Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, Connecticut

On June 12, 1867, Mr. Brown wedded, in Middletown, N. Y., Miss Jane A. Horton, who belongs to an excellent New York family. She was born May 7, 1843, in Middletown, daughter of O. H. and Almira (Houston) Horton, the former of whom was a direct descendant of Barnabas Horton, a noted man in his day; the mother was a daughter of George Houston, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Horton was a carpenter by trade. He had a family of five children — one son and four daugh- ters. Mrs. Brown was given a good education for her day. She and her husband commenced housekeeping in White Plains, where they made their home until July 5, 1890, when they removed to their present residence in King Street — the William Merritt homestead. The house has been remodeled, and is a very commodious, comfort- able place, standing on sixteen acres of ground, which form very pleasant surroundings. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have two sons: Frank H., who is an architect of White Plains, N. Y. ; and COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 131 Robert H., a carpenter. Mr. Brown is a stanch member of the Republican party, but he takes no special interest in politics. Mrs. Brown is a devout member of the Presbyterian Church. H°,^ TON. CHARLES B. CURTIS is oneof Strat- '41 ford's most influential citizens, as is shown by the number of times that he has been chosen to fill offices of trust and responsibility. As a representative in the State Legislature he gained more thar a local reputation for ability and pub- lic spirit, and in less prominent positions he has also shown characteristic energy, tact and fideli- ty to duty. The Curtis family has been prominent for many years in the business, social and political life of that section, and its members have at all times been noted for the qualities of character ^ which make good citizens. The first of the name came from England at a very early period, and a member of the family settled in the town of Stratford long prior to the Revolutionary war. The first recorded knowledge we have of the Cur- tis family at Stratford is in 1658, at which time the will of Widow Elizabeth Curtiss was proved. [Vol. 1648- 1 656, page 17, Records of Court of Probate within and for the District of Fairfield, Conn.] This will makes mention of her sons John Curtiss and William Curtiss, and grandsons John Curtiss and Jonathan Curtiss, sons of her sons John and William. In item fourth of her will she says: " I doe give unto my grand-child Mary Curtiss ye daughterof Thomas Curtiss forty shillings and to be paid unto her by my sons John and William within a year after my de- cease." This is the only recorded direct evi- dence of the existence of a son Thomas, and from this record it will be seen that there were living, at the time the will was made, two sons, John and William, grandsons John and Jona- than, and a granddaughter Mary, and that she also had a son Thomas, who died previous to the making of the will. At this time she was a widcnv, and nowhere in the records of Stratford does the name of her husband appear. In "A note of ye Estates and Persons of ye Inhabitants of Rocks- bury," about 1638-1640, and at a time previous to the date of the above will, appears the name John Corteis, having fifteen acres, with five per- sons in his family. This family disappears, and a thorough, exhaustive search in the records in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut fails to find them or any of them*- until the rec- ords of Stratford are reached. That it is reason- able to believe the John Corteis of Ro.xbury was a brother of William of Roxbury, and a husband of Elizabeth of Stratford, is evidenced by the records both of England and America. In the "Memorials of the Pilgrim Fathers of Nazing and Waltham Abby," by W. Winters, F. R. Hist. Soc, of Waltham Abbey, Essex, Eng- land, page 46, are the names of William Curtiss, who married Sarah Eliot, a sisterof John Eliot, the Indian Apostle, and one of the original settlers of Roxbury, Mass., and John Curtiss, who mar- ried Elizabeth Hutchins, April 19, 1610, and had children: John, baptized February 26, 1614-15; Wiliam, baptized June 21, 1618; and Thomas, baptized March 12, 1619-20. The ship "Lion" arrived in Boston harbor Sunday evening, Septem- ber 16, 1632. She brought, so Winthrop says, one hundred and twenty-three passengers on this trip. The names of about thirty only are mat- ters of record, and one of them was William Cur- tiss, above referred to. We know, however, that the arrivals by the " Lion" were what may be termed the better class. The ministers were well educated and influential; the laity were edu- cated and possessed a certain degree of wealth that enabled them to live in the enjoyment of comforts. The records of Massachusetts Colony dis- tinctly show, as stated above, that John Corteis was not only a personality but was a landowner. The recorded passengers of the "Lion" are known to have been persons of means, and it is reasonable, from the known worth of John, and his appearance at Roxbury at about the time of William and other "Lion" passengers, to con- clude that John was a passenger on the " Lion," and therefore an emigrant from Nazing. If this conclusion is correct there can be no doubt that this John is the John mentioned in the records of Nazing, and the husband of Elizabeth, the re- corded ancestress of the Curtiss family of Strat- ford, Conn. He died, probably, in Massachusetts, or while c>i roiiti: to Connecticut. When or where he died is not a matter of record in either State. John and William came with their mother, Elizabeth, to Stratford at an early period of its settlement. Trumbull, in his history. Vol. I, published 1795, page 105, says they came from Roxbury about 1639, and that Stratford was settled by immigrants from Massachusetts and not by immigrants directly from England, with the exception of Mr. Fairchild, who was a prominent man and the first one in Stratford in- vested with civil authority. He came directly from the Mother country. John and William Curtiss were among the prominent men in the town at this early period. Lieut. John Curtis, the great-grandfather of our subject, was a na- tive of Stratford, where he passed his life in ag- 132 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. ricultural pursuits, interrupted only by the long struggle of the colonies for independence, during which he served as a lieutenant. Daniel Curtis, the grandfather of Hon. Charles B. Curtis, was a native of Stratford, wliere he was reared, and after his marriage to Betsey Pixlee he settled on a farm there, where he and his wife both passed away. Their chil- dren were Sheldon P., Peter P., Charles II., Mary (Mrs. Nathan Birdsey), Margaret (Mrs. Morgan Curtis) and Elizabeth (Mrs. Edward Fitch). Sheldon P. Curtis, our subject's father, was born iit Stratford, and grew to inanhood at the old homestead. He learned the cabinetmaker's trade, which he followed for some years in Strat- ford and Bridgeport, finally settling upon a farm in Stratford, where he died in 1876. He was a ^ Republican in politics, and was active in religious matters as. a member of the Congregational Church. His wife, Sallie (McEwen), now de- ceased, was of Scotch descent, and was a daugh- ter of Joel McEwen, a native of Stratford. Of their four children, Robert William is a well- known resident of Stratford; Alfred H. (deceased) was a merchant in New York City; Charles B., our subject, was the third in order of birth; and Frederick (deceased) was in partnership with his brother Alfred. Charles B. Curtis was born November 20, 1839, at the old home in Stratford, and attended the public schools and the academy in that town. On leaving school, at the age of eighteen, he en- gaged in general farming, which he has continued ever since on an estate of twenty-five acres, near Stratford village. He married Miss Sadie Strong, daughter of Pond and Clarissa (Chatfield) Strong, of Milford, Conn. , and one child has blessed the union: Pauline Strong Curtis, who is at home. Mr. Curtis and his family are prominent socially, and his beautiful home is the center of a refined and luxurious hospitality. He is in sympathy with the work of the Congregational Church, in which he was reared, and is identified with vari- ous organizations, including the Stratford Social Club. Politically he is a stanch Democrat, and it would be easier to mention the township offices that he has /lof held than those he /las held. He has served as selectman many times, and has been especially active as a member of the school board, acting at one time as a member of the building committee. For eight years he was deputy sheriff under Robert L. (Markson, and in 1876 he was elected to the Legislature, serving one term acceptably. In 1898 he was again elected as a selectman of his township, and is now filling that incumbency. JOHN G. STEVENS, M. D. (deceased), was- for several years a successful physician in Monroe, Fairfield county, having commenced practice there in 1884. He was considered one' of the valuable citizens of the place, both as a professional man and as an active, public-spirited worker for the general welfare of the community in which he lived. The Doctor was a native of Milford, Conn., born March 2, 1838, of English ancestry, his great-great-grandfather, Hezekiah Stevens, hav- ing come from England to Connecticut, settling in Brookfield, where his son Hezekiah (great- grandfather of Doctor Stevens) was born. The children of this Hezekiah were as follows: Three sons — Zalmon, Albert and Seth — and two daugh- ters, one of whom, Sarah, married Daniel Bar- low; no record of the other. Zalmon Stevens, grandfather of Doctor Ste- vens, was a native of Brookfield, Conn., where he passed his entire life, engaged in agricultural pursuits on his farm there, which was one of nO' mean proportions. He was twice married, first time to Orinda Warner, by whom he had three children: Lucy, Betsey and Warner. For his- second wife he married Lydia Williams, and by her had eight children: Caroline, Charles, Barlow M., Elmira, Eliza, Alonzo, Edwin and George.