Charles Davis Curtis

History of Montana,by Joaquin Miller, 1894

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Charles Davis Curtis of Helena, is one of Montana's most honored 
pioneers and public spirited citizens. He was born in Cloyne, 
County Cork, Ireland, March 11, 1839.  His father, William Curtis 
married Miss Honora Eugenia Doyle, an accomplished daughter of the 
house of Desmond.  Mr. William Curtis was a man of superior 
education and culture and was a large property owner, but being 
a patriot and connected with the patriot troubles in his native 
land in 1848 he sailed for American and was followed by his 
wife and children in 1850.  They spent a short time in New 
Orleans, afterward settled in St. Louis and in the latter city 
Mr. Curtis lived retired from active business the remainder of 
his life, his death occurring in 1876 at the advanced age of 
78 years.  His wife died in 1855.

Their family consisted of three sons and two daughters.  The 
youngest son, a graduate of the Christian Brothers' College of 
St. Louis, while on a visit to his sister, Mrs. Captain Wildman 
at Point Isabel Texas, met his death which resulted from exposure 
and extreme exertion in saving the lives of a number of 
inhabitants of that ill fated town, caused by the overflow of 
the Gulf of Mexico which inundated it in 1867.

Charles D. Curtis, the second born in his father's family, 
was educated at the St. Louis University.  In 1857 he accepted 
the position of special agent for the overland mail and served 
on the plains where he first established his reputation as a 
scout and Indian fighter.  The following year after passing a 
rigid examination he was commissioned as Second Lt. in the U.S. 
army and was detailed for duty on the frontier where he remained 
until he went to Camp Floyd Utah.  He remained at Camp Floyd 
with Johnson's army until the fall of 1860.  Unfortunately about 
this time he had a severe attack of measles which settled in his 
eyes.  He resigned his commission and went to Salt Lake City 
from thence to Denver, Colorado where during a part of the 
following two years he devoted his time to the study of medicine 
with Dr. Farmer as his preceptor.  At the end of that time, Dr. 
Farmer went South and Mr. Curtis was employed as a scout and 
carried important dispatches from Governor Gaplin to the 
commanding officer at Ft. Laramie and other posts in Wyoming and 
New Mexico.  He was offered a commission in the Second 
Colorado Cavalry, but declined as his pay as a scout was $10 
per day.  After this he was engaged in purchasing cattle to 
supply the Colorado troops with beef.

When the troops left Colorado for New Mexico and the South, Mr. 
Curtis became interested in an auction and commission business 
with Picket and Lincoln, with whom he remained until April 1864 
at which time the gold excitement at Alder gulch brought him to 
Virginia City, Montana where he arrived on May 16, 1864.  Here 
he engaged in business with John C. Curtin and Watt King, 
under the firm name of King, Curtis and Company.  

For a time they carried on two stores--one on Wallace Street 
and the other on Jackson Street.

While residing in Virginia City Mr. Curtis took an active 
interest in its affairs and was promptly identified with its 
early history.  He was instrumental in effecting the organization 
of the Fire Department of that city and commanded one of the 
companies.  

He was elected the first City Clerk of Virginia City, with a 
salary of $2000 a year.  Soon after his election to this office, 
the fame of rich gold diggings at Last Chance Gulch was spread 
over the country and he deputized Judge Francis Bill to fill the 
office, left his partners to take care of the business, and 
came to Helena, arriving in the latter city on the 5th of June 1865.  Seeing that it was a lively camp he sent 
for one of his partners. They decided to open a store and did a 
most extensive business in that city. An important freature was 
buying and selling stock of which department Mr. Curtis had the 
management.  He bought as high as 500 California horses at a time, 
broke them and sold them to miners, prospectors and traders.  

In 1866 he sold out to his partners and until the spring of 1868 
was engaged in speculating.  He then went to Wilson Gulch, 
Jefferson County, where he was interested in mining, merchandising 
and packing lumber across the mountains in company 
with Hugh Daly which work he continued up to 1870 then 
sold out and returned to Helena where he engaged in the grocery 
business with his brother, John H. Curtis (now of Butte City), 
under the firm name of Curtis Brothers.  They conducted business 
one year, when our subject again sold out and turned his 
attention to buying and selling stock in partnership with T.E. 
McKoin.

In May 1872 he opened an auction, commission and stock business 
at the foot of Broadway, George Booker becoming a co-partner 
in the enterprise, and in this they continued until 1888, a 
period of sixteen years.

Mr. Curtis was appointed postmaster of Helena by President 
Cleveland, the duties of which office he entered upon July 1, 
1886, and served until March 31, 1891.  That he made a good 
record as Postmaster is evinced by the endorsements of the 
Department.

On the 5th of June of the same year he paid $10,000 for a 
third interest in the mercantile house of F.S. Lang and Company, 
extensive dealers in house-furnishing goods and hardware and was 
elected vice-president and treasurer of the company.  With this 
establishment he is still connected. At present writing (1894) 
he is sheriff of Lewis and Clarke County, having been elected 
to that office by a very large majority.

On the 17th of September 1891, a lady who was wheeling an infant 
in a baby carriage was passing along the street in Helena and was 
in danger of being dashed to pieces by a runaway horse.  At this 
critical moment Mr. Curtis appeared on the scene and saved the 
lady and her child at the peril of his own life.  While she fell, 
and the baby carriage was turned over, neither was hurt but 
Curtis received the full shock and was thrown down a stairway 
into a basement and his head shoulder and dies were 
badly cut and his leg crushed into splinters.  He was disabled from 
September until March.

In 1866 when it became necessary to raise troops to protect the 
settlers of Montana from the Indians, Mr. Curtis raised three 
companies of volunteers. He went to the front and remained in 
active service until the Indians were subdued.

On June 10, 1872 he married Mary Louise Hanratty, an accomplished 
young lady, a native of St. Louis, her parents having resided at 
that place since 1819.  They have had nine children of whom six 
are living: William H., Mary Leonora, Charles Louis, Estella 
Margaret, Francis Cleveland and David Paul.