More about Friend Curtis

In a previous post I added my thoughts about the question "Is Friend Curtis the father of Benjamin?" Included in that post was a partial transcription of the Last Will and Testament of Friend Curtis, filed in the St. Joseph County, Michigan probate courthouse. The original copy of the will was obtained sometime during the 1980's. Last month I ordered another copy of the will to see if we could get a better copy. While placing that order, I discussed the situation with the probate clerk and she informed me that the original documents were microfilmed years ago and the original documents were destroyed after the film copy was made. So our only hope of reading the whole will was to get a better copy from the microfilm.

When the package arrived in the mail, I quickly began the transcription. When completing the transcription, I did not look at the old transcription that I did in the 80's. After the new transcription was made, I compared the two to see how much more we learned from the Will. Following is the new transcription with the additional information I was able to read in blue text:

Last Will and Testament of Friend Curtiss

I Friend Curtiss of The Township of Moottville Township in the County of St. Joseph and State of Michigan. I make and publish this my Last Will And Testament hereby revoking and making void all former wills by me at any Time heretofore made And first I ensist that my body be decently intered _____ _____ burying of the Township of Mottville in said County of St. Joseph and State of Michigan. And as to such worldly _____

____ entire line is hard to read _____

____ entire line is hard to read _____

out of the first money that shall shall come into the hands of my wife _____ from the sale of my funeral estate, I do hereby direct and bequeath to my beloved wife all my _____ Estate being all _____ and Estate belonging to me as this time is to remain to her use and benefit while she shall remain my Widow and at her _____ I direct and bequeath _____ my daughter Sarah all _____ _____ to be and remain to her use and benefit and I _____ direct that ____ Keys my Step son shall have out of my estate to the amount of one hundred dollars Provided that he shall remain with my wife Melissa Curtis, until he arrives At the age of twenty one years and in said time shall assist his mother in _____ the family and I further direct that my daughter Elizabeth _____ and my sons Seth Curtis, Wiliam b. Curtis and Francis _____ Curtis each two dollars to be paid to them as soon as the _____ can be made from the produce of the farm or as not to distress the family I also direct that my executors shal remove or _____ to be removed the bodies of my former wife and family now laying in the Grave Yard in York Township in the County of Elkhart State of Indiana and deposit the same in the grave yard in Mottville township In the State of Michigan by the side of my _____ and that they erect _____ tombstone _____ friend Benjamin Blossom residents of B_____ County and State of Michigan and my wife Melissa Curtis Executors of this my last Will and Testament in Witness whereof I Friend Curtis the Testator _____ to this my Will Written on one sheet of paper _____ my hand and seal this Sixteenth day of August One thousand eight hundred and fifty

Friend Curtis (Seal)

_____ and Sealed and delivered in the presence of _____

_____ in the present of _____ _____

Absom Goble

B. F. Donnells

A. H. Moon

Friend Curtis newspaper articles

When searching for clues about Friend Curtis being the possible father of Benjamin Kingman Curtis, I discovered a few newspaper articles about Friend that were published in the 1850's. The Western Chronicle was the first newspaper printed in Saint Joseph County, Michigan and a name index to the paper for 1849-1864 is available on microfiche at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (fiche 6332812). The original newspapers are on microfilm at the Three Rivers Public Library, located in Three Rivers, Michigan. I hired a researcher in the area to make copies of the newspaper articles for all the Curtis names in the index:

David W. Curtis (6 Dec 1860 news item)

Friend Curtis (deceased) Mottville, had the following legal notices in the paper:

• 9 Nov 1850 through 1 March 1851
• 1 Jan 1857 through 15 Jan 1957

Melissa Curtis (all legal notices)

• 9 Nov 1850 through 4 Jan 1851
• 1 Jan 1857 through 15 Jan 1857

Northrop Curtis and Hellen Schellhous (marriage announcement 21 Dec 1850)

Norton S. Curtis (legal notices during all of July 1850)

Seth Curtis (news item 12 Jan 1850)

T. M. Curtis (news item 14 Oct 1858)

There were two other names in the newspaper index that I obtained copies of:

1. Rev. Herschel Foster was mentioned in a news article on 1 Jan 1857 and 29 Jan 1857. The reason I wanted copies of his news articles was because I was looking for church records that recorded the marriages performed by Rev. Foster. I discovered in Benjamin Kingman Curtis' Civil War pension papers that Benjamin filled out a form stating that he was married by "Rev. Hershel Foster." Several people have looked for Rev. Foster's church records but they have still not been located. We do not know what church Rev. Foster belonged to, so we are looking at all church records that are available in the area.
2. Benjamin married Sarah Lavantia Card. Both Benjamin, Sarah and some of her family were living in Park township during the 1850 census. Sarah's father, William Fuller Card, died in Park twp on 20 Aug 1846, five years prior to Benjamin and Sarah's marriage on 24 May 1851. Legal news for William F. Card was published in the newspaper from 9 Nov 1850 through 12 April 1851. The articles mentioned that Cyrus W. Card was the administrator of the estate. Cyrus was the son of William, and brother to Sarah.
   

Clues in a name

One research method that is often used when conducting family history research is evaluating the names of the children because they were often named after family members. Naming patterns have been documented for different periods of time and localities. One typical naming pattern is:

1st son - named after father's father
2nd son - named after mother's father
3rd son - named after father
4th son - named after father's oldest brother
5th son - named after mother's oldest brother
1st daughter - named after mother's mother
2nd daughter - named after father's mother
3rd daughter - named after mother
4th daughter - named after mother's oldest sister
5th daughter - named after father's oldest sister

(see http://www.allcensus.com/namesys.html for this naming tradition)

Maybe the names of Benjamin and Sarah's child hold clues to the names of Benjamin's parents and siblings. I will compare this naming pattern to the names of the Curtis children:

Cyrus Jerome was the first son. If he was named after his father's father, then we would expect that Benjamin's father was named either Cyrus or Jerome. What we know so far is that Sarah, the mother, had a brother named Cyrus William and he was the oldest son in his family.

Friend Charles was the second son. If he was named after his mother's father, his name would have been something along the line of William Fuller CARD. So the tradition or naming pattern doesn't hold true with this child. What we do know is that the mother Sarah had a brother named Charles who was the second son in the family and he died when he was 15 years old. We also know that there was another Curtis family living in the same locality where Benjamin and Sarah were married. The father of that family was Friend Curtis, who was born in 1797. We do not know if there is a relationship between Benjamin and this older man named Friend. (see the other blog post that discusses this possibility.

Sarah Ellenor was the first daughter. Both the mother and the grandmother were named Sarah, so the naming pattern holds true in this case. We do not know if Ellenor is a family name on Benjamin's side.

Oscar Benjamin was the third son. The naming pattern is partially affirmative because we would expect this child to be named after the father. In this case, the father's name is Benjamin Kingman, so the middle name for this child likely was the father's namesake. The name Oscar is not on Sarah's side of the family and we do not know if the name comes from Benjamin's side of the family.

Cora Belle was the second daughter. Based upon the naming customs, we would expect that she might be named after Benjamin's mother. Since Sarah doesn't have the name in her ancestry, we expect that someday we will find the name in Benjamin's genealogy. We also have records stating that Cora's name was Clara, so either of those names might appear in her father's ancestry.

George Leslie was the fourth son and would expect that he was named after Benjamin's oldest brother. Sarah does not have any family members that this name, so perhaps the naming customs will hold true and this name will be found among Benjamin's side of the family.

William Rushmer was the fifth son and the naming patterns state that this child is typically named after the mother's oldest brother. When looking at the genealogy we find that Sarah's oldest brother was named Cyrus William Card. So the naming pattern is true.

John J. was the sixth son in the family. The naming tradition for this child is that they are typically named after the father's second oldest brother. The name John does not appear in Sarah's family, so perhaps this will eventually be found to be true.

Mary Lavantia was the third daughter in the family. We would expect that she would be named after her mother. In this case, the naming custom holds true because Lavantia is the mother Sarah's middle name. It is also interesting to note that Sarah had a sister named Mary who was the third daughter in the CARD family.

DeWilton Emory was the seventh son in the family. Naming customs and patterns for this child are unknown. We do know that DeWilton is a family name on Sarah's side, because her third oldest brother was also named DeWilton.

In summary, when we find the names of Benjamin's parents and siblings, don't be too surprised if some of their names are: Jerome, George, Friend, Leslie, Rushmer, Oscar, John J., Emory, Ellenor, Cora, Clara, or Belle.

Letter stating Benjamin's full name

Mary Hobbs, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Curtis wrote a letter to the National Archives in 1938. She wanted to find out if her father's Civil War military records contained information about the names of her grandparents. Today, we might assume that everyone knows who their grandparents are, but such is not the case. I feel very blessed to have spent lots of time with my grandparents when I was a child. I knew them. I knew their names, where they lived, and I know where they are buried. I can't imagine what it would be like to not know anything about my grandparents. In this letter that Mary wrote, we have the only record known to exist that is at least partially official that states Benjamin's full name. Some descendants have questioned his middle name, thinking the wrong name had been recorded in our family records. I am glad that I found this letter, because if anyone would have known what was Benjamin's full name, it would have been his wife or his children. Thank you Mary for writing this letter to ask if the military service records had record of the parent's names for "Benjamin Kingman Curtis," your father.