Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/97

 CURTIS

CURTIS

CURTIS, William Edmond, jurist, was born in Litchfield, Conn., in 1824; son of Judge Hol- brook Curtis. He was graduated at Trinity col- lege, Hartford, in 1843, and was admitted to the bar in 1847. He located in New York city, where he was a lawyer, a commissioner of the board ■of education, and for four years president of the board. He was married in 1854 to Mary A. Scovill. In 1873 he was elected judge of the supreme court of the state and was its chief jus- tice, 1876-80. He was vice-president of the American geographical society. He received the degree of LL.D. from Trinity in 1862, and was a trustee of the college, 1857-80. He died at Watertown, Conn., July 6, 1880.

CURTIS, William Edmond, financier, was born in Xew York city, June 2, 1855; eldest son ■of Judge William Edmond and Mary A. (Scovill) Curtis. He was prepared for college at schools in New York and Connecticut, and was gradu- .ated at Trinity college, Hartford, in 1875, and at Columbia college law school in 1877. He was jidniitted to the bar in the same year, and began practice as junior member of the law firm of Stearns & Curtis of New York city. He was ■elected a trustee of Trinitj' college by the alumni in 1886 and after the expiration of his term was made a life trustee by the corporation. He took an active interest in politics, and served as secre- tary of the Democratic club of New York city for several years. In April, 1893, he was ap- pointed by President Cleveland assistant sec- retary of the U.S. treasury, which office he resigned at the close of the administration. In 1896 he opposed the free silver doctrine and as a gold Democrat favored the election of Palmer and Buckner. He resumed the practice of law as a member of the firm of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost & Colt in New York.

CURTIS, William Eleroy, journalist, was born in Akron, Ohio, Nov. 5, 1850; son of the Rev. Eleroy and Harriet (Coe) Curtis; and a descendant of William Curtis of Canterbury, England, who joined the Massachusetts colony in 1632, with his brother-in-law, Jolm Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians. He was graduated at Western Reserve college in 1871. As a boy he learned the printer's trade and during his college 'Course worked as a reporter on the Cleveland Leader. He went to Chicago in May, 1872, was employed on The Inter- Ocean and remained with that paper for fifteen years, advancing from reporter to editor-in-chief. His adventures as a correspondent included being held as prisoner by the James and Younger brothers, highwaj-men, and finally obtaining from them the story of their lives which was published in TJie Inter-Ocean and became the basis of various biographies of the daring bandits. In 1874 he accompanied

Custer in his campaign against the Sioux Indians, wrote the first newspaper letters from the Black Hills, and first published the discovery of gold there. The winter of 187^4-75 he spent among the "Ku Klux" and members of the " White League" in the southern states and in 1875 took charge of The Inter- Ocean bu- reau at Wash- ington, D.C., remaining as the Washing- ton correspond- ent five years, when he be- came manag- ing editor at

Chicago. In 1884 he went to South America as secretary of the commission appointed by Presi- dent Arthur to "ascertain the best methods of promoting the political and commercial relations between the United States and the other Amer- ican republics." In 1885 President Cleveland appointed him a member of the commission and he visited all the countries south of the Rio Grande and of the Gulf of Mexico and furnished to the government and the public intelligent infor- mation as to the resources, industries, commerce, and politics of the several countries embraced in the Pan-American confederation. In 1887 he became manager of the Chicago Record bureau at Washington and in 1888 was sent to Eiu-ope to investigate and report the Nihilist movement in Russia. Upon his return he prepared the bill authorizing the international American confer- ence, which was passed bj' congress, and he was appointed bj'- Secretary Blaine executive oflScer of that assembly. In this capacity he managed the conference and the A-arious excursions or- ganized for the entertainment of the foreign delegates. He was the autlior of the reciprocity amendment to the McKinley tariff bill and under the direction of Secretary Blaine negotiated the reciprocity treaties made with the Central and South American republics. In 1890 he founded and became director of the Bureau of the Ameri- can republics at Washington, and was the author of many of its publications. He also conducted the Latin- American and Historical departments of the World's Columbian exposition in 1893, and was the representative of the department of state on the government board of management. He resigned as director of the bureau of American republics in 1893 at the request of President Cleveland, but remained at Chicago as chief of