♂Junia Curtis

Junia Curtis (about 1841 – 1912) was a farm laborer of Madison and Onondaga counties in New York State, a bachelor who kept a household for more than forty years; from 1865 to 1900 it held his widowed sister and her son. He was the great-grand-uncle of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), the brother of Thomas Day Curtis (1824–1896), Roger’s great-grandfather. He was the son of Waterman Curtis (1793–1859) and Thirza Day (born 1802).

Early life

Junia grew up on his father’s farm at Smyrna, in Chenango County. In 1855 he was fourteen, and the household held his parents, his sisters Almira and Maria, his brother Lauren and a nine-year-old nephew, Silas Harvey Chapman. His father was killed by a falling tree in December 1859, and by the summer of 1860 Junia, then nineteen, was working as a farm laborer in his widowed mother’s house, still with Lauren and young Silas. Lauren and Silas both enlisted in 1864; Silas died that November, and Lauren in December 1865.

Hamilton

By June 1865 Junia had moved to Hamilton, in Madison County, and at twenty-five headed his own household as a farmer. His mother, Thirza, then sixty-five and a widow, lived with him. His sister Maria Nash, also a widow, and her small son Lewis lived in the same dwelling as a second family. Thirza no longer appears in 1870, but the arrangement went on: that year Junia, a farm laborer with property of $400, was at Hamilton with Maria and Lewis. In 1880 the three were at Fabius, in Onondaga County, where the census enumerator wrote Maria down as his sister.

Pompey

By 1900 the household was at Pompey, in Onondaga County. Junia, single and a farm laborer, was its head; Maria, a widow of sixty-nine, and her son Lewis, thirty-seven and a farm laborer, lived with him. In 1910 Junia, then 69, was still head, still single, and owned his home. He had no occupation recorded in 1910, and Maria no longer appears in the house. Lewis Nash remained, a farm laborer of forty-seven.

The almshouse

On 12 December 1912 Junia was admitted to the Onondaga County Almshouse, entered as “June Curtis”, aged 72, single, a farmer of Pompey. The register describes his condition as poor, gives senility as the cause of his dependence and notes that he could not work. It also records that he had never been an inmate before and had never received public relief. Under relatives or friends he gave his nephew, Lewis W. Nash of Pompey Hill. A state death index gives his death as 29 December 1912, seventeen days after he was admitted, again under the name June Curtis.

Notes

Name and namesakes

The two clerks of 1912 wrote “June”, and the 1850 census, which has the boy at eight in his parents’ house, wrote “James”; the censuses between them mostly give Junia. If Waterman was a son of Jeremiah and Mary Morton, as family records give, his uncle was Junia Curtis (1795–1809), who died at fourteen and lies at Earlville. That Junia is a different person.

Birth and occupation

The 1900 census gives his birth as November 1840; the 1910 census age of 69 and the almshouse age of 72 do not agree with each other or with the birth year of about 1841 given in the opening paragraph. The almshouse register calls him a farmer, where the 1865 census says farmer, and the 1870, 1880 and 1900 returns say farm laborer or laborer. Two transcriptions of the 1870 Hamilton entry differ: one gives farm laborer and $400 of real estate, the other farmer and $400 of personal estate.

Death

The death index gives only the day, the county and a certificate number, 57220. It records no cause, informant or burial.