Asa and Charlotte (Meeker) Curtis, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Asa and Charlotte (Meeker) Curtis
ASA AND CHARLOTTE (MEEKER) CURTIS, both deceased, were among the highly respected representative residents of Porter county, Indiana. Asa Curtis was a native of New York, and his wife of Cleveland, Ohio, and it was from the latter place, in the spring of 1867, that they came to Indiana. Here, in March of that year, they established their home on a farm in Porter county, and here they reared their family and passed the rest of their lives and died, and here, side by side, in Janes cemetery in Wheeler rest the remains of this worthy citizen and his good wife, he having passed away in 1901 and she in 1906.
With the passing years, as prosperity crowned his efforts, Asa Curtis made investments in other farm lands, until he became one of the large realty owners of the county. At the same time he was public-spirited and generous. Mrs. Curtis was a member of the Presbyterian church, while he was a Free Methodist, but they were harmonious in their religious and benevolent work, and were hospitable and generous almost to a fault. In the early days it was not unusual for a load of provisions to go from their place to the parsonage, and more than one preacher has driven from the Curtis home not only with a load of produce but also with a fine milch cow tied at the back of the wagon. Indeed, their generosity often made them objects of impostors. Mr. Curtis was an earnest and forceful speaker, and assisted in many of the meetings of his church. His zealous church work and his well known liberality gained for him the name of Brother Curtis; he was known far and near, and both the church and the community at large sustained a heavy loss when he passed away. A few years before his death he purchased a fine country home at the edge of the town of Wheeler, where his daughter, Miss Elizabeth Curtis, the only survivor of the family, now resides. There were two other children, Katherine and Stephen. The former died at the age of fourteen years, her death being the first in the family. Then followed the father, then the mother, and lastly the brother, Stephen, whose sudden death occurred in 1911. Both Stephen and Elizabeth Curtis were educated in the University at Valparaiso, and for several years Stephen had superintended their farming operations, both previous to and after the father's death.
Miss Elizabeth Curtis, after graduating at the high school of Wheeler, spent some time as a student at Valparaiso, where she took a commercial course and also studied telegraphy. She resigned a position as postal telegraph operator when her father's health failed, and returned home to be with her parents. In addition to being a telegraph operator, she has other business accomplishments and experiences. As a designer and dressmaker she has been in the employ of Marshall Field's and the First National Cooperative Tailoring Company of Chicago, having spent three years with the latter company. Also she served three years as postmistress of Wheeler. Miss Curtis combines in her make-up those qualities of earnestness and amiability which characterize the progressive women of the day.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 706-707
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook