Biographies
For
Muscatine County Iowa
1889



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 372

CHARLES A. CURTIS, a leading carpenter and builder of Wilton, Iowa, and a gallant soldier in the War for the Union, was born in Noble County, Ohio, Aug. 4, 1845. His paternal grandfather was Daniel Curtis, and his maternal grandfather, Eleazer Spooner, a native of Massachusetts. His parents were J. F. and Anna ( Spooner ) Curtis, the former born in Massachusetts, but reared in Ohio, to which State his parents removed when he was a child; the latter born in Noble County, Ohio, descended from an old New England family. For many years the parents resided in Noble County, but finally removed to Guernsey County, Ohio, where they resided until called from this world.

Our subject was reared to the occupation of farming, and received his education in the common schools. In 1862, desiring to enter the service, as the State of Ohio was organizing no new regiments, he enlisted in Company H, 2d Battalion of the 18th Regiment, United States Infantry. With his command he took part in the battle of Munfordville, Ky., Sept. 14 and 16,1862, and on the 17th was taken prisoner by the forces under the Confederate General, Bragg, was paroled the following day and exchanged December 19. Rejoining his regiment at Murfreesboro, Tenn., he was with it at Hoover's Gap, June 26, 1863 ; Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 20 and 21 ; the battle of Missionary Ridge, Nov. 25, 1863, together with the battles of Buzzard's Roost, Resaca, New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Smyrna Church, Peachtree Creek, the principal engagements before Atlanta, and the battle of Jonesboro, Sept.1, 1864, whence the regiment went to Lookout Mountain, where it was stationed until the close of the war. Notwithstanding the many severe battles in which our subject was engaged, he was never wounded nor was he absent from duty any time except while under parole. For three months he was absent from his regiment, having been detailed to assist in manning Battery H of the 5th Regular Artillery.

For a year following the close of the war our subject engaged in cabinet and boiler making in Ohio, and in August, 1866, went to Macon, Ill., where he engaged in carpenter work. In July, 1867, he went to Burlington, Iowa, and in August of the same year removed to Wilton. The following year he attended school at the academy at this place, and from 1868 for a number of years was variously engaged in different parts of the country, going first to Texas, thence returning to Muscatine County, next proceeding to Beatrice, Neb., then south to Bigelow, Mo., after which he went to his old home in Guernsey County, Ohio, whence he returned to the vicinity of Dubuque, Iowa, and engaged in railroading. The winter of 1871-72 was spent in the pineries of Wisconsin on the Black River, and the following spring he went to St. Paul, Minn., going hence to Brainerd, Minn., the succeeding autumn. Shortly afterward he accompanied a surveying party through the Northwestern part of the State, and spent the winter in the employ of a logging company in Todd County, Minn. In the spring of 1873 he engaged in log driving on the Upper Mississippi River, and during the summer worked on a raft-boat, having his headquarters at LaCrosse, Wis. In the fall of 1873 he shipped on the steamer " Mountain Belle," and made a trip to New Orleans, but spent the succeeding winter in Memphis, Tenn. Returning to LaCrosse in the spring, he again engaged in rafting, but left the river about the 24th of May, and returned to Wilton, where he has since been engaged in carpentering and building, and for three and a half years of the time has been in the employ of the Chicago, Rock Island Railroad Company, for which he worked at bridge building and general carpenter work.

On the 14th of November, 1876, at Wilton, Iowa, our subject was united in the holy bonds of matrimony with Miss Lola Lawrence, a daughter of Salmon L. Lawrence, of that city. They are the parents of four children---Hattie A.; Annie I.; Vernon L.; and Walter N. In politics our subject is a supporter of the Republican party, while socially, he is a member of the Henry Silbert Post No.250, G. A. R.,of Wilton ; of Pulaski Lodge No. 107, I.O.O.F., and of Wilton Collegium No. 65, V.A.S. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Wilton, and are highly esteemed in the community where they reside. He is a member of the City Council, having been elected in March, 1889.


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