Biography of Frank H. Curtis

Frank H. Curtis is a school man, superintendent of the city schools of Bern in Nemaha County and had been a factor in Kansas educational affairs for a number of years.

He was born in Massac County, Illinois, July 28, 1874, but when five years of age went with his parents to Western Kansas and grew up in Trego County when that was a frontier section. Mr. Curtis is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and members of the family were pioneers in Kentucky. His father, Dr. D. B. Curtis, was born in Kentucky in 1815. He graduated from the Louisville Medical College at Louisville, Kentucky, practiced for a number of years in Massac County, Illinois, and in 1879 removed to Trego County, where he was one of the early practitioners of medicine. He lived there and followed his profession until his death in 1894. Doctor Cartis was a republican. During the Civil war he served with the Union army as a surgeon. His first wife was Miss Reardon, and the only child of that union is Emma, wife of George Ufford, a merchant at Wakeemey, Kansas. For his second wife Doctor Curtis married Miss Bettie Priestley, who was born in Illinois and died in Trego County, Kansas. They had a large family of children, ten in number. D. W. Curtis, a farmer at Miami, Florida; Anna, who died at Kanopolis, Kansas, the wife of Rev. F. C. Griffith, formerly a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and now editor of a paper at Kanopolis; Jennie, twin sister of Anna, wife of A. E. Ressicott, a cattleman and liveryman living at Ransom, Kansas; Frank Henry, who was the fourth in order of birth; John, who died when twenty years of age; Mollie, twin sister of John, wife of Burdette Dubbs, a farmer and connected with a mercantile concern at Ransom, Kansas; Louise, wife of Rev. Howard Thomison, a Methodist Episcopal minister living in Oklahoma; E. P., who is a student in Columbia University in New York City and is at this writing enrolled in the Ambulance Corps ready for call to active service in Europe; Helen, wife of Lee Miller, a farmer at Ransom, Kansas; and J. S., also a farmer at Ransom.

Frank Henry Curtis was educated in the rural schools of Trego County. Besides the common schools he attended the Kansas Wesleyan University at Salina and was graduated from the Normal department in 1912 with the degree Bachelor of Pedagogy. In 1905 he had taken up active work as a teacher in Trego County and was in the rural schools three years and then filled out the unexpired term of one year as county superintendent of schools as successor of Mrs. Clara Smith. After this he resomed his studies, and in 1913 became superintendent of schools at Brownell, Kansas, remaining two years. He then entered the State Normal School at Emporia, from which he received his life teacher’s certificate in 1916. Mr. Curtis took his present position as superintendent of schools at Bern in the fall of 1916.

He is also a farmer by ownership, and had a quarter section of good land in Trego County. Mr. Curtis is unmarried. Politically he is a prohibitionist, and is licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

R. P. Morrison.One of the most important local industries at Glaseo in Cloud County is the Morrison Grain Company, of which Mr. R. P. Morrison had been the competent and efficient manager since 1914.

The business at Glasco is a branch of the larger organization whose headquarters are in Kansas City. The elevator at Glasco was established in 1903. It had a capacity of 30,000 bushels, and there is also machinery for the grinding of common feed. On March 26, 1917, the elevator burned, but the company erected a new one, capitalized at $37,500, and they also enlarged their office. The elevator and mill represent an important service to the farmers and grain producers of this section, and the trade had been rapidly built up and kept loyal to the company since Mr. Morrison took charge.

R. P. Morrison was born in Solomon, Kansas, in 1884, a son of R. T. and Laura Morrison. His early education was received in Kansas City, where his father was an old time grain merchant. He graduated from the Kansas City High School, from the Kansas City Business College, and with that ample preparation entered the general selling business and grain trade. His familiarity with the grain business extends to every detall and department. He had spent a number of years in the sonstruction of mills and elevators, chiefly in the states of Utah and Idaho. Besides his local interests at Glasco he owned a fine ranch of 1,420 acres in the State of Idaho.

Mr. Morrison was married in 1905 to Miss Dora Hulet. They have one young daughter, Dora L. In fraternal matters Mr. Morrison is a Knight Templar, a Thirty-second Degree and a Shriner Mason, also a member of the Knights of Pythias. He is one of the three life members of the Red Cross at Glaseo.


Surnames:
Curtis,

Topics:
Biography,

Collection:
Connelley, William E. A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Chicago : Lewis, 1918. 5v. Biographies can be accessed from this page: Kansas and Kansans Biographies.

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