Mrs. Nancy Hosford Curtis 1850-1943

CURTIS, HOSFORD, DAVIS, TOWLE, COZIER, VARNEY, ARMSTRONG

Posted By: Michael Kearney (email)
Date: 10/5/2002 at 09:54:13

The Clinton Herald Monday November 8, 1943 p. 8 Last surviving member of the generation of founders of what now is the Curtis Companies, Inc. and who witnessed the development of Clinton's one-time pre-eminent lumbering industry, Mrs. Nancy Hosford Curtis, 93, died at 6 o'clock yesterday morning in her home, 417 Fifth avenue South. Her husband, the late Charles F. Curtis, who died Dec. 21, 1915, was the founder of the industry which still bears the Curtis name. Subsequently his brother, George M. Curtis, now also deceased, became associated in the business, which became widely known as Curtis Bros. & Co. Funeral services, which will be private and attended only by the family and immediate relatives, will be held at 2:30 o'clock tomorrow afternoon in the home, with the Rev. Robert A. MacDanel, acting pastor of First Presbyterian church, officiating. The body will repose thereafter in the family mausoleum in Springdale cemetery. Mrs. Curtis was a member of a pioneer Clinton family. Born in LaSalle, Ill., the daughter of Abram Perkins Hosford and Priscilla N. Davis Hosford, Oct. 21, 1850, she came to Clinton with her parents in 1857. Her father engaged in the lumbering business in Clinton and she was married to Charles F. Curtis, Oct. 2, 1873. In the meantime she had been educated in the Clinton public schools and in Rockford College, a school for girls, which is still in operation and of which Mrs. Curtis was the oldest surviving alumnus. Four daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Curtis. There were Mable, who died at the age of 11 years; Lucy, now Mrs. Charles B. Towle of Lincoln, Nebr.; Edith, Mrs. Charles A. Armstrong of Clinton; and Miss Florence E. Curtis, who lives in the parental home. In addition to the three surviving daughters, others bereaved include four grandchildren, Mrs. Priscilla Towle Varney of Broken Bow, Nebr.; Mrs. Mary Towle Cozier of Shaker Heights, Ohio; C. Curtis Towle of Clinton; and Jacqueline Nancy Armstrong of Clinton; besides seven great-grandchildren. Always interested in public welfare, people and current events, Mrs. Curtis maintained that interest to the last. One of her very great interests in the latter days of her life was in knitting sweaters. She was a constant Red Cross worker in her home and had knitted more than one hundred sweaters, in addition to army and navy blankets, for the Red Cross. Her knitting activity not only benefited the Clinton county chapter of the Red Cross, but also the one at Broken Bow, Nebr., home of a granddaughter, for which chapter she also produced sweaters and blankets. For many years a member of the First Presbyterian church, she had been very active in earlier years in all of the church activities. She also was a member of the D.A.R., Colonial Dames and the Mayflower society. Her various hobbies included collecting and classifying approximately 25,000 playing card backs and more than 250 dolls, which had come to her from all parts of the world. Three times during her life she had traveled around the world and each time added to her collection of dolls.