THE REV. WALTER E. CURTIS

Was born near Hamilton, Ohio, Jane 7, 1831, and died in Fountain City, Ind., January 2, 1905 He was the oldest of six children of William and Narcissa Curtis. About the year 1839 the family moved into Preble county, Ohio, seven miles from Richmond, Ind., where our brother grew to manhood. The parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the pastoral charge, for many years called the Eaton Circuit, and theirs was a welcome and pleasant home for very many of God's noble ministers, such as William H. Raper, George W. Walker, William Herr, Michael Marlay, Werter R. Davis, W. L Hypes, Levi White, and Geo. W. Kelley, who married the third daughter.

Bro. Curtis united with the Church of his parents when he was comparatively young, and near the same time had serious convictions that he was called of God to the gospel ministry. Over the matter he had a great struggle, thinking at first that he might meet the Lord's claims by serving in the capacity of a local preacher.

That did not, however, satisfy his conscience, and after his family was visited with a fearfully heartrending affliction, which he thought sometimes might not have come to them if he had yielded more promptly, he was received on trial in the North Indiana Conference, where, for seventeen years, he held the relation of pastor in ten different charges. He was far from being a strong man, physically, while to some he might appear otherwise. Hence, in the spring of 1887, he asked for a supernumerary relation in the Conference that he held for two years, and from that time to the end his relation was that of a superannuate.

He had also been supernumerary from 1879 to 1883. The writer having grown up with that family of children in delightful and harmonious companionship, bears confident and cheerful testimony to the fact that during early life Brother Curtis was a worthy example in all his relationships. He was an obedient and dutiful son, a kind and affectionate brother, a safe and wholesome example among his playmates and school friends, and it is eminently safe to suggest that his parents never, likely, spent one sleepless night or hoar on account of any improper conduct on his part, which is saying a great thing.

It is, therefore, a great privilege to be permitted to bear testimony to the helpfulness of his discreet and virtuous young life. Fifty-two years ago last autumn he was married to Miss Ellen McWhinney, of Richmond, Ind., who is now the bereaved widow. Brother William Curtis, of Whitewater, and Sister Lida Williams, of Fountain City, both of Indiana, are the only ones left to comfort the good mother from a family of four daughters and two sons.

During his young manhood Brother Curtis evinced, in debating clubs with his young associates, more than ordinary talent as a public speaker, and yet his unusual modesty kept him from making a just estimate of his own ability, and perhaps in some measure hindered a larger development of the talent which was so marked in the Rev. Arthur W. Elliott, of the Cincinnati Conference, and United States Senator Daniel W. Voorhees, who were his relatives. Nevertheless, he was considered an excellent preacher by those who were accustomed to hear him.

The Rev. M. R. Peirce, his last pastor, feels that he has himself sustained a great loss in the death of Brother Curtis, who often visited the parsonage home, bnt was never burdensome, and while he seldom tried to preach, yet faithfully attended the prayer meetings and served often as class leader and steward, and had to the last a large class of adults in the Sabbath school How helpful many of our retired ministers and widows of deceased ministers are to the pastor and Church, and on the other hand, how sad to find one now and then who hinders rather than otherwise!

He was not confined to his bed very long during his last sickness, and was greatly comforted in the coming of Fletcher, his only brother, from Arcola, Ill., who had not visited him for many years, but chanced to come at that time, and remained with and nursed him until the Lord called him home. He greatly desired again to see their daughter Lida, who had gone to Florida because of ill health, bnt she only arrived in time to meet the procession at the beautiful Earlham Cemetery, near Richmond, and " there take the last look " just before the casket was gently lowered.

It was regarded as a great favor and blessing to the family present with him that the husband, father and grandfather could at the last give to them affectionate and tender words of comfort and counsel, and especially to hear him say, as one of his last utterances, "All is bright." Following the example of his Lord and Master, he called to his bedside their son William, and with words of thoughtfuluess and love, commended to His affectionate and faithful watchcare the dear mother, his beloved wife, who had for more than half a century been all to him that her marriage vows had ever pledged.

At his special request the writer, an intimate friend from their early years, officiated on the funeral occasion, and was assisted by the pastor and Brothers I. R. Godwin, O. S. Harrison and W. H. Peirce. The text used was 2 Sam. 1, 26: "I am distressed for thee, my brother; . . . very pleasant hast thou been to me: thy love to me was wonderful." The abovenamed brother of Illinois and three sisters—Mrs. A. J. Coffmari, Mrs. D. W.O. McWhinney, and Mrs. George W. Kelley, all of the city of Richmond— still remain of that Cincinnati Conference Methodist family, although Sister McWhinney has seemed for months to have been brushing the "dews on Jordan's banks," and she, with all of us, thought that for her " the crossing must be near."

However, she seems now to have climbed where Moses stood, and "views the landscape o'er," and with Moses and Gilbert Haven, will doubtless soon find that "there is no river" for her to cross.

E. F. Hasty

Source: Source: the Sixty-first Session of the North Indiana Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church Held at Muncie, Indiana from April 6 to 11, 1904; Published by the Secretary, by Order of Conference, as the Official Journal; Nicholson Printing & Mfg. Co. Richmond, Ind.

***