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In August 1880, Curtis returned to the Chicago office of ''Inter-Ocean'' to become the managing editor.<ref name=McLaird_Turchen_1974/>
In August 1880, Curtis returned to the Chicago office of ''Inter-Ocean'' to become the managing editor.<ref name=McLaird_Turchen_1974/>
In 1883, Curtis observed pioneering [[anthropologist]] [[Frank Hamilton Cushing]]'s life among the [[Zuni people]] of [[New Mexico]].<ref name="zun">{{cite journal |last1=Pandey |first1=Triloki Nath |title=Anthropologists at Zuni |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |date=15 August 1972 |volume=116 |issue=4 |pages=321-337 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/985902 |access-date=20 May 2022}}</ref> When [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] Captain [[Henry Ware Lawton]] and Major [[Mary Logan Tucker|William F. Tucker]] claimed 800 acres overlapping a traditional Zuni farming village - omitted from the 1877 reservation borders - for [[cattle ranching]], Cushing urged Curtis and ''[[Boston Herald]]'' reporter [[Sylvester Baxter]] to begin a press campaign on behalf of the Zuni land claim. This publicity culminated in a May 1883 [[executive order]] which expanded the reservation to include the contested village.<ref name="zun"></ref>
In 1883, Curtis observed pioneering [[anthropologist]] [[Frank Hamilton Cushing]]'s life among the [[Zuni people]] of [[New Mexico]].<ref name="zun">{{cite journal |last1=Pandey |first1=Triloki Nath |title=Anthropologists at Zuni |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |date=15 August 1972 |volume=116 |issue=4 |pages=321-337 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/985902 |access-date=20 May 2022}}</ref> When [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] Captain [[Henry Ware Lawton]] and Major [[Mary Logan Tucker|William F. Tucker]] claimed 800 acres overlapping a traditional Zuni farming village – omitted from the 1877 reservation borders – for [[cattle ranching]], Cushing urged Curtis and ''[[Boston Herald]]'' reporter [[Sylvester Baxter]] to begin a press campaign on behalf of the Zuni land claim. This publicity culminated in a May 1883 [[executive order]] which expanded the reservation to include the contested village.<ref name="zun"></ref>


He stayed with the newspaper until 1886,<ref name=SNAC/> becoming editor-in-chief in due course.<ref name=Johnson_Brown_1904/>
He stayed with the newspaper until 1886,<ref name=SNAC/> becoming editor-in-chief in due course.<ref name=Johnson_Brown_1904/>

Revision as of 02:39, 10 May 2023

William Eleroy Curtis
Born(1850-11-05)November 5, 1850
Akron, Ohio
DiedOctober 5, 1911(1911-10-05) (aged 60)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Burial placeRock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
EducationWestern Reserve College (BA, MA, Litt.D)[1]
SpouseCora Belle Kepler
Children3
Signature

William Eleroy Curtis (November 5, 1850 – October 5, 1911) was an American journalist and a prolific writer. He was a proponent of Pan-Americanism.[2]

Biography

Curtis was born on November 5, 1850, in Akron, Ohio, the second son of Eleroy Curtis, a Presbyterian minister, and Harriet Eliza Coe.[3][4][5][6] (Harriot was the daughter of Reverend Harvey Coe, the first elected trustee of Western Reserve College.)[3][7] After graduating from high school in Clinton, New York, Curtis matriculated to the Western Reserve University. While a freshman, he applied for the job of a typesetter at The Cleveland Leader, and soon became a reporter at the newspaper, working during the summer months.[8] Curtis graduated with an A. B. in 1871.[5]

Chicago Inter-Ocean

He went to work for the Erie Dispatch in 1871, then the Toledo Commercial in 1872.[8] In 1873, he joined the staff of the Chicago Inter-Ocean newspaper.[9] The following year, as a journalist he accompanied George Armstrong Custer's expedition to explore the Black Hills region of South Dakota, and was present for the discovery of gold. The day after his return, Curtis was dispatched to report on the aftermath of the Coushatta massacre in Louisiana. What followed was a travelling report on the Ku Klux Klan regions of the American south and members of the White League.[10] As a consequence, the Klan placed a $5,000 bounty on his head (equivalent to $135,000 in 2023),[11] and he had to escape several assassination attempts. He then wrote about the Brooks–Baxter War from Arkansas.[12]

In 1874,[11] Curtis was taken prisoner by the James and Younger brothers, a prominent gang of highwaymen. While being held hostage, he was able to obtain their story, which was published in the Inter-Ocean.[10][4] During the winter of 1874, he was summoned before a congressional committee to testify as a witness.[12] In the spring of 1875, he was named head of the Inter-Ocean bureau in Washington, D. C., and would remain at that post until August 1880.[12] His first book, a novel titled Tibbalses Folks, was published in 1875.[5]

In August 1880, Curtis returned to the Chicago office of Inter-Ocean to become the managing editor.[12]

In 1883, Curtis observed pioneering anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing's life among the Zuni people of New Mexico.[13] When U.S. Army Captain Henry Ware Lawton and Major William F. Tucker claimed 800 acres overlapping a traditional Zuni farming village – omitted from the 1877 reservation borders – for cattle ranching, Cushing urged Curtis and Boston Herald reporter Sylvester Baxter to begin a press campaign on behalf of the Zuni land claim. This publicity culminated in a May 1883 executive order which expanded the reservation to include the contested village.[13]

He stayed with the newspaper until 1886,[4] becoming editor-in-chief in due course.[10]

Chicago Record

In 1887, Curtis joined the Chicago Record,[4] becoming manager at the Washington D. C. bureau.[10] He served as a reporter-at-large and wrote a daily column. In 1888, the Chicago Record sent Curtis to cover the Russian nihilist movement.[10] He was a special envoy to the Queen Regent of Spain and Pope Leo XIII during 1892.[4]

1893 replicas of the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María

During the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, Curtis served as chief of the Latin American Department[4][14] with a budget of $100,000 (equivalent to $3,400,000 in 2023).[11] His proposal for the Columbus-themed exposition was to display replicas of the three ships commanded by Christopher Columbus in 1492. He also formulated a full-scale replica of La Rábida Friary, where Columbus had stayed prior to his voyage.[15]

Upon the close of the Exposition, Curtis resumed his newspaper work at Washington D. C.[10]

Political involvement

Curtis and the Inter Ocean publicly supported the renomination of President Arthur at the 1884 Republican National Convention. Although Arthur's campaign was unsuccessful and never in serious contention,[16] the lame duck President rewarded Curtis' partisanship with his first diplomatic appointment as Secretary of the Latin American Trade Commission.[11] The nomination encountered opposition from Illinois Senator John A. Logan, the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1884 election, who blamed the pro-Arthur effort for needlessly fracturing the party.[17] Logan also resented Curtis' reporting on his son-in-law William Tucker's land speculation at the Zuni Indian Reservation[13] and accused Curtis of making "damaging disclosures... to the Democratic National Committee"; Curtis denied this, threatening to mobilize his press resources against Logan's 1885 re-election if the Senator did not relent.[18] Nonetheless, Curtis was confirmed and Logan was victorious.[19][20]

Some of Curtis' contemporaries publicly criticized his political machinations, such as when The Nation asserted in October 1889 that it was "a well known fact that his pen has long been for hire.[11] In 1896, Curtis was employed as a "special agent" by the Subcommittee on Reciprocity and Commercial Treaties of the United States House Committee on Ways and Means.[21]

Correspondence indicates that Curtis was an informal advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt. In January 1902, Curtis wrote to the President to compare the American occupation of the Philippines to instability in the Bosnia Vilayet prior to the 1878 Austro-Hungarian invasion. He suggested that then-Governor William Howard Taft visit the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina to observe how this situation was purportedly resolved.[22] In January 1903, he recommended that Roosevelt remove Victor E. Nelson, the US consul at Bergen, Norway, who had become unpopular due to allegations of corruption.[23] Nelson resigned by March 2, 1903.[24] In February 1905, Curtis gave Roosevelt advance notice of a month-long tour of five Southern states, offering to interview any person or cover any topic that the President desired.[25] Curtis also counseled US Secretary of State Elihu Root on how to improve press relations.[26]

Pan-Americanism

Curtis ardently supported regular and friendly relations, as well as eventual economic and political integration, between all countries of The Americas, earning the nickname "The Patagonian".[27] From late 1884 until the he returned in the fall of 1885, Curtis held the title "envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the republics of Central and South America" in his capacity on the Latin American Trade Commission.[4] The group visited various capital cities throughout the region, laying the groundwork for hemispheric multilateralism, researching local economies, and advancing the interests of US exports.[2] However, officials in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil - all under robust British influence at the time - were offended by the Americans' behavior.[28]

Curtis seized on this travels to publish The Capitals of Latin America in 1888. Domestically, the book raised his profile as an expert on Latin American affairs. However, The Capitals of Latin America was regarded as superficial and inaccurate in Latin America itself.[29] Curtis' political commentaries and cultural perceptions were largely considered chauvinistic.[11]

In 1889, Secretary of State James G. Blaine named Curtis as the State Department's executive agent in charge of planning the First International Conference of American States.[27] Before the summit began on January 20, 1890, Curtis led ninety-eight people - including thirty-six Latin American delegates - on a six-week train tour of the United States, intended to instill camaraderie and showcase American industrial capacity.[11]

In 1890, Curtis was made Director of the Commercial Bureau of American Republics. Curtis, rather than the government, paid the $3,000 annual rent for the Bureau's offices near Lafayette Square.[30] He served until 1893, when he was asked to resign by President Grover Cleveland.[10] Curtis' lobbying secured the "reciprocity provision" within the 1890 McKinley Tariff, enabling the president to place duties on certain food and animal products only if other countries raised taxes on American goods first.[11]

In 1908, he was appointed as a member of the executive committee for the Pan-American Committee of the United States.[4]

Personal life and death

Curtis married Cora Kepler on December 23, 1874.[9] The couple would have three children: George Kepler,[8] Eleroy, and Elsie Evans Curtis.[6][3] In 1901, Curtis was awarded a Doctor of Letters by his alma mater, Western Reserve University.[31] Curtis was the commencement speaker for Western Reserve University in 1903.[5] He received the same degree from Amherst College in 1907.[31] In June 1911, Curtis was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Illinois.[32] His son, Eleroy Curtis, attended Princeton University and worked with his father at the Chicago Herald (formerly the Chicago Record-Herald).[3]

On October 5, 1911, Curtis died suddenly of "apoplexy" at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.[31] He was 60 years old. Condolence messages were sent or published from public figures whom Curtis had known and advised, including President Taft, Vice President James S. Sherman, former Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, future Vice President Charles G. Dawes, architect Daniel Burnham and former Associated Press President Victor Lawson.[33] Longtime Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, naturalist and surgeon H.C. Yarrow, newspaper publisher H. H. Kohlsaat, U.S. Army Colonel Alexander Rodgers, and farm equipment manufacturer Charles M. Russell II were among the pallbearers at Curtis' funeral.[34]

Bibliography

During his career, Curtis wrote over thirty books:[4][35][5]

  • Tibbalses Folks (1875)
  • Life of Zachariah Chandler (1879)
  • Summer Scamper (1881)
  • Children of the Sun (1882)
  • The capitals of Spanish America (1886)
  • The Land of the Nihilist: Russia: Its People, Its Palaces, Its Politics. A Narrative of Travel, in the Czar's Dominions (1887)
  • Trade and transportation between the United States and Spanish America (1889)
  • Handbook to the American republics (1890)
  • Guatemala (1891)
  • Costa Rica (1891)
  • Ecuador (1891)
  • Venezuela, a land where it is always summer (1891)
  • The United States and foreign powers (1892–1899)
  • Existing autographs of Columbus (1893)
  • The relics of Columbus: An illustrated description of the historical collection in the monastery of La Rábida (1893)
  • Recent Discoveries Concerning the Early Settlement of America in the Archives of the Vatican (1894)
  • The Yankees of the East: Sketches of Modern Japan (1894)
  • The authentic letters of Columbus (1895)
  • Today in France and Germany (1897)
  • Between the Andes and the ocean (1900)
  • The True Thomas Jefferson (1901)
  • The Turk and His Lost Provinces (1902)
  • Denmark, Norway and Sweden (1903)
  • The True Abraham Lincoln (1903)
  • Today in Syria and Palestine (1904)
  • Modern India (1905)
  • Eygpt, Burma, and the British Malasia (1905)
  • Letters on Canada (1911)
  • Turkestan: the Heart of Asia (1911)

References

  1. ^ Gates, Merrill Edward, ed. (1905). Men of Mark in America Ideals of American Life Told in Biographies of Eminent Living Americans · Volume 1. New York Public Library: Men of Mark Publishing Company. pp. 259–263.
  2. ^ a b Peterson, Harold F. (1977), Diplomat of the Americas: A Biography of William I. Buchanan (1852-1909), State University of New York Press, p. 62, ISBN 9780873953467.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Curtis, William Eleroy, 1850-1911", Social Networks and Archival Context, retrieved 2023-04-15.
  4. ^ a b c d e "University Notes", Western Reserve University Bulletin, Western Reserve University, pp. 150–153, 1910.
  5. ^ a b Burke, Arthur Meredyth (1908), The Prominent Families of the United States of America, vol. 1, Sackville Press, Limited.
  6. ^ Harvey Coe House, Hudson Heritage Association, retrieved 2023-04-16.
  7. ^ a b c Leonard, John William (1907), "Curtis, William Eleroy", Men of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries, vol. 1, L. R. Hamersly, pp. 580–581.
  8. ^ a b Motter, H. L., ed. (1911), "Curtis, William Eleroy", Who's Who in the World, 1912, International Who's Who Publishing Company, retrieved 2023-04-15.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard, eds. (1904), "William Eleroy Curtis", The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, vol. 3, Boston: The Biographical Society.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Coates, Benjamin A. (January 2014), "The Pan-American Lobbyist", Diplomatic History, 38 (1), Oxford University Press: 22–48, doi:10.1093/dh/dht067, JSTOR 26376534.
  11. ^ a b c d McLaird, James D.; Van Der Wert Turchen, Lesta (March 26, 1974), "Exploring The Black Hills, 1855-1875: Reports of the Government Expeditions" (PDF), South Dakota History, 4 (2), retrieved 2023-04-16.
  12. ^ a b c Pandey, Triloki Nath (15 August 1972). "Anthropologists at Zuni". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 116 (4): 321–337. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  13. ^ "Remembering William Eleroy Curtis, chairman of the Latin American Department", worldsfairchicago1893.com, November 5, 2018, retrieved 2023-04-16.
  14. ^ Marling, Karal Ann (Autumn 1992), "Writing History with Artifacts: Columbus at the 1893 Chicago Fair" (PDF), The Public Historian, Imposing the Past on the Present: History, the Public, and the Columbus Quincentenary, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 13–30, retrieved 2023-04-16.
  15. ^ Kohn, Edward (January 2006). "Crossing the Rubicon: Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and the 1884 Republican National Convention". The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. 5 (1): 18–45. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  16. ^ "LOGAN AND THE PRESIDENT: A FIGHT TO BE MADE OVER MR. CURTIS'S NOMINATION". The New York Times. 23 December 1884.
  17. ^ "W.E CURTIS: HE THINKS GEN. LOGAN HAD BETTER LET HIM ALONE". Chicago Tribune. 31 December 1884.
  18. ^ "In The United States Senate". Wood County Reporter. 2 April 1885.
  19. ^ "Senator Again: The Soldier-Statesmen Chosen His Own Successor in the United States Senate". Chicago Daily Tribune. 20 May 1885.
  20. ^ "Biography of William Eleroy Curtis". OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository. Ohio Library and Information Network. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  21. ^ "Letter from William Eleroy Curtis to Theodore Roosevelt: January 9, 1902". Theodore Roosevelt Center. Dickinson State University. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  22. ^ "Letter from William Eleroy Curtis to Theodore Roosevelt: January 7, 1903". Theodore Roosevelt Center. Dickinson State University. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  23. ^ Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America: Volume 38. Indiana University: United States Senate. 1938. p. 241.
  24. ^ "Letter from William Eleroy Curtis to Theodore Roosevelt: February 24, 1905". Theodore Roosevelt Center. Dickinson State University. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  25. ^ Brady, Benjamin (May 2016). "Regulating the World: American Law and International Business". University of Virginia Department of History.
  26. ^ a b Powers, Michael (May 2018). "The Commercial Union of the Three Americas: Major Edward A. Burke and Transnational New South Visionaries, 1870-1928". ScholarWorks@UARK: 181.
  27. ^ Britton, John A.; Ahvenainen, Jorma (Spring 2004). "Showdown in South America: James Scrymser, John Pender, and United States: British Cable Competition". The Business History Review. 78 (1): 1–27. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  28. ^ Smith, Joseph (2006), Historical Dictionary of United States-Latin American Relations, Scarecrow Press, pp. 62–63, ISBN 9780810864719.
  29. ^ Vivian, James F. (27 December 1974). "The Commercial Bureau of American Republics, 1894-1902: The Advertising Policy, the State Department, and the Governance of the International Union". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 118 (6): 555–566. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  30. ^ a b c "W.E. CURTIS DIES OF APOPLEXY IN PHILADELPHIA: Writer Expires Before Arrival of Physicians". The Washington Herald. 6 October 1911.
  31. ^ "SPECIAL HONORS ARE CONFERRED: They Fell to William E. Curtis and Ralph Modjeski". The Champaign Daily Gazetter. 14 June 1911.
  32. ^ "W.E. CURTIS FUNERAL TODAY: Traveling Correspondent Who Died Suddenly in Philadelphia Will Be Buried in Washington". Chicago Tribune. 8 October 1911.
  33. ^ "Tributes To Curtis: President Taft and Others Deplore Writer's Death". The Washington Post. 8 October 1911.
  34. ^ Venable, William Henry (1903), Randall, Emilius Oviatt (ed.), Ohio Centennial Anniversary Celebration at Chillicothe, May 20-21, 1903, Ohio State Archælogical and Historical Society, p. 647.
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