David G. Curtis

       
      Dr. David G. Curtis is the son of H. W. and Eleanor Eames Curtis, natives of New York and Massachusetts, respectively. They were married in Jamestown, N. Y., where they lived until the death of the father, which occurred in 1871. After the death of the father the mother came to Chattanooga to reside with her children, three of whom had preceded her to this place. She died in 1887 at the advanced age of eighty years. The subject of our sketch was born in Jamestown, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., on the 20th of July, 1836. During his youth and minority he had very fair educational advantages, his father, though not rich, being a merchant, possessed liberal means and gave his son David, with his other children (of whom there were four besides David-two sons and two daughters), fair opportunity for the acquisition of knowledge and intellectual training. At the age of twenty our subject began the study of medicine and finished his course in 1858, graduating from Berkshire Medical College, Massachusetts. Desiring to study the diseases of the Mississippi Valley, he attended the Hahnemann Medical School of St. Louis, and afterward located in southwestern Missouri to practice his profession. In 1863 he volunteered in the United States Navy at Mound City, Ill., serving as assistant surgeon on the United States steamer, "Carondolet," until the close of the war. In 1865 he married Miss Sarah R. Edmiston, of Huntsville, Ohio, who has borne him three children, two of whom are living-both boys. He practiced his profession in Ohio until 1871, when he came to Chattanooga, where be has since resided, practicing medicine. He has been a member of the board of health nine years and is now it's vice-president.   He went through the various epidemics that have scourged our city since his arrival in it, the cholera in 1873, the yellow fever in 1878, and the small-pox in 1883, rendering heroic and efficient service in them all. He is now a member of the city school board and has been for some time. He has also been quite successful in real estate deals as well as an able practitioner. He is one of the original number who established the Ice & Cold Storage Company of Chattanooga, and is now its vice-president and one of its directors. The Doctor is a man of rather radical views on most questions and has the courage of his convictions. He always talks "from the shoulder out" and his position on any question can be easily ascertained. He believes in the Darwinian theory of the " survival of the fittest." He is destined to make his impress on the community, in which he lives.
Goodspeed's "History of East Tennessee" 1887