H. W. Curtis was born in
Oswego County, New York, in 1817. He lived for much of the 1840s in
Ohio, where he was active in the
abolitionist movement and was a frequent contributor to the abolitionist newspaper
The Anti-Slavery Bugle. He moved to the new state of Wisconsin about 1853 and settled in
Sauk County, Wisconsin. He quickly became involved in local
temperance and abolitionist organizations, and became one of the trustees of the Delton Academy. Through his activism, he became involved with the new
Republican Party of Wisconsin when it was created in 1854. Sometime in the 1850s, he resided in
New Lisbon, Wisconsin, and was editor of the short-lived partisan newspaper, the New Lisbon
Republican, but he ultimately returned to Sauk County sometime before 1858, residing then in
Delton, Wisconsin. It does not appear that he ran for renomination in 1860. It seems he subsequently moved to
Baraboo, Wisconsin, where he was involved with the Baraboo Paper Manufacturing Company. He later moved to
Grand Traverse County, Michigan, where he died in 1880. ==Personal life and family==