William Eleroy Curtis

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William Eleroy Curtis
Picture printed in Review of Reviews, June 1892
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]
Known forAdvocacy for Pan-Americanism, analysis of Latin America and international trade, newspaper coverage of Reconstruction and the Old West, Travel literature
Political partyRepublican
SpouseCora Belle Kepler
Children3
Signature

William Eleroy Curtis (November 5, 1850 – October 5, 1911) was an American journalist, author, diplomat, political activist, and exhibitor. He was a prominent proponent of Pan-Americanism.[2] Curtis' partisan reporting earned him patronage appointments and advanced his ideological goals.[3] His career reflected the influence of bias, cronyism, and imperialism on journalism during the Gilded Age.[4] Curtis held a series of leadership roles in the State Department, as well as the supranational organizations which anticipated the Organization of American States.[5]

Early life[edit]

Curtis was born on November 5, 1850, in Akron, Ohio, the second son of Eleroy Curtis, a Presbyterian minister, and Harriet Eliza Coe.[6][5][7][8] Harriet was the daughter of Reverend Harvey Coe, the first elected trustee of Western Reserve College.[6][9] After graduating from high school in Clinton, New York, Curtis attended Western Reserve College. While a freshman, he applied for a typesetter position at The Cleveland Leader, but was assigned reporting work instead.[10] Curtis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1871.[7] Curtis worked for the Erie Dispatch in 1871, followed by the Toledo Commercial in 1872.[10]

Journalistic career[edit]

Chicago Inter-Ocean[edit]

In 1873, he joined the reporting staff of the Chicago Inter-Ocean.[11] Embedded with George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry during the 1874 Black Hills Expedition, Curtis was widely credited as the first to report the discovery of gold in the Dakota Territory; this revelation precipitated the Black Hills Gold Rush.[12][13] His adamant praise of Custer contributed to the officer's popular image as a tragic hero who furthered the "manifest destiny" of the United States.[4]

Shortly after returning from the Black Hills, Curtis was dispatched to report on the aftermath of the Coushatta massacre in Louisiana.[14] He subsequently gave extensive coverage to the activities of the Ku Klux Klan and members of the White League.[15] As a consequence, the Klan placed a $5,000 bounty on his head (equivalent to $135,000 in 2023).[3] His reports were used by Republicans seeking to tether Democrats to Neo-Confederate hate groups ahead of the 1874 midterm elections.[16] Curtis then wrote about the Brooks–Baxter War from Arkansas.[17]

In 1874, Curtis was taken prisoner by the James–Younger Gang, a prominent gang of highwaymen.[3] While being held hostage, he was able to obtain their story, which was published in the Inter-Ocean.[15][5] 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.[17] His first book, a novel titled Tibbalses Folks, was published in 1875.[7]

Curtis returned to the Chicago office of Inter-Ocean in August 1880, where he became the editor-in-chief.[17] Curtis was the Fourth President of the Chicago Press Club, performing that role in 1883.[18]

In 1883, Curtis observed anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing's life among the Zuni people of New Mexico.[19] 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.[19]

Curtis was a founding member of the Gridiron Club in 1885, a prestigious organization of Washington, D.C. journalists renowned for its annual dinner.[20] He stayed with the Inter Ocean until 1886.[5]

Chicago Record[edit]

In 1887, Curtis joined the Chicago Record,[5] becoming manager at the Washington D. C. bureau.[15] 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.[15]

After completing his work for the 1893 World's Fair, Curtis became an international contributor for the Record, filling the role until December 1906.[21] Starting from 1903, Curtis' letters on foreign locales and contemporary issues received wider circulation in regional newspapers throughout the United States.[21] Subordinates who attempted to modify Curtis' writings, such as fellow Chicago newsman Edward Price Bell, were often rebuffed by their editors; Bell attributed this to Curtis' status as a "celebrity journalist" who was unusually popular and politically influential.[22][12]

Curtis served as President of the Gridiron Club in 1903.[20] In 1905, Curtis was Vice President of the Society of American Authors.[1]

Political involvement[edit]

Curtis and the Inter Ocean publicly supported the renomination of President Chester A. Arthur at the 1884 Republican National Convention. Although Arthur's campaign was unsuccessful and never in serious contention,[23] the lame duck President rewarded Curtis' partisanship with his first diplomatic appointment as Secretary of the Latin American Trade Commission.[3] 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.[24] Logan also resented Curtis' reporting on his son-in-law William Tucker's land speculation at the Zuni Indian Reservation[19] and accused Curtis of making "damaging disclosures... to the Democratic National Committee."[25] Curtis denied this, threatening to mobilize his press resources against Logan's 1885 re-election if the Senator did not relent.[25] Nonetheless, Curtis was confirmed and Logan was victorious.[26][27]

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."[3] 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.[14]

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.[28] In January 1903, Curtis recommended that Roosevelt remove Victor E. Nelson, the US consul at Bergen, Norway, who had become unpopular due to allegations of corruption.[29] Nelson resigned by March 2, 1903.[30] 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.[31] Curtis also counseled US Secretary of State Elihu Root on how to improve press relations.[32]

Pan-Americanism[edit]

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".[33] From late 1884 until 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.[5] 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.[34]

Curtis seized on these travels to publish The Capitals of Spanish America in 1888. Domestically, the book raised his profile as an expert on Latin American affairs. However, The Capitals of Spanish America was regarded as superficial and inaccurate in Latin America itself.[35] Curtis' political commentaries and cultural perceptions were often considered chauvinistic by his Latin American counterparts.[3] A notable exception was Cuban nationalist José Martí's favorable review of Curtis' 1887 Harper's Monthly commentary on Argentine industry. Martí felt that Curtis was proposing symbiotic trade relations, and considered this a welcome alternative to continued exploitation by the Spanish Empire.[36]

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.[33] The Latin American delegates, citing their dislike of The Capitals of Spanish America and Curtis' lack of Spanish fluency, protested his appointment. They demanded his replacement by two bilingual secretaries.[37] 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.[3]

Curtis was made Director of the Commercial Bureau of American Republics in 1890. The Bureau was a "hemispheric agency," meant to represent eighteen governments.[38] Curtis, rather than the government, paid the $3,000 annual rent for the Bureau's offices near Lafayette Square. He served until 1893, when he was asked to resign by President Grover Cleveland.[15] 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.[3]

In 1908, he was appointed as a member of the executive committee for the Pan-American Committee of the United States.[5]

World's Fair and museum curation[edit]

1893 replicas of the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María

Curtis served as chief of the Latin American Department for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition,[39] controlling a budget of $100,000 (equivalent to $3,400,000 in 2023).[3] Curtis also represented the State Department on the Government Board of Management,[21] an independent agency established by Congress to allocate funds for the exhibits of nine US cabinet departments at the exposition.[40]

In 1891, Curtis went on another diplomatic tour of South America, convincing each country to send exhibits to Chicago.[41] Curtis was a special envoy to the Queen Regent of Spain and Pope Leo XIII during 1892. His delegation sought assistance for commemorating Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas at the fair.[42] Curtis conceived the display of replicas of the three ships commanded by Columbus in 1492.[41] He also formulated a full-scale replica of La Rábida Friary, where Columbus had stayed prior to his voyage.[43] To emphasize the connection of the Spanish monarchy to the discovery of the Americas, Curtis wrote extensively about the life and family of Cristóbal Colón, 14th Duke of Veragua, a direct descendant of Columbus and Spain's representative at the World's Fair.[44]

In 1894, Curtis was an incorporator of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago; subsequently, he delivered many Latin American artifacts to the museum and was named an honorary curator.[45]

Personal life and death[edit]

Curtis married Cora Kepler on December 23, 1874.[11] The couple would have three children: George Kepler,[10] Eleroy, and Elsie Evans Curtis.[8][6] In 1901, Curtis was awarded a Doctor of Letters by his alma mater, Western Reserve University.[20] Curtis was the 1903 commencement speaker for Western Reserve University.[7] He received a Doctor of Letters from Amherst College in 1907.[20] In June 1911, Curtis was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Illinois.[46] His son, Eleroy Curtis, attended Princeton University and worked with his father at the Chicago Record-Herald (formerly the Chicago Record).[6]

On October 5, 1911, Curtis died suddenly of "apoplexy" at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.[20] 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.[47] 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.[48]

Bibliography[edit]

During his career, Curtis wrote over thirty books:[5][49][7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Gates, Merrill Edward, ed. (1905), Men of Mark in America Ideals of American Life Told in Biographies of Eminent Living Americans, vol. 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 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.
  4. ^ a b Slotkin, Richard (1998), The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 9780806130309.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h "Curtis, William Eleroy, 1850–1911", Social Networks and Archival Context, retrieved April 15, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e "University Notes", Western Reserve University Bulletin, Western Reserve University, pp. 150–153, 1910.
  7. ^ a b Burke, Arthur Meredyth (1908), The Prominent Families of the United States of America, vol. 1, Sackville Press, Limited.
  8. ^ Harvey Coe House, Hudson Heritage Association, retrieved April 16, 2023.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ a b Motter, H. L., ed. (1911), "Curtis, William Eleroy", Who's Who in the World, 1912, International Who's Who Publishing Company, retrieved April 15, 2023.
  11. ^ a b William Eleroy Curtis, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 6, 1911.
  12. ^ Palais, Hyman (March 1946), "Some Aspects of the Black Hills Gold Rush Compared with the California Gold Rush", Pacific Historical Review, 15 (1): 59–67, JSTOR 3635035.
  13. ^ a b "Biography of William Eleroy Curtis", OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository, Ohio Library and Information Network, retrieved May 6, 2022.
  14. ^ a b c d e Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard, eds. (1904), "William Eleroy Curtis", The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, vol. 3, Boston: The Biographical Society.
  15. ^ "William Eleroy Curtis", The Guardian, October 18, 1911.
  16. ^ a b c 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 April 16, 2023.
  17. ^ "Press Club Bulletin", Press Club of Chicago, October 14, 1911, retrieved May 7, 2022.
  18. ^ a b c Pandey, Triloki Nath (August 15, 1972), "Anthropologists at Zuni", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 116 (4): 321–337, JSTOR 985902.
  19. ^ a b c d e "W.E. Curtis Dies of Apoplexy in Philadelphia: Writer Expires Before Arrival of Physicians", The Washington Herald, October 6, 1911.
  20. ^ a b c Macfarland, Henry (1908), District of Columbia: Concise Biographies of Its Prominent and Representative Contemporary Citizens, and Valuable Statistical Data, Potomac Press, p. 105.
  21. ^ Price Bell, Edward (November 2007), Journalism of the Highest Realm: The Memoir of Edward Price Bell, Pioneering Foreign Correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, LSU Press, pp. 70–71.
  22. ^ 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, JSTOR 25144421.
  23. ^ "Logan and the President: A Fight to be Made Over Mr. Curtis's Nomination", The New York Times, December 23, 1884, retrieved May 9, 2023.
  24. ^ a b "W.E. Curtis: He Thinks Gen. Logan Had Better Let Him Alone", Chicago Tribune, December 31, 1884.
  25. ^ "In The United States Senate", Wood County Reporter, April 2, 1885.
  26. ^ "Senator Again: The Soldier-Statesmen Chosen His Own Successor in the United States Senate", Chicago Daily Tribune, May 20, 1885.
  27. ^ "Letter from William Eleroy Curtis to Theodore Roosevelt: January 9, 1902", Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University, retrieved May 4, 2022.
  28. ^ "Letter from William Eleroy Curtis to Theodore Roosevelt: January 7, 1903", Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University, retrieved May 4, 2022.
  29. ^ Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, vol. 38, Indiana University: United States Senate, 1938, p. 241.
  30. ^ "Letter from William Eleroy Curtis to Theodore Roosevelt: February 24, 1905", Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University, retrieved May 4, 2022.
  31. ^ Brady, Benjamin (May 2016), "Regulating the World: American Law and International Business", University of Virginia Department of History.
  32. ^ 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.
  33. ^ 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, JSTOR 25096827.
  34. ^ Smith, Joseph (2006), Historical Dictionary of United States-Latin American Relations, Scarecrow Press, pp. 62–63, ISBN 9780810864719.
  35. ^ Ripoll, Carlos (Winter 1978), "Jose Marti: inside the monster and marxist interpretation of Cuban history", World Affairs, 140 (3): 217–229, JSTOR 20671733.
  36. ^ Lomas, Laura (January 2, 2009), Translating Empire: José Martí, Migrant Latino Subjects, and American Modernities, Duke University Press, p. 234.
  37. ^ Vivian, James F. (December 27, 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, JSTOR 986405.
  38. ^ Leopold, Robert S. (August 1994), "A Guide to Early African Collections in the Smithsonian Institution", National Museum of Natural History: 29.
  39. ^ Brown, Julie K. (1997), "Recovering Representations: U.S. Government Photographers at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893", Prologue, 29 (3): 218–231.
  40. ^ a b "Remembering William Eleroy Curtis, chairman of the Latin American Department", worldsfairchicago1893.com, November 5, 2018, retrieved April 16, 2023.
  41. ^ McEachen, A. D. (February 1972), "Letters and lectures of Captain Little", Naval War College Review, 24 (6): 89–91, JSTOR 44639691.
  42. ^ 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 April 16, 2023.
  43. ^ Varela-Lago, Ana María (2008), Conquerors, Immigrants, Exiles: The Spanish Diaspora in the United States (1848–1948), San Diego: University of California, pp. 80–81.
  44. ^ Wilcox, David R. (September 30, 2003), "Creating Field Anthropology: Why Remembering Matters", Fieldiana, 36: 31–47, JSTOR 29782667.
  45. ^ "Special Honors Are Conferred: They Fell to William E. Curtis and Ralph Modjeski", The Champaign Daily Gazetter, June 14, 1911.
  46. ^ "W. E. Curtis Funeral Today: Traveling Correspondent Who Died Suddenly in Philadelphia Will Be Buried in Washington", Chicago Tribune, October 8, 1911.
  47. ^ "Tributes To Curtis: President Taft and Others Deplore Writer's Death", The Washington Post, October 8, 1911.
  48. ^ 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.

External links[edit]

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