Daniel S. Curtis was born Jan. 4, 1794, in the town of Canaan, Columbia Co., N. Y.  He was the eldest son (who lived to manhood) of Samuel A. Curtis, who was the first white child born in Canaan, Oct. 1, 1763, his father being one of the very first settlers of Canaan.

     He (Daniel S. Curtis) was educated in the common schools, except two terms spent at an academy, which he attended before he was fifteen years of age, after which he learned of his father the trade of a tanner, saddler, and harness-maker.  He worked chiefly at saddlery and harness-making, at which he became an expert, and followed the trade till 1827, when he purchased the farm on which he spent the remainder of his days.  He became a thorough-going farmer, taking a lively interest in all topics connected with agriculture, but made sheep-husbandry his chief pursuit, and became noted as a breeder of merino sheep, and was an occasional writer on that and other agricultural subjects.  He also wrote an "Essay on the Rearing and Management of Sheep," in 1848, for which he was awarded the first prize of fifty dollars, offered by the State Agricultural Society, and the essay was published in the transactions for that year.

     Mr. Curtis was an active politician, an acknowledged leader in his own town, and well known as one of the leaders of the old Whig party, and afterwards of the Republican, throughout the county.  Though not an aspirant for political honors, he was twice or three times elected supervisor of his town (the last time in 1858), and once to the Legislature, in 1859.

     He was a man of untiring industry,---a habit formed in early life, and one that never forsook him; for after he had given up business he still continued from choice to labor in the field and garden, till increasing age led him at last to his old trade of harness-making, which he had not followed for forty years or more; and, to keep his hands busy, he made several sets of harness, which he gave to his sons [p 329] and other members of his family as mementoes of his handiwork and industry.  He made his last set of harness after he had passed his eightieth birthday, and it would do credit to a much younger man.

     He never had a lawsuit in his life, was a man without enemies, a true friend, generous-hearted and open-handed to the needy, and of sterling integrity and probity of character.

     He died Dec. 29, 1874, aged nearly eighty-one years.