Curtis family.

In 1831, Henry James Curtis (1798-1852) of Cincinnati, Ohio married Clarissa Fisher (1809-1849). The couple had five children: Sarah Henrietta ("Etta") (1835-1908), James Henry (1838-1906), Delia Augusta ("Gussie") (1841-1915), and Benjamin Wisner (1847-1892.) Clarissa died of cholera in 1849. After their father's death, the children were separated and cared for by aunts and uncles.

Sarah Henrietta attended a private school in Boston, worked as a governess for a family in Memphis, Tenn., and in 1872 graduated from the Boston Normal School for Training Kindergarten Teachers. Delia Augusta went to Hamilton Academy in Ohio, the State Normal School at Salem, Mass., and in 1873, like her sister, graduated from the Boston Normal School for Training Kindergarten Teachers. In 1877, the sisters moved to San Diego where they opened a private kindergarten.

James Henry lived with his relatives in Covington and in Memphis, Tenn. where he worked at a general store. At the beginning of the Civil War he had to move to Ohio, despite his Southern sympathies. In 1863 he returned to Memphis. In 1875 he moved to Fall River Mills, Shasta County, Calif. and worked at a general store and post office there.

In spring of 1861, Benjamin Wisner Curtis ran away from the home of his uncle in Illinois, and, having concealed his name, enlisted in the Union Navy. He served onboard of U.S.S. Indianola, and was captured with the rest of the ironclad's crew in Feb. 1863. He was paroled in summer of 1863, having spent several months in Libby prison, and shortly afterwards was discharged from the Navy. He then worked as a store clerk and a postal agent in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Nebraska. In 1875 he went to northern California and took up a homestead at Fall River Mills, in Shasta County. In 1881, he gave it up and went to Arizona on a mining project. He shortly moved to San Diego, but in 1884 was back in Arizona, trying his luck in ranching. In 1891, he left his ranch, and returned to San Diego.