Grandfather Curtis

 Note:  The lineage on the Paul side of my family goes like this:

Marjorie Paul - Andrew Jackson Paul - Hollis Brayton Paul who married Adella Caroline Curtis.  This piece is about Adella's father.

Grandfather Curtis

by Walter E. Paul

Grandfather Curtis was a quiet kindly spoken man sincerely pious, and well read along religious subjects. He was no more a Christian than Grandmother Curtis but of far different temperament. He was careful about all he undertook and lived a well ordered life each day from morning until night. Grandmother made me nervous, but I used to like to follow grandfather about his work, only when he was taking care of his bees of which he always kept several colonies or hives. At a distance I would watch him, equipped with a large brimmed straw hat hung about with mosquito screen or cheese cloth and long gantlet gloves which reached nearly to his elbows as he added new "supers" to hives or handled rebellious swarms. His movements were always slow and deliberate. Grandmother's table was always furnished with either fresh honey or maple syrup. 

Beyond the bee hives was the vegetable garden. At times it was almost as beautiful as a flower garden. The rows so straight and even and the plants spaced at just the right intervals. Father thought him fussy, but I noticed that with Grandfather seed time and harvest always came at just the right time. Clover and timothy hay never stood until over ripe; potatoes were dug before any danger of ground frost or early snow. Each thing received proper care at just the right time, while grandfather pursued his quiet well ordered way from day to day. Life must have held much of contentment for a man like that. To father who was as deeply religious, the march of the seasons was a foot-race with nature for him and Nature usually won out.

Grandfather Curtis was a Methodist and the doctrine, teaching and tenets of the Methodist Episcopal Church was as Holy Writ to him. However the M. E. Church at that day had not drifted so far from the "faith once delivered to the saints" as to be misleading in the vital matters of salvation through faith, sanctification and justification. Grandfather and grandmother had a family pew in the M. E. Church at Norwich and were always to be found there on Sundays when circumstances would permit. They drove a presentable equipage. A magnificent bay horse which was always kept fat and well groomed, a leather upholstered phaeton with high curved dash board flanked on each side with nickel framed road lamps.

In early years grandfather was apprenticed as a cobbler. He could not only repair shoes but make shoes by hand. His cobbler tools were stored in the attic where grandmother let me go to play sometimes. There were many curious things that had been discarded down through the years that would now be priceless as heirlooms. Grandfather had made a pair of shoes at some time in the past. They were stained dark brown and were sewed and pegged with wooden pegs. When I grew into them grandmother gave them to me. I found them to be light and comfortable to the feet and was not ashamed to wear them as I was the case of Uncle Frank's green overcoat.

In grandfather's boyhood days a custom still prevailed in the state of New York which had been in use since the war of 1812 known as "training day." Upon these days every able bodied man of military age was supposed to present himself at a designated place for military training. Grandfather was a drummer boy. The old drum complete with drum sticks and red shoulder sash still remained in the attic; but the head of the drum was broken and it was given to me. What a pity I was too young to recognize its value. Some one should have had it repaired and preserved. It would now be of real historical value. Will speak of grandfather's last sickness and death in another chapter.