Re: John H. Curtis, Jr., 1817-1900
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In reply to:
Re: John H. Curtis, Sea Captain, 1817-1900
1/15/01
Hello. Thank-you for your post. Certainly, your information is very interesting. I have not found evidence that my John H. Curtis Jr was a sea captain. However, evidence from his obituary and biography point to his life on the seas at least as a sailor. I do not believe that he was in the Royal Navy - I could be wrong. He was born in 1817 and died in 1900. His father is supposed to also be John H. Curtis - yet I am lead to believe that he never left England and did not support his son's decision to join the sailor's life. In fact, he had his son apprentice to become a pharmacist. When John became of age, he left for the sea. His first wife died and he apprenticed this son to a ship captain in India. This son later retired to a tea farm, married, had a daughter, and died in India. His name was Thomas "Tom" Curtis. Nothing is known by me about his biological mother. John eventually came to Boston, Mass. where he met his second wife and after giving us his seafaring life he and his family moved to Chicago to work in the hotel business and also as a pharmacist. Later he and the family (except for John B. Curtis - John Jr's son - who stayed in Chicago) followed John's daughter Mary Susan "Susie" Curtis and her husband John Charles Michie to Nebraska to live on government land. John died and was buried in Ravenna, Nebraska.
Something might be of interest - a researcher once contacted me regarding a John Curtis who was a captain of a ship that came to port in California. I don't know if I still have that email anymore as my emails were wiped out several months back from a virus. I'll see what I can find - this researcher was researching a particular ship and came across the name of John Curtis in an account made by a sailor who came ashore. He contacted me to see if my John Curtis was his John Curtis so as to see if there was a connection as he needed further information on that particular ship.
My email is [email protected] (Tawnya).