William Willis Curtis Papers, 1826-1968, n.d.
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Administrative/Biographical History
W.W. Curtis, an ordained minister who devoted his professional life to foreign and domestic missionary work, was born in Waukesha, WI (29 June 1845) of Vermont parentage. In 1864-65 he enrolled in Beloit College as a preparatory student, during which time he served 100 days as a part of the 40th Wisconsin Infantry Unit to fulfill quota commitments for the Civil War. Following family tradition he entered Beloit (uncles, brother, grandfather) graduating with an AB degree in 1870 -having served both at the Junior and Senior Class President and participated in choral and debate groups on campus. Study at the Chicago Theological Seminary resulted in a B-Div. degree (1870-73) and in an additional year at Beloit he earned a MA (1874). He then began his pastoral work in churches at Calumet, MI (1873-76) and Hancock, MI (1976-77), again following family tradition.
In 1877 he married Delia Eliza Harris of Evansville, WI (O.C. conservatory, 1875-77), director of the choir at his church in Calumet, Michigan. Drawn by a strong drive to become missionaries, the couple left for Japan soon after their wedding to begin their missionary career under the auspices of the American Board and Foreign Missions, teaching in Osaka and Sendai (1877-83). In addition to teaching, they compiled Praise Songs With Music, published in 1882, the first tune book used by Japanese Christians. Delia died suddenly (13 October 1880) and on 25 February 1885 he married Lydia Virginia Cone (O.C., AB 1880) of Madison, OR This pair continued to work in Japan before Lydia's deteriorating health forced them to return to the United States. They and their four children (Edith, b. 1883, Otis, b. 1885, Howard C., Ralph W.) moved to Oberlin, OH in 1900, making their home on Woodland Street, although Lydia was in and out of sanitaria or the rest of her life.
Using Oberlin as his base, Mr. Curtis spent the next eight years (1905-13) as a field agent for his brother's group, Industrial Mission in Alabama, an organization dedicated to helping blacks in Alabama by renting and selling farms to them (giving them a chance for business success), and maintaining schools. He died suddenly on 11 April 1913 at a railroad station in Ashtabula, OH while en route to N. Girard, OH as part of an extended trip proselytizing for this group. Burial was in Oberlin.
Author: Roland M. Baumann Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
The papers of William Willis Curtis consist mainly of diaries, notebooks, and correspondence. The diaries and notebooks contain a broken record of events, accounts, and miscellany of which most was kept during the period in Japan, mainly Osaka, Sendai, and Sapporo. Series VII and Series XI contain records related to missionary work in Japan. Curtis was involved in operating boys’ schools and, in the 1890s, he worked in prisons. After 1900, the family letters in Series V. Letters and Miscellany are primarily letters written by Curtis to his family and relatives while he was traveling for the Industrial Mission of Alabama (IMA). The correspondence, which includes letters written by Mrs. Curtis and the Curtis children, concern family history and relatives, Oberlin, and the work of William Curtis. Series VIII contains accounts written by Curtis while working for the IMA (1905-07, 1912).
Note: Entry taken from William E. Bigglestone’s unpublished “[preliminary] Guide to the Oberlin College Archives,” which was prepared as individual entry sheets in a three-ring binder during the early 1980s.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series I. Biographical Files and Genealogical Records, 1913, 1968, n.d. (5 folders, 0.40 l.f.)
Contains an obituary and life sketch of Curtis in the publication The Plantation Missionary (Beliot, Alabama: Industrial Missionary Association, Vol. XXIV, No. 3, May and June 1913). Also included are four folders related to the Curtis Family Genealogy (n.d.).
Series II. Education Files, 1870-73 (3 volumes, 0.20 l.f.)
Notes for lectures while Curtis was a student at the Chicago Theological Seminary, 1870-73.
Series III. Diaries of W.W. Curtis and L.V. Curtis, 1865-68, 1871, 1880-81, 1884, 1892-1911, 1913, n.d. (30 volumes, 0.40 l.f.)
Consists of diaries of William Curtis (29 volumes) and one diary of his second wife, Lydia Virginia Cone Curtis, documenting missionary work in Japan from 1865-1913.
Series IV. Miscellaneous Financial Records
Dates: 1863-64, 1874, 1886, 1894, 1898, 1906-07
Folders: 6 volumes
Series V. Letters and Miscellany
Dates: 1879, n.d.
Folders: 2 folders and 5 volumes
Series VI. Miscellaneous Notebooks
Dates: 1873-74, 1883, 1884-86, 1888-97, 1900-01, 1905, 1907, 1910-13, n.d.
Folders: 22 volumes
Series VII. Files Relating to the Missionary Experience in Japan
Dates: 1912, n.d.
Folders: 5 volumes
Series VIII. Files Relating to the Industrial Mission in Alabama
Dates: 1905-07, 1912
Folders: 2 volumes
Series IX. Miscellaneous Notebooks on Books and Reading
Dates: 1866, 1875-76, 1899-1901, n.d.
Folders: 7 volumes
Series X. Miscellaneous Books (various)
Dates: 1867, 1875-77, 1892, 1899
Folders: 4 volumes
Series XI. "Notes on W.W. Curtis in Japan, 1877-96," typescript (includes other related material), rec'd in 5 July 1973
Dates: n.d.
Folders: 1
Series XII. Photographs
Dates: 1881, 1885, 1891-92, 1894-95, 1897-1901, 1913, 1921, 1925-26, 1929-32, 1934, 1936-37, 1940-41, 1950, n.d.
Folders: 6