My Genealogy Hound

Charles L. Curtice, dealer in marble and granite monuments, tombstones, etc., at Buffalo, Mo., is a native of the “Empire State,” having been born on the 10th of November, 1842, in Washington County, N. Y. His father was a well-known Free-will Baptist minister, while his mother was a Wing, of the Wings of Troy, N. Y. Charles L. Curtice was reared and educated in his native State, and at the age of seventeen began teaching school in Wisconsin, to which State his widowed mother removed in the previous year, his father dying while the son was only twelve years old. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted, on the 27th of April, 1861, in Company F, Twentieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. On the 27th of November, 1861, he was discharged, but re-enlisted on the same day in Company C, Sixth Illinois Cavalry. He was on the famous Grierson raid, and participated in the siege of Port Hudson, the last fight at Nashville, and a large number of lesser engagements. He was captured twice by the enemy, once by the guerrillas, but, although he was run by blood-hounds, he escaped, and after eleven weeks returned to his regiment at Memphis, Tenn. He was discharged November 27, 1865, at Camp Butler, Ill., making his term of service four years and seven months. For two years after his discharge he taught school in Franklin County, Ill. In 1868 he came to Dallas County, Mo., and for about eighteen years he taught in the schools of Dallas and adjoining counties. He also homesteaded and improved a farm during the intervals of teaching. He was married while on veteran furlough, on the 27th of April, 1864, to Miss Nancy E. Tinsley, of Franklin County, Ill., by whom he has had six children: Alice, married and living in Gunnison, Colo.; Willie, who died in November, 1884, at the age of fifteen years; Mamie, Walter, Cecil and Neva. His wife is a lineal descendant, on her father’s side, of one of the oldest German families, her grandmother being a Molkey, a near relation of the Baron Von Moltke. Mr. Curtice is a member of the A. O. U. W. and the G. A. R., and he and his wife are members of the Christian Church.