My Genealogy Hound

J. P. Curtis belongs to the firm of Hughes & Curtis, of Haynes, Ark., general merchants, the former being also engaged in farming. He was the fifth of eight children born to William and Mary (Porchman) Curtis, natives of North Carolina and Tennessee, respectively, the former of whom came to Arkansas in 1856, and settled in what was then St. Francis County, but is now Lee, where he improved an excellent farm, on which he died in 1878. Of his eight children only two are living: Elisabeth (Mrs. Bullard of Lee County) and J. P. Curtis. Two children died in infancy, and three died between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one. A sister, Mary, was the wife of Buck Dawson at the time of her death. The mother of these children died in 1875, she and her husband having been earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at the time of their death. J. P. Curtis was sixteen years of age upon his removal to this State, but the most of his education was received in Lee County. He was in his twenty-first year at the breaking out of the late war, and he immediately donned a suit of gray clothes, and became a member of Company D, Fortieth Tennessee, and was on active duty with the Army of Tennessee, until 1862, when he was transferred to the Fifteenth Arkansas Infantry, and served on the east side of the Mississippi River, until the fall of Port Hudson. He was captured at Island No. 10, and was sent to Camp Butler, Ill., but at the end of six months was exchanged at Vicksburg, and rejoined his command near that place. He surrendered, and was paroled at Port Hudson, July 8, 1863, and reached home on the 23d day of the same month. After remaining at home for eight months, he, in 1864, joined Col. Dobbins’ command, and was with Gen. Price on his raid through Missouri, participating in a number of engagements in that State. He surrendered at Wittsburg, in January, 1865, and returned to his home, where he commenced to cultivate his father’s farm, and continued so to do until the latter’s death. In February, 1889, he became a member of the above named firm, doing an annual business of about $35,000, and in addition to this they also deal in cotton, and in the year 1888 ginned 1,300 bales, but only ginned about 800 bales last year, on account of poor crops. Mr. Curtis was married in 1867, to Miss M. C. Castell, of St. Francis County, a daughter of Calloway and Isabel (Simpson) Castell, who were among the early settlers of the county, and by her has reared a family of five children, three dying when small. Those living are: Mary (wife of Charles Higginbotham, of this county), Walter B. (who is attending school in Madisonville, Ky.), William, A. E. and B. E. Mr. Curtis belongs to Bethel Lodge No. 2168, of the K. of H.