My Genealogy Hound

MAJOR ENOCH A. CURTIS, a successful architect of Fredonia and a prominent post and encampment commander in the Grand Army of the Republic, is a son of Isaac C. and Susan H. (Hunter] Curtis, and was born in the town of Busti, Chautauqua county, New York, July 19, 1836. Enoch A. Curtis is of Scotch-Irish descent on his paternal side and his grandfather, Rev. Enoch Curtis, was born in New Hampshire. He was an itinerant minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, removed to Pennsylvania and afterwards died in Cattaraugus county, this State. His son, Isaac C. Curtis, the father of Enoch A. Curtis, was born in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, where he married Susan Hunter, a native of the same county. In 1834 he settled on a firm in the town of Busti, and died in 1881, aged seventy -two years.

Enoch A. Curtis was reared on his father’s farm. He received his education at Jamestown academy from which he graduated in 1848. He then learned the trade of carpenter and joiner, which he followed until the breaking out of the late civil war, excepting a part of the winter seasons during which he taught in the public schools. On July 13, 1862, he enlisted in the 112th regiment, N. Y. Infantry, under President Lincoln’s call of that year for three hundred thousand volunteers, for three years service. On August 12, 1862, he was commissioned captain of Co. D, which he commanded in the various skirmishes and battles in which his regiment was engaged until the fearful struggle at Cold Harbor where he received such severe wounds as to unfit him for further military service. He was honorably discharged on September 12, 1864, on account of his wounds, and on June 27, 1867, was brevetted major by Governor Fenton for “gallantry at the battle of Cold Harbor.” After the war he settled at
Fredonia, where he resumed his studies in architecture, which had been interrupted by the war, and in a short time had erected several fine and tasteful buildings which recommended him to the public favor as being a competent and skilled architect. He has prosecuted the study of his profession for over thirty years and his experience as an architect has specially fitted him for the responsibilities of this most exacting of all the art sciences. The structures which he has designed, stand as evidence of his skill, and prominent among them we may mention: the fine residence of A. O. Putnam, of Fredonia, R. G. Wright, of Westfield, and M. L. Hinman, of Dunkirk; National Transit company building, Oil City and the Fredonia, and Oil City Town Halls.

On Sept. 12, 1859, he married Jennie Norton, of the town of Harmony. They have two children: Isabella and Edith.

Major Curtis is kept very busy in his profession, and does a large and lucrative business. He is a republican in politics, and has been president of the village corporation. He is a member and has been president of the Chautauqua County Veteran union. He is past commander of Northern Chautauqua Encampment and commander of E. D. Holt Post, No. 403, Grand Army of the Republic.