MSS 272 Henry Curtis Papers

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MSS 272
Henry Barnes Curtis Papers
3- 1/ 2 cubic feet
preliminary inventory
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COLLECTION SYNOPSIS
Provenance: The Ohio Historical Society acquired the Henry
Barnes Curtis Papers from D. Blake Battles in 1959 and
Timothy H. Bakken in 1975. Clara Ireland processed the collec-tion
in March 1980.
Property rights: The Ohio Historical Society owns the property
rights to this collection.
Copyrights: The copyrights to this collection have not been
dedicated to the public. Consideration of the requirements
of copyright is the responsibility of the author and publisher.
Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations
of the Ohio Historical Society.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite collection name,
collec5on number and the Ohio Historical Society in all foot-note
arrd bibliographic references.
Transfer: The following item was transferred to the audio-visual
department in April 1980; one receipt from Henking,
Allemony and Co. Wholesale Grocers, Gallipolis, Ohio, with
picture of building ( lower side of Public Square) on letter-head.
Biographical sketch: Henry Barnes Curtis, son of Revolutionary
War soldier Zarah and Phally Yale Curtis, was born in 1799
in Champlain, New York. Curtis had three older sisters, an
older brother, Hosmer, and a younger brother, Samuel R. The
family moved to Ohio in 1809 when Zarah Curtis purchased farm
land in Licking County. Henry B. Curtis left the farm in
1817 to live with Hosmer, then a practicing lawyer in Mt. Vernon,
Ohio. While studying law Curtis was employed in the office of
the Clerk of Knox County Courts, He later became deputy clerk
for that court arid then recorder of the Court of Common Pleas.
Curtis passed the bar in 1822 and successively partnered with
his brother Hosmer, Isaac J. Allen of Mansfield in the early
1840s, Matthew H. Mitchell in the late 1 8 4 0 ~ H.~ C. Scribner in
the 1850s and early L860s, and finally his son Henry L. Curtis
in 1866. Curtis was admitted to the bar of the U. S. Supreme
Court in 1848.
Curtis married Elizabeth Hogg of Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, in 1823.
Among their several children were Elizabeth Curtis who married
John Gershom Plimpton of New York City; Ella Curtis who married
Joseph Chambers Devin, an Ohio state senator; and Henry Lambton
Curtis who married Lucia B. Chittenden of Keokuk, Iowa, in 1868.
Curtis played a significant role in establishing Kenyon College
in the 1820s. He served for many years on the board of trustees
and the institution awarded him an honorary doctor of law degree
in 1881 for his services.
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