Mr. Curtis, from the time of his settlement in Buchanan County, Iowa, took rank among its leading men. He was born in the State of New York about the year 1811, but early in life his father removed with his family to Brown County, Ohio, where the subject of this brief biography spent the remainder of his youth. Soon after reaching his majority he married Miss Sarah E. Hall, and immigrated to Tippecanoe County, Indiana,where he resided until the spring of 1851, when he came to Iowa. Leaving his family in Jones County, Mr. Curtis came into Buchanan, selected and purchased, in Washington township, eighty acres of prairie, and forty of timber lands, of Jacob Minton, entering at the same time three eighty acre lots of Government land, in section five. Here Mr. Curtis made a home for his family, honored among the pioneer homes of Buchanan; here he spent the remaining years of a useful life, dying in February 1867; and here his wife died in August 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis had twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, all now living (June, 1881), except Orrin G., who died during the war of the Rebellion, in the hospital at Louisville, Kentucky. All the sons and daughters of Mr. Curtis are married and living in Buchanan and Fayette counties, except the oldest and youngest, now in Deadwood, Colorado. *(Deadwood is in the Dakota Territory, not Colorado). Four of Mr. Curtis' sons were in the army during the late war at one time -- Wesley O., Orrin G., Charles G., and Lewis D. F. Marion also enlisted, but was taken sick at Davenport, and discharged; Simeon G. enlisted, but being under age, and needed by his father, his discharge was procured through the justifiable interference of Mr. Curtis.
Lewis D. now owns and occupies the homestead, having purchased it of his brother, W. O. Curtis, who first purchased it of the estate. Simeon Curtis was a man of much public spirit, and tooka deep interest in the schools of his township, serving for many years as a township director. (Source: Riddle, Albert Gallatin,ed. History of Buchanan County, Iowa, with illustrations andbiographical sketches. Cleveland, Oh., Williams Bros., 1881.) page 219