Calaveras
County
Biographies
CHARLES ALLEN CURTIS
One of the representative men of
Calaveras County, California, residing at Murphy’s, is the subject of this
sketch. He came to the state in 1849 and
has never regretted the venture.
Mr. Curtis was born in Richmond,
Maine, on the 15th of April, 1825.
His ancestry was English, his great-grandfather Curtis emigrating from
that country to the United States and settling in Maine at a very early
day. His son Charles carried on the name
and the same religious belief in the same state, living to the age of
eighty-four years and dying a highly respected and lamented citizen. William Curtis, the father of our subject,
was born in Maine in 1798 and lived there to manhood, marrying Mary Kelley, of
the same place. They lived to the
average age noted by the Psalmist, having been the parents of a large number of
children, three of whom survive; but Mr. Curtis, our subject, is the only
resident of California. They were of the
Baptist faith, good and worthy people who left the world better than they found
it.
Charles A. Curtis was educated in
his native state and grew there to manhood.
About that time the breezes from the western country began to bear tales
of the golden country on the Pacific, and with the thousands of others from the
east he turned his face in that direction.
Under the capable seamanship of Captain Woodbury of the staunch bark,
Lanark, he engaged passage around the Horn and arrived safe and sound after a voyage
of five months.
Mr. Curtis made his first attempt at
mining at Hawkins Bar, on the Tuolumne River, but was quite discouraged for a
time. He was taken sick, probably from
the new conditions of life, and retired to Stockton for the winter. The following April he arrived in Murphy’s
and worked with success on the land immediately back of where the Michler Hotel now stands, and in different portions of the
town. The diggings were rich and he did
well, he and four companions picking up twenty ounces
a day. He found several seven and eight
dollar nuggets and in one panful of dirt had twenty-four dollars.
In 1852 Mr. Curtis became one of the
organizers of the Union Water Company, continuing in charge of it for seven
years, selling water to the miners. His
natural ability was soon recognized and he was made the assessor and tax
collector for the town, continuing in that office for four years. Good roads became almost necessities, and he
was the man who as roadmaster for twelve years with
that undertaking. It required energy and
capital, in those days. He was one of
those who made the road to the “Big Trees,” and was one of the four men who cut
down the only one of those monarchs of the forest that has ever fallen. The cut was made eight feet from the ground
and after the thick bark had been removed, it remained thirty-two feet in
diameter.
Since that time Mr. Curtis has
engaged in farming, owning several tracts of land. He built his home in Murphy’s in 1854, when
lumber was one hundred dollars per thousand feet. Now beautiful shade trees surround his house
and it seems an ideal place in which to pass many happy years. Like many an eastern lad, Mr. Curtis had left
a promised bride behind him, and when fortune had favored him he returned and
in Boston, Massachusetts, was married to Miss Catherine Caswell, a native of
that city. The return trip was made by
the Isthmus. The family of Mr. Curtis
consisted for five children: Charles William
and Melvin, ranchmen; Mary Jenett, the wife of Edson
Thorp, deceased at the age of forty years; Richard, deceased; and Henry, who
met death by accident.
In 1879 Mr. and Mrs. Curtis
celebrated the first quarter-century of their married life with a silver
wedding. In a cozy corner of their
parlor may be seen a large collection of rich designs of the white metal, being
tokens from their many friends. Their
lives must be spared only three more years till the half-century mark has been
reached, when they will have the pleasure of celebrating their golden wedding. Both Mr. and Mrs. Curtis are respected and
beloved in the community where they are best known. Mrs. Curtis is a consistent member of the
Congregational Church, a good and devout woman, while both represent well the
best citizens of Calaveras County.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 408-409. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Calaveras County Biographies