Santa
Clara County
Biographies
HENRY
CURTNER
HENRY CURTNER. The opportunities offered by California to
men of enterprise and sterling worth are nowhere better exemplified than in the
successful career of Henry Curtner, a pioneer of
Alameda county. When he came to the Pacific
coast in 1852 he was entirely without means, lacking
even the money necessary for the purchase of a pair of shoes, nor did he have
the advantage of friends to assist him in getting a start. Barefooted and with shabby clothing, he
arrived at the Mission San Jose.
Fortunately there was need of farm hands and he had no difficulty in
securing employment. Economical to the
point of avarice his earnings were hoarded month by month and at the expiration
of two years he was in a position to operate and as a renter. A few years later he made his first purchase
of land and from that time forward his career has been prosperous, until at the
present time he is one of the largest land owners of his county.
Mr. Curtner
was born in Fountain county, Ind., January 17,
1831, and was next to the youngest of five sons and five daughters, all of whom
are deceased except himself. His father,
Jacob Curtner, was born and reared in North Carolina,
where he married Nancy Heaton, a native of Tennessee. Afterward, about 1827, they removed to
Indiana, and settled among the pioneer farmers of Fountain county,
where they passed their active years in the development of a homestead. Mrs. Curtner
died in Fulton county, Ind., while the death of Mr. Curtner
occurred in Cass county near Logansport.
He had been a soldier in the Indian struggles and served under General
Jackson, taking part in the battle of Horseshoe Bend. During the boyhood years of Henry Curtner educational facilities were in their infancy. The improvements of the twentieth century
were undreamed of, save by a few far-seeing and optimistic educators. Schools were held in log buildings with
puncheon floors and split benches. Text
books were few and of an inferior character.
A knowledge of the old blue-backed spelling
book, supplemented by some training in figures, was supposed to constitute a
common-school education. Occasionally a
teacher was to be found who rose superior to his
environment and impressed the force of a cultured personality upon his pupils,
but such instructors were rare.
Having acquired such instruction as the
schools afforded, Mr. Curtner started out in the
world to earn his livelihood. For a time
he worked on a farm and also engaged in clearing timbered land, after which he
became a boat driver on the Wabash and Erie canal, working his way up to be
captain. In 1852 he utilized his savings
in paying the expenses of the long voyage from New York via Panama to San
Francisco. Four years after his arrival
on the coast, in the fall of 1856, he returned to Indiana, and married, in Cass
county, Miss Lydia Kendall, who was born in
Indiana. The fall of 1857 found the
young couple in California, where Mr. Curtner
bought fifty acres near Alvarado, Alameda county, and
for about ten years made his home upon that property. In the spring of 1868 he moved to the estate
near Warm Springs, which he still owns and occupies. His first purchase comprised little less than
two thousand acres, to which he added from time to time until his landed
possessions aggregated four thousand acres; however a portion of this tract has
been sold, in small farms, leaving him with three thousand acres, which he has
divided with his children. Since
locating there he has bought and sold real estate, speculated in lands, made
improvements of noteworthy character, and proved himself a capable and
progressive man. Though now to some
extent retired from business, he acts as a director of the Security State Bank
of San Jose, and is also president of the Milpitas Land & Live Stock Company,
Incorporated, which owns eight thousand head of cattle, eight hundred head of
horses and a flock of seven thousand sheep, utilizing for the same a tract of
twenty-six thousand acres of patented land.
Of Mr. Curtner’s
first marriage six sons and two daughters were born, of whom seven are now
living, namely: Walter and Frank, of San
Jose; William and Allen, who live near the old homestead; Jacob, who remains
with his father; Josephine, at home, and Grace, wife of Wilbur Raley, a wholesale business man of San Jose. After the death of his first wife Mr. Curtner married Mary E. Myers, who was born in Indiana
and died in California. The two children
of this union are Albert H., who resides near Mountainview,
Santa Clara county, and Arthur D., who lives near
his father’s ranch. The present wife of
Mr. Curtner bore the maiden name of Lucy Latham,
and is a native of Springfield, Ill.
While the magnitude of Mr. Curtner’s
landed interests has demanded his personal attention to the exclusion of
participation in public affairs, he has been a warm supporter of the public
schools, has aided in promoting the standard of education in his district, and,
reminded by his own recollections of the deprivations of his boyhood, has
contributed to movements for the development of educational facilities. The establishment and building of Irvington
Seminary may be attributed to his zeal and financial support, and, while at
first he was associated with a corporation in the undertaking he afterward
acquired the entire institution. After
it was burned about 1898 he sold the property, which was rebuilt and is now
operated under the present title of Anderson Academy. In matters political he has given his ballot
to the Republican party, and has kept himself
intelligently conversant with the issues of the times, yet has declined office
and never gave his consent to the use of his name in candidacy for positions
within the gift of his fellow-citizens.
Pre-eminently his tastes are toward private undertakings not public
affairs, yet he has not been negligent of his duty as a citizen. Realizing that whatever of success has
crowned his efforts may be attributed in large degree to the opportunities
afforded by the fertile soil and fair climate of the coast country, he has ever
been on the alert to promote the advancement of the state where success has
been made possible for him; and in his public spirit and progressive
citizenship has been a large contributor to the material and educational
development of Alameda county.
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 631-632. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Donna Toole.