The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-11-21

From the time he left the army at
the close of the civil war Captain Cur
tbs spent almost his whole life in en-
ployment as an officer of the law in
some capacity. In 1868 he was appoint
ed guard in the Indiana state peniten-
tiary and served for two years at Mich
igan City. The following two years he
was a guard at Fort Madison prison
and during the two. years succeeding
that he was a guard at Jeffersonville,
Indiana. His next service was for a
year in the Nebraska state peniten-
tiary at Lincoln and from there he
came to Kansas prison at Lansing,
Early in the eighties he came to To-
peka and spent a year as plain
clothes officer on the police force. After
that he became a jailer under Sheriff
Bush. He served ten years as turnkey
of the Shawnee county Jail and never
allowed a prisoner to escape. He served
under Chester Thomas and Andrew
Fuller After his continued service as
a prison guard Captain Curtis went in
to the less risky business of manufac-
turing cigars. For a number of years
he kept a cigar factory at the corner
of Fifth and Kansas avenue and it was
while there that he gained his deepest
measure of fame.
That was in the early nineties' when
political alliances in Kansas were being
shaken right and left by the organiza
ton of the Peoples party. Captain Cur
| it's cigar shop was local political
hang OUT where the political uphea-
val was freely and diurnally discussed.
No one watched it with deeper interest
or more amusement than did Curtis
himself. One day he conceived the idea
of a political clearing house, a flop
pers' clearing house" he called it, and
there appeared on the front of his es-
Enlistment a bulletin quoting for the
day the market standing of various of
the better known politicians whose po-
litical allegiance was in doubt or had
been changed The fun created by Cap
tain Curtis novel idea spread far and
wide. Newspapers across the country
printed stories about it as they did also
about Captain Curtis kicking machine,
which he claimed to have in operation
in his store. The kicking machine was
for rent to politicians who had traded
their party and were dissatisfied with
the exchange. Its services could be had
for a small consideration and it was
guaranteed to give satisfaction.
The war record made by Captain Cur
tbs was fair one. His period of the ser
vice extended from beginning to end of
the rebellion and he carried to his
grave the marks where three bullets
pierced him during one days engage
ment. He received all the wounds with
in Is minutes. Curtis was born in Dan
Vile, Indiana, on February "a, 1S41
Danville was a village four miles from
the railroad. 1t communicated with out
| side civilization by means of an old time
! stage which drove GOWN ana returned
from Gainesville every morning. Judge
George A Huron lived in DanTille at
that ting and knew Curtis. The story
of the enlistment of the first company
of volunteers sent by Indiana to the
civil war was told by Judge Huron this
morning. He said:
Il can remember the day that we re-
ceived the news of the storming of
| Fort Sumter, for that was the day that
our volunteer company was enlisted. I
was in school at Danville. The coach
had driven to Gainesville and was re-
turning about IL o'clock, as was the
| custom. The driver was the man to
bring the first news of the firing on
! Sumter, and I can remember how he
| let the horses stand united by the post
office while he told the news and the
people crowded around him. Sumter
had been fired upon during the previ-
Gus day. but it was news for us.
while the stage driver was finish
ing his story I remember how Joseph
Miller, a we'll known man there went
into his law Office and wrote on a
sheet of foolscap something like these
words: We, the undersigned, hereby
volunteer our services to the govern
ment of the United States in this
emergency Then he stepped out, an6
beside him were James Iandon a fifer
and boy with a snare drum. And he
led the way around the court house
square, calling to everybody wht
fall in. BY the time he had made hi.
way around the square I suppose Their,
Awere $50 men behind him. Miller tele-