California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time. Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905 Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176 DAVID T. CURTIS. Although a resident of Oakland, making his home at No. 126 Ninth street, facing Madison Square, David T. Curtis is properly named among the representative citizens of the San Joaquin valley, where so large a part of his active life has been passed. A native of Warren count}'. Pa., he was born April 26, 1843, ' n the city of Columbus, a son of James and grandson of David Curtis. The latter was a native of France, who immigrated to the United States during the Revolutionary war, taking part in the struggle under Lafayette. Upon the close of hostilities he located in New York state, near Sherburne, where he engaged as a farmer and surveyor. He finally removed to Warren county. Pa., taking with him a large number of people who formed a colony in what was then a wilderness. He established the town of Columbus, where he owned the extensive lumber mills, and also engaged as a farmer and surveyor. His death occurred in the town and colony he had established, removing from the community an important factor in its development and progress. His son, James Curtis, was horn in Chenango, N. Y., in 1813. and in boyhood was brought to Pennsylvania by his father. He was reared in the latter state, and in manhood became a farmer, removing to Iowa in 1852 and locating in Mitchell county. He followed farming in that location until he came to California, making the trip across the plains by ox teams. He left his family in Iowa, with the exception of David T. Curtis, of this review, whom he brought with him. They located at West Point, Calaveras county, Cal., where they both mined for two years, then located in Lathrop, San Joaquin county, and engaged in farming. In 1863 Mr. Curtis returned to Iowa and engaged again in farming near Frankville, Winneshiek county. Once more locating in California in 1869, he made his home with David T. Curtis until 1872, when he removed to Watsonville, Santa Cruz county. Cal. He lived retired in that city until his death, which occurred in 1902, at the advanced age of ninety years. His wife, formerly Alzina Hill, of New York state, died in 1892. They were the parents of four sons and five daughters, of whom David T. was the eldest son. David T. Curtis received a rather limited education in the common schools of Pennsylvania and Iowa, the knowledge which is his to-day being the result of his efforts in later years— his contact with the world, his reading on broad lines, and the mental training to which he has bent his mind. He came to California with his father when only sixteen years old, experiencing the dangers and hardships of the journey across the plains, and afterward engaging as a miner for two years. Coming to the San Joaquin valley in 1861, he engaged in farming in the vicinity of Lathrop, and in 1863 located eight miles west of Modesto, Stanislaus county, where he pre- empted one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he still owns. He engaged in its improvement and cultivation and now owns in that tract three hundred and twenty acres. In 1868 he bought six hundred and forty acres which is in the Turlock irrigation district. He remained in Stanislaus county until 1878, in which year he came to Fresno and bought section 4. at Del Rev, Fresno county, where for six years he engaged in general farming. In the year of his settlement in Fresno county he bought twenty-eight hundred and eighty acres adjoining Reedley on the south, and in 1890 colonized this land under the name of the Level Orchard Land Colony, which he sold to sixty-two people, retaining nine hundred acres, which is devoted to alfalfa and wheat. This is in the Alta Irrigation district and is well improved, being thoroughly well fenced, and is highly cultivated. In 1885 Mr. Curtis bought his Mountain View ranch twelve miles east of Reedley, along the foothills, consisting of twenty-five hundred and sixty acres of wheat and grazing land, where he raises cattle, a large per cent of his four hundred head of stock being Durham." He also owns six hundred and forty acres six miles south and one mile east of Reedley, which is devoted to alfalfa and pasture land; six hundred and forty acres in the Lake country devoted to pasture; and eighty acres adjoining the town site of Salida. On his Turlock ranch he has a fine Holstein dairy, and is at present interesting himself in the sugar beet industry on his Reedley ranch. He is very successful in his work, is a large land owner in the San Joaquin valley, and a supporter of all movements calculated to advance the general welfare of this section. In Frankville, Iowa, Mr. Curtis was united in marriage with E. Luella Hollaway, a native of La Porte, Ind. She is the daughter of Henry Hollaway, who died early, leaving his widow, Susan (Pagan) Hollaway, to rear her family. She was a woman of remarkable strength of character and intellect, a historian of no little note, and a temperance worker who did much for the cause. Mrs. Curtis is also interested in the temperance movement in Oakland, and was a delegate to the convention at Buffalo. She is a woman of rare personality, broad-minded and liberal, and possessing qualities which peculiarly adapt her for this work. She is a member of the Congregational Church of Oakland. Mr. Curtis is a stanch Republican politically, and gives his support to the advancement of this party.