Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/57

Rh surgeon, microscopist, and naturalist to the U. S. geological survey, and in 1873 became chief medical officer of the U. S. Indian service. He has pub- lished numerous articles on ventilation and kindred subjects, and is the author of a report on the " Hy- giene of Massachusetts " (1843), and earlier reports to the Massachusetts legislature on the registration of births, marriages, and deaths. He is noted as the discoverer of collodion.

CURTIS, Newton Martin, soldier, b. in De Peyster, St. Lawrence co., N. Y., 21 May, 18o5. He was educated at common schools, and at Gouver- neur Wesleyan seminary, in 1854r-'5. He became a prominent democrat, was postmaster of his native town in 1857-'61, and democratic candidate for assembly in 1860. He enrolled a volunteer com- pany on 14 April, 1861, was commissioned captain in the 16th New York regiment on 7 May, and served in the Army of the Potomac. He became lieutenant-colonel and then colonel of the 142d New York infantry, and during the battle of Cold Harbor was assigned to the command of a bi'igade whose leader had been killed in the action. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 28 Oct., 1864, and for his services at the capture of Fort Fisher was promoted on the field to briga- dier-general of volunteers, and was also thanked by the legislature of New York. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865, and assigned to duty as chief of staff to Gen. B. 0. C. Ord. On 1 July, 1865, he was given the command of southwestern Virginia, with headquarters at Lynchburg, and was mustered out on 15 Jan., 1866. He was collector of customs in the district of Os- wegatehie, N. Y., in 1866-'7, special agent of the U. S. treasury from 1867 till his resignation in 1880, and a member of the legislature in 1883-5, having been elected as a republican. He was presi- dent of the state agricultural society in 1880, and has been secretary and trustee of the state agricul- tural station since its organization in that year.

CURTIS, Samuel Ryan, soldier, b. 'in New York state, 3 Feb., 1807; d. in Council Bluffs, Iowa, 26 Dec, 1866. He removed when a child to Ohio, and was gi^aduated at the U. S. military academy in 1831, but resigned from the army in 1832, and became a civil engineer, superintending the Muskingum river improvements in 1837-'9. He then studied law, and practised in Ohio from 1841 till 1846. He had become a captain of militia in 1833, was lieutenant-colonel in 1837-'42, colonel in 1843-'45, and in 1846 was made adjutant-gen- eral of Ohio for the special purpose of organizing the state's quota of volunteers for the Mexican war. He served in that war as colonel of the 2d Ohio regiment, and was commandant of Camargo, a large military depot, holding it on 18 Feb., 1847, against Gen. IJrrea, and then pursuing the enemy by forced marches through the mountains to Ramos, Mexico, thus opening Gen. Taylor's communica- tions. After the discharge of his regiment he served on Gen. Wool's staff, and as goverpor of Saltillo, Mexico, in 1847-8. He then engaged in engineering in the west, and in 1855 settled as a lawyer in Keokuk, Iowa. While a resident of this place he was elected to congi'ess as a republican, and served two terms and part of a third, from 1857 till 1861, being a member of the committees on military affairs and the Pacific railroad. He was also a delegate from Iowa to the peace con- gress of February, 1861. He I'esigned from con- gress in 1861 to become colonel of tlie 2d Iowa regiment, and on 17 May was commissioned briga- dier-general of volunteers, being on the first list sent to the senate for confirmation. He took charge of the large camp of instruction near St. Louis in August and September, 1861, commanded the southwestern district of Missouri from 26 Dec, 1861, till February, 1862, and the army of the southwest till August, 1862. On 6-8 March, at Pea Ridge, Ark., he gained a decisive victory over a Confederate force, commanded by Gens. Price and McCulloch. He was promoted to major- general of volunteers on 21 March, 1862, and from 14 July till 29 August occupied Helena, Ark., having marched over one thousand miles through wildernesses and swamps. While on leave of ab- sence, from 29 Aug. till 24 Sept., 1862, he was president of the Pacific railroad convention in Chicago. He was at the head of the Department of the Missouri from September, 1862, till May, 1863, and of that of Kansas from 1 Jan., 1864, till 7 Feb., 1865, commanding at Fort Leavenworth during the Price raid of October, 1864. and aiding in the defeat and pursuit of Gen. Price's army. He commanded the Department of the Northwest from 16 Feb. till 26 Jixly, 1865, was U. S. commis- sioner to negotiate treaties with various Indian tribes from August till November, 1865, and to examine the Union Pacific railroad till April, 1866.

CURTIS, Thomas, clergyman, b. in England about 1780; d. in 1858. He came to the United States in 1829, was pastor for some years of the Wentworth street Baptist church in Charleston, S. C, and subsequently established a young ladies' school at Limestone Spring. Dr. Curtis was a man of extensive knowledge and very powerful as a preacher. While in England he was the publisher of the " Encyclopaedia Metropolitana." He per- ished in a burning steamer on the Potomac river. — His son, Thomas F., b. in England, 26 Sept., 1815 : d. in Cambridge, Mass., 9 Aug., 1872, was educated at a southern college, and studied the- ology. After holding a pastorate near Boston for several years, he accepted the chair of theology in Lewisburg university. Pa., but resigned in 1865, and in 1867 removed to Cambridge, Mass. He suffered with softening of the brain for some time before his death. Dr. Curtis published " Com- munion: the Distinction between Christian and Church Fellowship"; " Progress of Baptist Prin- ciples in the last Hundred Years " ; and, after his resignation, " The Human Element in the Inspira- tion of the Sacred Scriptures," in which he took similar views with Bishop Colenso, but went be- yond him in some particulars, repudiating both the inspiration and authenticity of much of the Old Testament and part of the New (1867).

CURTIS, William Edmund, jurist, b. in Litchfield, Conn., in 1824; d. in Watertown, Conn., 6 July, 1880. lie was graduated at Trinity in 1843, admitted to the bar in 1847, and practised in New York city, where he rose rapidly in his profession. In 1871 he was elected judge of the New York supreme court, and at the time of his death was chief justice of the superior court. He was commissioner of the board of education, and for four years its president, and also vice-president of the geographical society. Judge Curtis received the degree of LL. D. "from Trinity in 1862.

CURTISS, Abby Allin, poet, b. in Pomfret, Conn., 15 Sept., 1820. Her father, Daniel Allin, was a sea-captain of Providence, R. I. In 1852 she married Daniel S. Curtiss, a Chicago journalist, and soon afterward removed with him to a farm in Madison, Wis. Her first piece, "Take me Home to Die," appeared in " Neal's Gazette " in 1846. She has published '* Home Ballads " (Boston, 1850), and contributed to periodicals under the signature of "Nillo."