeast quarter of section 12 of Vermillion township, established his home there and has ever since resided there, long having one of the best-improved places in that part of the county. Upon taking possession of that place Mr. Curtis found but sixty acres of it broken and the only building on the same a small shed of a barn, all the present substantial and up-to-date improvements on the place therefore having been made by him. As he prospered in his operations Mr. Curtis added to his holdings until he now is the owner of a ranch of nine hundred and eleven acres, the largest farm operated in Marshall county, and to all of which he gives his personal oversight. His wife is the owner of one hundred acres in the adjoining county of Nemaha, making ten hundred and eleven acres under the Curtis ownership and management. For years Mr. Curtis gave much attention to the raising of cattle, handling about six hundred and fifty head annually, but of recent years has not been so extensive a feeder. He also handles one hundred and fifty or two hundred head of pure-bred Duroc-Jersey hogs a year and has done much to improve the strain of swine throughout that section. Mr. Curtis employs six married men on his place, the families being housed on the farm, and his operations are conducted in strict accordance with modern agricultural methods. Mr. Curtis was the first man in his part of the county to recognize the necessity of proper fertilization of the farm lands of this section and in 1902 bought the first machinery for that purpose sold in Vermillion. On May 24, 1881, Samuel Curtis was united in marriage to Lucy M. McClanahan, who was born at Macon, Missouri, daughter of James and Eliza (Towne) McClanahan, natives of Ohio, who were married in Missouri and later came to this state, settling in Brown county, where they spent their last days. James McClanahan was a "forty-niner" and later settled at old Albany in Nemaha county, this state, in the early fifties, and there his first wife died. He then returned to Missouri and during the Civil War period was superintendent of a coal mine at Brevier, in Macon county, that state. There in 1862 he married, secondly, Eliza Towne and in 1865 returned to Kansas and again settled in the neighborhood of old Albany, north of Sabetha, but later traded his land there for a farm north and east of Sabetha and there spent the rest of his life. The home place there is still in the possession of the family, now owned by a brother of Mrs. Curtis. By descent on the maternal line Mrs. Curtis is a member of the Betty Washington chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, at Lawrence, taking descent from James Towne, a soldier of the patriot army during the Revolutionary War. James Towne, born in 1756, died in 1837. His wife, Lucy Bettis, to whom he was married in 1778, was born in 1758 and died in 1843. Their son, Oliver Towne, born in 1779, married Damens Luce, and their son, Nathaniel Towne, born in 1807, in Ohio, married, in 1829, Matilda Hevil, born in 1800. Nathaniel Towne died in 1846 and his widow survived him until 1872. Their daughter, Eliza Towne, born in 1830, was married in 1862, as noted above, to James McClanahan and Mrs. Curtis is one of the children born to this parentage. To Samuel and Lucy M. (McClanahan) Curtis seven children have been born, namely: Edna M, who married A. B. Beacham and is now living at Powell, Wyoming; Rose E., who began in the automobile business at Lincoln and is now engaged as an automobile salesman at Kansas City; Floyd Towne, who is engaged on the home farm; Norman Ivan, who is now developing a homestead farm in the neighborhood of Gillette, Wyoming; Stella, a member of the class of 1917, Mt. St. Scholastica Academy, at Atchison, and Lucy and Gloria, both still in school. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis are members of the Presbyterian church and have ever taken a proper part in local good works, as well as in the general social activities of the community in which they live. Mr. Curtis is an independent Republican. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the local lodges of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Knights and Ladies of Security, in the affairs of all of which organizations he takes a warm interest. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions by Emma E. Forter Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/marshall/bios/curtis482gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/ File size: 7.1 Kb