Homer A. Curtiss
From WesternStarWiki
Justice of the Peace at Shasta in 1858. Elected as County Superintendent of Schools in 1866-68. [1]
DEATH OF ONE OF SHASTA COUNTY'S PIONEERS
It is with regret that we are again called upon to chronicle the death of another one of those men whose name is associated with the early history of our county--of those who stood by and saw the first number of the Courier lifted with the tympan, March 12, 1852--Homer A. Curtiss. The demise of the gentleman occurred, as we are informed by the Rochester Herald, at Medina, New York, December 26, 1885. While assisting in moving some articles, he slipped and fell quite a distance, from the rear platform of his residence, and striking on his head on the frozen ground, his skull was fractured in a terrible manner. He was rendered unconscious by the concussion and died a few hours after the accident.
Curtiss was sixty years of age, and leaves a wife and three sons. He came to this county, we think, in 1850, was one of the Charter members of the Shasta Lodge of Free Masons which is about the oldest Lodge in the State. He also filled the position of Justice of the Peace, District Attorney, Notary Public, and was a conspicuous member of the Shasta bar in the days when it glittered with such luminaries as Zack Montgomery, Isaac Baggs, Ward, Earll, McMurtry, Royal T. Sprague, Ephraim Garber and William P. Dangerfield. When the Copper City mines were first discovered he became heavily interested in them, was the Secty and Director of several of the leading companies, and it was there, in 1863, that we became acquainted with him. In all matters pertaining to the interest of the public, Curtiss was alert and active, and the people scarcely realized his true worth as a citizen until he had bade them adieu, and departed for the Empire State. Curtiss was a man of generous impulses, warm and true in his friendships, and we know, from frequent letters from him to friends here, that he cherished a deep desire to return and again greet many friends he left behind and the green hills of old Shasta some "Twenty Years Ago." But, alas, the people and places that were once here familiar to him, will greet his vision no more. Never again will his steps be turned this way: his feet are planted in the pathway that leads up to the Eternal throne. His old Shasta home still o'erlooks the town; and today the roses and perennial flowers planted by his hands, bloom and sway in the soft, ambient air, of our favored clime, and from them, living friends would fain weave a wreath of remembrance to lay upon the snow-covered grave in the far-away, bleak land of York.[2]
References
- ↑ Smith, Dottie (1999). The Dictionary of Early Shasta County History (2nd ed.). self-published.
- ↑ http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?action=detail&id=3564
