Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/90

thought in holding 1.1,000 extra volunteers at Harrisburg was appreciated by the government and the men were soon put in the field. The Pennsylvania reserves were known by the whole army and made a record for bravery as they did for patriotism. This vigorous policy of the governor was kept up throughout the war and 270 regiments besides detached companies, an army of 387,284 men, were credited to the single state of Pennsylvania. Official agents of the state were sent to the field to look after the sick and wounded and through the efforts of the governor no body of a soldier known to have belonged to Pennsylvania was buried outside the state. A system for the care and education of the orphans and the children of the wounded, was organized, the state becoming their guardian and supporting them until they could support themselves. At the end to his second term, Governor Curtin retired from public life, declining a second time the proffer of a first-class foreign mission. In 18G9 President Grant appointed him U.S. minister to Russia and in the Republican national conventions of 1868 and 1872 he was prominently before both conventions as a suitable candidate for the vice-presidency. Upon his return from Russia in 1872 he supported Horace Greeley for the presidency and remained in the Democratic party. He served as a representative in the 47th, 48th and 49th congresses, 1881-87. He was married to Katharine, daughter of Dr. William J. Wilson of Centre county. Pa. He died at Bellefonte Pa., Oct 7, 1894.

CURTIN, Jeremiah, philologist and author, was born in Milwaukee, Wis., Sept. 6, 1838; .son of David and Ellen (Furlong) Curtin, and grand- son of Jeremiah Curtin He was graduated from An image should appear at this position in the text. Harvard in 1863, where he had shown rare facility as a linguist. He understood all the modern European languages, was thorough in his knowledge of Latin and Greek, and soon made good progress in Hebrew, Sanskrit and Persian. Having a slight knowledge of Russian, he took advantage of the visit of Admiral Lissofsky's fleet to America in 1864 to become acquainted with the admiral and officers, and soon spoke with them in their native tongue. In October, 1864. at the instance of James Russell Lowell, George William Curtis and Senator Foster of Connecticut Secretary Seward appointed him secretary of the U.S. legation at St. Peters- burg, and he remained in that position until 1869, taking advantage of his opportunity to study Polish and some other Slav languages, as well as the languages of Central Asia. He went to Prague in 1869, to be present at the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Huss, and he delivered in Bohemian the oration of the day. During his tour he mastered the languages of the southern Slavs, thus completing the linguistic Slav circle. In 1877, after one year in London, spent mainly at the British museum, during which time he read the Hebrew Old Testament through twice and the Koran once in Arabic, he returned to America and devoted himself to the study of the languages of the American Indians. From 1883 he was connected with the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian institution, as assistant ethnologist, Major Powell, director of the bureau, being ethnologist, till 1891 actively, and from 1891 actively only as occasion required. Between 1883 and 1891 he collected the vocabularies of sixteen Indian languages, of which eight were on the Pacific coast, and spent much time in investigation in California and Central America. He is the author of Myths and Folklore of Ireland (1890); Myths and Folk Tales of the Russians, Western Slavs and Magyars (1890); Myths and Hero Tales of Ireland (1894); Fairy Tales of Ireland. He translated from the Polish the following books by Sienkiewicz: With Fire and Sicord (1890); The Delurje (2 vols., 1891); Fan Michael (1893); Children of the Soil (1895); Quo Vadis (1896); Hania (1897); Sielanka, a Forest Picture, and Other Stories (1898); The Knights of the Cross (1898); and from the Russian: Tales of Three Centuries, by Michael Zagoskin (1891); Prince Serebryani, by Alexis Tolstoi (1892); Creation Myths of Primitive America in Pelation to the Beligious History and Mental Development of Mankind (1899). In 1899 he had several works well under way, including Russia and Poland in Tfieir Historical Relations to America, Great Britain and Russia; and a number of volumes on American mythology and linguistics.

CURTIN, Roland Gideon, physician, was born in Bellefonte, Pu., Oct. 29, 1839; son of Dr. Coii- stans and Mary Anne (Kinne) Curtin. His father was graduated from Surgeons' hall, Dublin, Ire- land; immigrated to America in 1807; settled in Bellefonte in 1809, and practised as a physician and surgeon until his death in April, 1842. His mother was a lineal descendant from Gen. Thomas Welles of Connecticut, and granddaugh- ter of Aaron Kinne, chaplain of Fort Griswold. when the British under Arnold massacred Colonel Ledyard and his command, Sept. 6, 1781. Roland was graduated from the .scientific department of Williston seminary, Easthampton, Mass., in 1859, was U.S. naval storekeeper in the Philadelphia