Mr. Curtiss was born in New York in 1831. He came to Waterloo in 1856. He was an attorney and was elected to the legislature from this county as a member of the House of the 9th General Assembly, which met in 1862. Being an intense and radical Union man, he did not hesitate to express himself as such at all times and in all places. At the close of his term in the legislature he was appointed provost marshal for the sixth enrollment district of Iowa, which comprised the territory north and west of and including Story County, with Black Hawk County as a sort of panhandle. The duties of the provost marshal were to have charge of the enrollment of the militia, the conduct of the draft, the arrest of deserters, and the enlistment of recruits. He was in every way a very efficient officer. After the close of the war he went into the insurance business for the Aetna Insurance Company. He was a prominent temperance man and at times delivered temperance lectures. In 1880 he went to Dakota and has since resided on a farm, having an office in town for the practice of law. He was the originator of the artesian well system of South Dakota and has been a prominent figure in the development of that state. Mr. Curtiss married Mary J. Field in 1836 in New York.