Bio of PETTIT, Hon. Curtis Hussey (b.1833 d.1914), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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Vol III, pg 243-246
HON. CURTIS HUSSEY PETTIT
On the pages of the pioneer history of Minneapolis appears again and again the
name of Curtis Hussey Pettit, and on down through the years it is identified
with almost every chapter in the annals of the city's development and progress.
His life work, therefore, constitutes an integral part in the records of both
city and state, from the time when as land agent he began handling properties in
Minnesota and down through the years when as banker, as journalist and as grain
merchant he largely directed the commercial and financial development of the
city, while at the same time he was giving of his ability and his efforts in
shaping the political history and the civic progress of the Northwest.
A native of Ohio, Curtis Hussey Pettit was born near Hanoverton, Columbiana
county, September 18, 1833, and traced his ancestry in direct line back to
Thomas Pettit and his wife, Christian, daughter of Oliver Mellows. Thomas Pettit
was in Boston as early as 1634 and removed thence to Exeter and later to
Newtown, Long Island, where according to the public records he was appointed
marshal in 1655. Younger generations of the family scattered over New Jersey and
other states. Nathaniel Pettit, son of Thomas Pettit, located on eight hundred
acres of land in what is now the city of Trenton, New Jersey. William Pettit,
the great-great-grandson of Nathaniel Pettit, became a resident of Bucks county,
Pennsylvania, and his grand­son, Joseph Pettit, married Hannah Grubb Hussey and
with his young wife went to Ohio. It was this worthy couple who were the parents
of Curtis H. Pettit of this review.
Both father and mother were ambitious to give their children the best
educational advantages possible and provide them with every means for the
development of high character and the attainment of liberal culture. Curtis H.
Pettit accordingly attended a Friend's school at Sandy Springs and afterward the
public schools of Hanoverton, Ohio, and later became a student in Oberlin
College. A severe attack of typhoid fever, however, obliged him to give up his
college work and with the recovery of his health lie started upon his business
career as a bookkeeper in the Forest City Bank of Cleve­land, Ohio, which had
recently been established by his uncle, Joseph G. Hussey, who was the president
of the institution. After about a year's experience there Curtis H. Pettit,
following the advice of another uncle, Curtis G. Hussey, for whom he was named,
went to Pittsburgh and became an employe of the firm of C. G. Hussey & Company,
controlling one. of the first iron and steel interests of that city. The
oppor­tunities of the west, however, attracted Mr. Pettit and in the fall of
1855 he determined to investigate these for himself and made a prospecting tour
to Galena, Illinois, thence traveling by boat and stage to Minneapolis, where he
arrived on the 22d of October. The natural advantages and resources of the
country and the possibilities of the embryo city at once impressed him and he
made purchase of a lot, with twenty feet frontage, on the east side of Nicollet
avenue between First and Second streets, then the business center of the town.
He also purchased a small frame building at the south­west corner of Nicollet
and Washington avenues, which had been used as a meat market and after making
arrangements to have the little building removed to his lot he left on the same
day to return to the east with the intention of bringing his posses­sions to
Minnesota before navigation closed for the season. In the shortest space of time
possible he returned with a capital of five thousand dollars for investment, due
to the liberal kindness of his uncle, Dr. Curtis G. Hussey of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Pettit then opened a bank and real estate office in his little building,
sleeping in the office and taking his meals with the family of Mr. Edwards, from
whom he had purchased his land. His was the second bank opened in this city, the
first having been started by Samuel Snyder and William K. McFarlane, early in
October, 1855. Mr. Pettit was at the time but twenty-two years of age. He
realized a considerable profit on a quantity of pork and some flour which he had
bought in Iowa, but during his first year he confined his attention largely to
dealing in townsite shares in Glencoe, Hutch-inson, Watertown and other places,
owning for a time a quarter interest in the town-site of Glencoe. He continued
in the banking business and was one of those who put into circulation notes of
eastern banks, endorsing them across the face with a guar­anty of payment and he
redeemed each of these at its face value, amounting to over twenty thousand
dollars. By the 12th of July, 1856, so wisely and carefully had he managed his
business affairs that he had an investment of one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars in his bank and land agency.
In the summer of 1856 Mr. Pettit went to board with the family of Captain Louis
H. Williams, who had removed to Minneapolis from Newville, Pennsylvania, and on
the 2d of June of the following year he was united in marriage to the second
daughter of the family, Miss Deborah McBride Williams.
It was in the fall of the following year, 1858, that Mr. Pettit became the first
owner of the Minneapolis Journal, which he started with his wife's cousin, John
G. Williams, a well known newspaper man of that period, as editor. After a few
years, however, Mr. Pettit disposed of the paper and in 1860 sold his banking
interests, while in 1861 he established a retail hardware business, which later
developed into one of the present large wholesale houses of the city, under the
name of the Williams Hardware Company, Mr. Pettit entered into active connection
with the lumber trade in the autumn of 1866, by becoming a member of the firm of
Ankeny, Robinson & Pettit, operating a sawmill at the Falls. He also became
interested in the manufacture of flour, erecting, in con­nection with others,
the Pettit mill, operated by the firm of Pettit, Robinson & Company until it was
destroyed in an explosion in 1878. It was immediately rebuilt, however, and Mr.
Pettit remained an active owner of the business until it became the property of
the Northwestern Milling Company in 1891. In 1879 Mr. Pettit was one of the
builders of Elevator A, the property of the Minneapolis Elevator Company, of
which he was a stockholder. This elevator was erected near the tracks of the
Great Northern Railroad at Chestnut avenue. It was the largest elevator west of
Chicago, having a capacity of seven hundred and eighty thousand bushels. Mr.
Pettit was treasurer of the company, with Loren Fletcher as president. In 1884,
associated with Jabez M. Robinson, with whom he was connected in various other
business ventures, Mr. Pettit purchased a large amount of land in the northern
part of the state, in St. Louis and Lake counties, in order to acquire the pine
timber and stumpage remaining on it, but with no idea at that time of the vast
beds of iron ore that were later developed on the Mesaba range. Some of these
properties acquired by Mr. Pettit and Mr. Robinson proved to have valuable
deposits of ore, so that in the later years of his life the man­agement of his
ore lands constituted the chief business interest of Mr. Pettit. He was also
prominently associated with the development of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault
Ste. Marie Railroad, of which he was a director from the organization of the
company. From the time of his marriage until his demise Mr. Pettit continued to
make Minneapolis his home and here five children were born to him and his wife:
Irene Hussey, Louis Williams, Edward Curtis, Alice Mary and Bessie Tabitha. The
last named was the only one to reach maturity and she is now the wife of George
P. Douglas of Minneapolis.
While Mr. Pettit rose to notable distinction in business circles with the
passing years he was equally active in support of those forces which contributed
to the civic, political and moral development of his community. He always
manifested a most helpful interest in public affairs and in 1859, less than four
years after his arrival here, was elected a member of the second city council.
In 1866 he was chosen to repre­sent his district in the state senate and was
reelected to that position in 1868, 1869, 1870 and 1871. Three years afterward
he was chosen a member of the house of ses­sions and was reelected in 1875, 1876
and again in 1887. His political allegiance was always unfalteringly given to
the republican party and for many years he served as a member of its county,
congressional and state central committees and at different periods acted as
chairman thereof. From Governor William R. Marshall in 1869 he received
appointment as member of the board of trustees of the State Reform School and
with the exception of a few months in 1897, he continuously served in that
capacity for thirty-two years, or until the board was (with the boards of other
state institutions), superseded by the state board of control in August, 1901,
through act of legislature During the last twelve years of that thirty-two year
period Mr. Pettit was president of the State Reform School board. He always
manifested a personal interest in the boys sent to that institution and the
position to him was not one of political preferment but rather an opportunity to
help misguided youths. He became acquainted with them as individuals and in
later years there were many, who, having become good and use­ful citizens, came
to him to express their thanks for his friendliness and fatherly interest, which
had helped them to regain their self-respect and aroused their ambition to make
good in spite of the first misstep. The Minneapolis patrol law up to 1887 had
been in force only as a city ordinance, which could be amended or repealed at
any time by the city council. During the legislative session of that year Mr.
Pettit intro­duced a bill, which became a law, defining the limits and making
operative the patrol law by act of legislature, thus taking the matter from the
control of the city council and making the patrol limits practically a permanent
policy of the city government. This law proved to be one of the very best
devices ever used for controlling the liquor traffic in cities before the days
of national prohibition.
Mr. Pettit also deserved the honor of having definitely shaped the plan by which
Minneapolis and Hennepin county united to erect a much needed building, in which
to conduct city and county business. During the same legislative session in
which he secured the enactment of the patrol law, he outlined his ideas and had
the bill drawn up, which he introduced. The site of the proposed building was
fixed in the bill, this foresight solving the problem of a location which might
have caused great difference of opinion and long delays. At the time of its
erection Mr. Pettit was much criticized for the magnitude of the structure but
that he would have been justified in making plans tor a building twice the size
was proven long prior to his death.
It was on the llth of May, 1914, after gradual and general failing of strength,
without being confined to his bed, that Curtis H. Pettit passed away. He had
long been a devoted member of the Westminster Presbyterian church and had
participated in its organization on the 23d of August, 1857, at which time six
of the eight original mem­bers were members of the Williams family. This church
was incorporated under the revised statutes of Minnesota, April 6, 1858, and Mr.
Pettit was elected one of the board of trustees. He served continuously in that
position until his demise fifty-six years later and during the greater part of
that time was chairman of the board. He was interested in the various branches
of the church work, was a careful guardian of its financial interests and did
everything in his power to advance its welfare and growth. He was regarded as an
ideal trustee and not a little of the success of the man­agement of the business
affairs of the church was due to him. He served on the build­ing committee in
1876, again when the church at Nicollet avenue and Seventh street was built and
was chairman of the building committee at the time of the erection of the
present house of worship, at the corner of Nicollet avenue and Twelfth street.
He was ever a man of broad, benevolent spirit and wise philanthropy. He was
continually extending a helping hand where aid was needed, always in a quiet and
unostentatious manner and frequently no one knew of his benefactions save
himself and the recipient. He was ever cheerful and his kindliness of heart and
honesty of purpose, his quiet strength of will and his warm sympathy have made
his memory cherished by all who knew him. He was in the eighty-first year of his
age when "the weary wheels of life at length stood still and he slept." His name
is closely and honorably associated with the early history and later development
of Minneapolis and there is no phase of her progress along commercial and
financial lines, or in relation to her intellectual, civic and moral development
with which he was not associated to a point of notable and resultant
helpfulness.