Look For A Grandmother - Find A Vice President

 

Charles Curtis, the Vice President, was not, in the beginning, my problem. I was looking
for the ancestry of my great, great grandmother, Huldah Curtis (Parke) and knew nothing
about Charles, his father Orrin or his grandfather, William.

In the course of researching my Parke line I had learned that Huldah Curtis had married
Thomas Harris Parke in Dearborn county, Indiana 14 August 1825. She had been sealed
to Thomas Harris at the Latter Day Saints Endowment House Salt Lake City March 1852.
There Huldah gave her date of birth as 17 July 1805; her place of birth as White, Ontario,
New York.

I had also received from relatives, some very distant, three (3) copies of Thomas Harris
Parkes Logan, Utah LDS Temple proxy baptism record of 1888. The type written copy
I was using showed him to be a son-in-law of Thomas Curtis, a son-in-law of Betsey
Curtis and a brother-in-law of Eunice Peat. Additionally, I knew the LDS Ancestral File
showed Huldah’s parents to be Thomas Curtis and Betsey Curtis.

I started my Curtis line research with these two (2) documents. Over the years, while not
specifically working my Curtis line I had acquired additional background information.
Because Thomas Harris and Huldah had lived in Vermillion County, Eugene township,
Indiana I had the census records from there, 1820-1860. The 1840 census showed that
Thomas Harris and Huldah were neighbors to William Curtis and Noah Hubbard, William’s
father-in-law.

In correspondence with others on the Parke/Curtis line I had been given a copy of a 1939
interview with Joseph A Park(e) son of Oregon pioneers whose father, Joseph Park(e)
was a nephew of Thomas Harris and whose mother, Mary Curtis, was a daughter of
William’s. In the interview Mr. Park(e) mentions that his mother’s oldest brother was father
of Charles Curtis who had been Vice President.

Someone else had given me a partial group sheet that showed Philip Lunger, another
nephew of Thomas Harris, married to Ruth Hubbard sister of Permelia Hubbard, William’s
wife. This background information suggested to me that William and Huldah were
brother and sister.

This information also suggested to me that when I was serious about my Curtis ancestry
I had only to review a biography of Charles Curtis. When I did, much to my dismay, his biography
said nothing about his Curtis line earlier than William. It did say that the Curtises
like the Hubbards were thought to be from New England.

Because I continued to believe that a Vice President of the United States would have his
family history established earlier than his grandfather I contacted a researcher in Shawnee
County Kansas where William died and Charles was born. The researcher sent me some
family information, but again nothing earlier than William. I wrote telling her I could not
believe that a doctorate candidate, University of Kansas had not researched the family line
of the only Kansan to come within a heart beat of the White House.

I was now, in a sense, back to page one. Both William and Huldah had been born in upstate
New York so I studied the New York census records 1790-1810. Because William was
said to have been in Ohio before coming to Indiana and Huldah had married in Dearborn
County, Indiana, I studied the Southwest Ohio/Southeast Indiana census records 1810-
1820. I was looking for a family of unknown size, but in 1810 for example, with a young
boy and two (2) young girls; headed by a man with a very common name and in a large,
but specific area. Even using an area wide, multi decade, accelerated index microfiche I
was not certain I found the family. Mostly I was making notes.

As I was reviewing my notes and documents and comparing for the first time the three
(3) copies of Thomas Harris Parkes Logan Temple record I noticed the handwritten copy
differed from the two (2) typed copies. On this copy Thomas Harris said he was a brotherin-
law (not son-in-law) to Betsey Curtis and as on the others, a brother-in-law to Eunice
Peat. If correct, both I and others had been working from altered evidence. It also gave the
Thomas Curtis family three (3) daughters.

To check which Logan Temple copy was correct I wrote to Logan. The LDS Logan
Temple film like most LDS Temple records is a restricted film, not available in Family History
Centers. I asked for verification of Betsey’s relationship to Thomas Harris. Their reply
was that Thomas Harris was shown as brother-in-law.

While waiting for a reply from Logan I re-examined all my research notes on the Curtis
line. Very early in my research, while in Salt Lake City, I had examined all the Curtis
family books on file at the Family History Library. I noted from the book A Family Named
Curtis that “an untraced Thomas Curtis married 1790 a Eunice Peet.”

I now had a Thomas Curtis married to one of the names on the Logan Temple record and
in a time frame to be the parents of William and Huldah. I was also at this time comparing
given name patterns and noticed that both William and Huldah had named daughters Eunice
and sons Ira. This led me to think Eunice’s father was named Ira.

In an effort to involve other Curtis family members I wrote a letter to about twenty (20)
of them. Names for the most part taken from the LDS submitters file on the Huldah Curtis-
Permelia Hubbard lines. I had followed this practice a number of times with my Parke
line without results. The Curtis letter was also mailed to the Curtis Society whose address
 I found in the Family Registry file, Family History Center. In time, this letter, reached the
desk of Arthur Hutchinson who replied giving me a reference and a quote from the family
history John Peet 1597-1684 that identified a Eunice Peet who married a Thomas Curtis,
Huntington, Connecticut 1790.

In this first letter I wrote that Thomas Harris was wrong when he said he was brother-inlaw
of Eunice Peat and that he was in fact a son-in-law. Because Betsey was on the Logan
Temple record and I had found a Philip Curtis neighbor to William in the 1830 and 1850
census I added them to the family.

For this letter I guessed the family to be Thomas Curtis and Eunice Peet Curtis parents
of four children: Philip, William, Huldah and Betsey.

While the Logan Temple record had a heading for date and place of birth it was clear
that some of the entries referred to other events, perhaps date and place of death. Thomas
Curtis, for instance, had no date but Hamilton, Ohio as a place. Eunice Peat had no date but
Ray, Missouri as a place. I now started looking at early Ray County records.
One of the first volumes I examined on the Missouri shelf at the Family History Library
was the Index of Purchases-US Land in Missouri 1818-1837. I did not find Eunice Peet
Curtis. To my surprise I found Harris Parke, Philip Curtis, Noah Hubbard and a Charles P
Curtis none of whom I had known were ever in Missouri. I immediately asked a Jackson,
Missouri researcher to get the land descriptions and find out what the “P” in Charles P.
Curtis stood for.

Her response gave me the land descriptions and a referral to the Bureau of Land Management,
Springfield, Virginia. It did not tell me what the “P” stood for. The BLM response
had the complete property transactions and a plat map. There they were, most of the family,
Harris Parke, Noah Hubbard, Philip Curtis and with his full name, Charles Peet Curtis.
I now issued a second Curtis letter detailing the Missouri land record information and
adding Charles Peet Curtis to the family.

On the LDS International Genealogical Index I found both Charles Curtis and Elizabeth
Curtis marriages. Charles to Sarah Hubbard Vermillion County, Indiana, 29 March 1832;
Elizabeth to Henry Bailey, Dearborn County, Indiana, 12 Oct. 1826. Henry was also living
near William in 1830 and William and Huldah 1840. This I concluded had to be their sister
Elizabeth and Family.

Meanwhile I was studying a Nauvoo Illinois Temple proxy baptism record made in 1844
for Thomas Harris and Huldah. This record had been described incorrectly to me earlier
and I had decided that it was not my Curtis line. Again it was on a restricted film so I could
not order it. My Salt Lake City researcher, sensing my confusion, sent me a photo copy
of the pertinent information. It was certainly my Huldah Curtis (Parke) but it showed her
non-Curtis grandparents to be Gideon Pratt and Betsey Pratt. The given names agreed
with her Peet grandparents. The family name was dramatically different. I rationalized this
difference as a misspelling, incorrectly heard. It did after all start with a “P” and have about
the same number of letters.

In the face of this conflicting evidence I issued my third Curtis letter. I wrote that I was
satisfied that the circumstantial evidence established Thomas Curtis and Eunice Peet, married
1790 as the parents of Philip Curtis, William Curtis, Charles Peet Curtis, Huldah Curtis
(Parke) and Elizabeth Curtis (Bailey).

With the conflicting evidence there was likely to be skeptics who would not agree with
my rationalizations. I contacted a second Salt Lake City researcher, my first one had left for
research in England. I asked her to recheck the Nauvoo Temple record. It was, in my opinion,
so neatly and uniformly written it had to be a copy. The researcher found that it was a
copy and that the original was in the Church Historical Department not available for photocopying.
She had a researcher in the Department view the original and notate my copy to
match the original. Her notations were such that it was clear to me that the original entry
had been Peat and not Pratt as transcribed. While it certainly looks like “Prat”-one (1) “’T”
it must be evaluated by 1844 writing styles and the early history of the LDS Church-where
two Pratt brothers were prominent in the highest Church circles, neither of whom spelled
their name with one (1) “T”.

Thanks to a very conscientious researcher I had a plausible explanation for the Pratt
name. In my opinion my original theory had been reasonably established if only with circumstantial
evidence.

I’ve written my Topeka, Kansas researcher and detailed the Curtis/Peet ancestry of
Charles Curtis, Vice President. I’ve told her that when the eventual doctoral candidate
shows up let him browse through some old records before she shows him the completed
file.

I’ve had the documentation supporting my theory that Thomas Curtis and Eunice Peet
are the parents of William Curtis, grandfather of Charles Curtis, Vice President of the
United States 4 March 1929 - 3 March 1933 bound. I’ve distributed seven (7) copies to
major genealogical libraries and the Curtis Society.

Eunice Peet’s ancestry appears to be clearly defined. Not so with Thomas Curtis. It is
thought that he descends Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Zachariah, William, Widow Elizabeth. This
has not been clearly determined. We still have a challenge.

CURTIS, Charles, (1860 - 1936)

---

Senate Years of Service: 1907-1913; 1915-1929 
Party: Republican; Republican 

Library of Congress

CURTIS, Charles, a Representative and a Senator from Kansas and a Vice President of the United States; born in Topeka, Kans., January 25, 1860; attended the common schools; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1881 and commenced practice in Topeka; prosecuting attorney of Shawnee County 1885-1889; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1893, until January 28, 1907, when he resigned, having been elected Senator; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior (Fifty-fourth through Fifty-seventh Congresses); had been reelected to the Sixtieth Congress, but on January 23, 1907, was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 3, 1907, caused by the resignation of Joseph R. Burton, and on the same day was elected for the full Senate term commencing March 4, 1907, and served from January 29, 1907, to March 3, 1913; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1912; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Sixty-second Congress; chairman, Committee on Indian Depredations (1905-11), Committee on Coast Defenses (1911-13), Republican Conference (1924-1929); again elected to the United States Senate for the term commencing March 4, 1915; reelected in 1920 and 1926 and served from March 4, 1915, until his resignation on March 3, 1929, having been elected Vice President of the United States; Republican whip 1915-1924; majority leader 1925-1929; elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket headed by Herbert Hoover in 1928, was inaugurated on March 4, 1929, and served until March 3, 1933; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932 for Vice President; resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C., where he died on February 8, 1936; interment in Topeka Cemetery, Topeka, Kans.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Unrau, William E. Mixed Bloods and Tribal Dissolution: Charles Curtis and the Quest for Indian Identity. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1989; Schlup, Leonard. “Charles Curtis: The Vice-President from Kansas.” Manuscripts 35 (Summer 1983): 183-201.

 Lee's great Great Grandmother Hulda Curtis Parke  who was a Grand Aunt  to the Vice President Charles Curtis .  
She was born in  1805 and died in 1887 in Idaho.    

Major General Jesse Lee Reno 1823-1862 ~ written by Lee R. Christensen

Photo courtesy of wikipedia

Federal (USA)

Major General

Jesse Lee Reno

(1823 - 1862)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Command Billet: Army Corps Commander 

Branch of Service: Infantry 

Unit: Ninth (IX) Army Corps

Kathy: Posting fine.  My mother was a Parke.  We trace that line back to NW New Jersey to Micajah Parke.  General Reno’s maternal grandmother was Achsah Parke Quinby.  Achsah was Micajah’s sister. Their father was Joseph Parke a tavern owner and farmer in what is now Asbury, Warren county,, New Jersey.  The General and I have Joseph Parke (abt 1730-1815) in common -  his great  grandfather and my 5^th great grandfather.  There is a great deal of info on the General on the  Net including photos  of him and monuments related to him.  I’ve visited South  Mountain where he died and his grave at Oak Hill Cemetery Washington D C.   My story on the General has been published by the Parke Society and now that you’ve prompted me to review his story I’ll post a reference to its publication to the General’s Wikipedia entry on the Net.  And I’ll try and write a paragraph or two on some other American history related to the General.   lee

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_L._Reno

 Major General Jesse Lee Reno
1823-1862
•••
Lee R. Christensen

“Up from the meadows rich with corn,

clear in the cool September morn,

The clustered spires of Frederick stand

Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.”

So begins Whittier’s Civil War poem, Barbara Frietchie. A Parke descendent, Major

General Jesse Lee Reno, IX Corp Commander, Army of the Potomac is intimately associated

with Barbara, her flag, and by extension, though not mentioned, the poem. The General’s

maternal grandmother was a Parke.

General Reno, on a September morn one week after the September morn of Whinier’s

poem, was in Frederick, Maryland. There, he met Barbara Frietchie.

After their meeting, perhaps after sipping tea or her homemade currant wine, he is reported

to have asked his brother, Colonel Benjamin Franklin Reno, “who does she put you

in mind of, Frank?” Frank replied, “Mother.” He might very well have said, “Grandmother

Achsah.”

Grandmother Achsah was Achsah Parke Quinby, native of Sussex (now Warren) County,

New Jersey. She was a Northwest New Jersey Parke.

The Parkes had been in New Jersey since 1682 when Roger Parke, a Quaker from Hexham,

Northumberland came to West Jersey to claim and settle on acreage he had purchased

while still in England. He is thought by most of us who descend from Northwest New

Jersey Parkes to be our immigrant ancestor. But the only line that has definitive documentation

of this relationship is John’s. Achsah is not known to be on John’s line.

Achsah’s father was Joseph Parke; her mother, Sarah. In all likelihood, Joseph’s father

was also a Joseph Parke; his mother, Margaret. The antecedents for Sarah and Margaret are

unknown. They are in fact so unknown that no one has ventured an educated guess.

Joseph Parke, Achsah’s father, was a tavern owner, blacksmith and farmer. His tavern

and smithy were a short walk up the hill from Musconetcong River. This section of Sussex

County had earlier been part of Hunterdon County, then Morris County and now Warren

County.

When Achsah was baptized on Christmas day 1768 with her two brothers, Micajah and

Charles and her sister Theodosia, the family was living in a very isolated and sparsely

settled section of New Jersey without a nearby church or village. The Reverend William

Frazer, Church of England, visited the area every third Sunday. On the Christmas Day he

baptized the four Parke children, he also baptized two other children from Mansfield Woodhouse

township. The Reverend found the area troublesome to serve; the Muskenetcunk (his

spelling) - after heavy rains-almost impassable. The residents “appear serious enough but

totally ignorant with regard to the prayers of the Church” he wrote. Services were held in

“barns and dwelling houses.” It is not recorded where the Parke children were baptized. I

would guess the icy Musconetcong.

Achsah married Samuel Quinby, a Revolutionary War veteran and a New Jersey native,

in 1784 or 1786. There is bureaucratic wrangling about the date in his pension file but

no primary evidence. Soon after the marriage, the couple moved to Washington County,

Pennsylvania where Samuel may have been living prior to their wedding. Living near them

in 1790 was her brother Micajah and his wife, the former Mary Beemer.

The Quinbys had twelve children, one of whom they named Rebecca, born in 1795,

Washington County. By 1810, the Quinbys were living in Mercer county, Pennsylvania,

Shenango Township. Living nearby was the Charles Reno family, whose oldest son, Lewis

Thomas Reno, would marry Rebecca Quinby.

Prior to 1820, Louis T. and Rebecca moved to what is now Wheeling, West Virginia,

where their third son, Jesse Lee Reno was born 20 June 1823. By 1840, the family was living

at French Creek Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania.

At age 18, still living in Venango County, Congressional district 25, Jesse Lee Reno, “a

youth of great promise,” was nominated by his congressman to be a “Cadet in the service

of the United States.” The Secretary of War notified Jesse Lee of his conditional appointment

in April. In June, he reported to West Point for his entrance examinations.

The Academy, then as now, had exacting standards for physical fitness and academic

preparation. As many as 122 conditional appointees may have reported June of 1842 for

their examinations. When the exams were over the class had 92 survivors. Four years later,

the class of 1846 graduated 59, including Jesse Lee Reno, Thomas Jackson, George Mc-

Clellan and George Picket, all of whom would be generals North or South in the Civil War.

Cadet Reno finished eighth in his class, six files behind George McClellan; nine files

ahead of Thomas Jackson. George Derby, who became a celebrated American humorist,

was seventh. Jesse Reno’s best subject was Mineralogy/Geology, where he finished sixth.

McClellan was first. Thomas Jackson’s best subject was Ethics.

In the Spring of ‘46, while the cadets were cramming for final exams, the United States

declared war on Mexico. On graduation the newly commissioned second lieutenants would

have an early opportunity to test their book learning on the battlefield. Reno was first assigned

as Assistant Ordnance officer to the Watervliet Arsenal, N.Y. By Fall of ‘46 he was

with General Winfield Scott’s forces headed for Mexico.

His war record is impressive. He earned five battle stars, was wounded once; breveted

twice, becoming) a BVT Captain, 13 September, 1847. At the battle of Chapultepec, both

he and Jackson were breveted for “Gallant and Meritorious” conduct. Both were artillery

officers.

In the peacetime years following the war with Mexico, Lt. Reno had artillery and ordnance

assignments commensurate with his high class ranking at graduation. Some were:

Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Military Academy; Secretary of the Board for preparing

a “System of Instruction for Heavy Artillery”; and Ass’t Ordnance Officer, Frankford

Arsenal, Pa.

Another assignment took him west to the Mexican war-won country as Chief of Ordnance

on the Albert Sidney Johnston led Utah Expedition, July 1857-June 1859. On this

visit to Utah Territory he might have met his mother’s cousin, Thomas Harris Parke, who

had come to Utah with the Mormons in 1849. Thomas Harris, however, had accepted

Brigham Young’s invitation to colonize Western Nevada and was ranching in Carson Valley,

just south of the Truckee river watering stop that would be named after Jesse Lee Reno

and grow to be the “Biggest Little City in the World.”

In the Fall of’59, Captain Reno was assigned to the Mt. Vernon Arsenal, near Mobile,

Alabama, as commanding officer. In normal times this would have been a plush post, but

times were not normal. After Lincoln was elected president and the cry of secession spread

across the South the State of Alabama felt justified in seizing the Mt. Vernon Arsenal. This

they did, attacking at dawn 4 Jan 1861 with four companies of militia. They overwhelmed

its garrison of 18 men and Captain Reno.

Without prejudice over the loss of Mt. Vernon, the Army assigned Reno to command the

Leavenworth Arsenal, Kansas. This assignment would be a short one. Our national crisis

was now in full flame and the Army was looking for command leadership. In November,

Reno was promoted to Brig-General Volunteers to command a Brigade in General Burnside’s

invasion of North Carolina. By April 1862 he was commanding a division. In July,

he was promoted to Major General commanding IX Corp, Army of the Potomac.

While Jesse Lee Reno was winning rapid promotion and earning recognition as a battlefield

commander the war was not going well for Union forces. His classmate General

McClellan’s Peninsula campaign to capture Richmond had failed. General Pope’s Army of

Virginia had been outmaneuvered and defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

On 4 September following up his summer successes Confederate General Robert E.

Lee invaded Maryland. He crossed the Potomac north of Washington enroute to Frederick,

Maryland and points beyond. By 6 September, his troops, including Thomas Jackson, now

called Stonewall, were in Frederick. The Barbara Frietchie legend was about to begin.

The Army of the Potomac, staying between Lee’s Army and Washington, began its

march against the Confederate forces 7 September with Reno’s 1x Corp leading. By 12

September they were in Frederick which the Confederates did not seriously defend. General

Reno and his staff spent the night there.

On the morning of the 13th while riding past Barbara Frietschies, General Reno was

drawn to a crowd in front of her house. He listened to the stories of her confrontation with

Confederate troops. He dismounted and at her invitation stepped inside while she served

him a glass of her homemade currant wine. On leaving he offered to buy one of her flags.

She declined but did give him her large bunting flag. With her flag in CoL B.F. Reno’s pistol

case he rode off to face Stonewall Jackson’s Corp at South Mountain.

By mid morning 14 September the forces of General’s Reno and Jackson were engaged

at South Mountain, Fox’s Gap. By mid afternoon Reno’s entire Corp had arrived on the

battleline.

He was at Fox’s Gap personally leading his command. In the early evening, he rode forward

to see what was delaying the right flank’s progress. While in front of his troops in an

exposed position he was hit by musket fife. He was carried off the mountain and died about

an hour later. Barbara Frietchie’s flag would cover General Reno’s casket at his funeral.

And just as Grandmother Achsah was part of Major General Jesse Lee Reno’s inheritance,

so is Barbara’s legend part of his legacy.

Notes, Comments and Major Sources
William F. McConnell’s Remember Reno, A Biography of Major General Jesse Lee
Reno, White Mane Publishing Co., Inc. 1996 has been used for both background and detail
without identifying specific citations.
Roger Reno, Rockford, Illinois, Reno Family Historian provided me with the family
sketches he has written on Charles Reno and Lewis Thomas Reno.
Rev. William Frazer’s Three Parishes-St. Thomas’s. St. Andrew’s and Musconetcong,
N.J.-1768-70 by Henry Race, as printed in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography, Vol XII, 1888, pages 212-233 has Achsah’s baptism as well as the Reverend’s
description of his parish problems.
Samuel Quinby’s Revolutionary War Pension file is on LDS film #0971992.
I have made full use of Census records following the moves of the Parkes, Quinbys and
Renos from Washington County, Pa 1790, to Nevada 1860 and back to Iowa 1870. The last
census Achsah appears on is Mercer County, Pa, 1850. She is living with her son Charles
Quinby and appears as “Acey” age 83, born New Jersey. The General’s last census is 1860,
Mobile, Alabama with his wife and two children.
Barbara Frietschie, the woman, the poem, the myth, the flag, is examined in two articles.
The first by Conrad Reno, the General’s son, written in 1900 and republished by Broadfoot
Publishing Company, 1993. My copy, sent to me by the Curator, Civil War Library, Philadelphia.
The second record, by Dorothy and William Quynn, published in the Maryland
Historical Magazine, September 1942. A copy was sent to me by The Historical Society of
Frederick County, Frederick, Maryland.
The life of West Point cadets in 1846 is described in John C. Waugh’s Class of 1846.
Warner Books, 1994. He also covers the entrance examination procedures of that year.
The Archives Curator, United States Military Academy furnished me with photocopies
of data relevant to General Reno from Official Register, Officers and Cadets, US Military
Academy, June 1846, and Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates, U.S. Military
Academy from 1802-1890.
The Quinbys and the Renos are a family historian’s delight. They make full use of family
names from generation to generation. Additionally, the Renos seem to have adopted the
use of two given names frequently reduced to initials very early.
.