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and were well and favorably known to our people. They were Thomas J., Louisa, Allen H. and Ada.
MRS. MARY BUTTS, wife of Mark Butts and daughter of Levi and Caroline Nossaman, was born February 13, 1843, and came to Lake Prairie township with her parents when three months old. Born near Fairfield, Iowa. Died in Pella, aged sixty-eight years and four months.
JOSEPH PORTER. The maxim, "Through struggle to triumph," might well be applied to the life history of Mr. Porter. He was born in Kent county, Delaware. August 10, 1818, and spent his youth on a farm with his father until nineteen years of age. Then walked to Lafayette, Ind., a distance of 900 miles, and made the trip in twenty-six days. In 1847 he emigrated to this county and purchased a claim and engaged in farming for about five years, when he moved to Pella and built a sawmill and brought the first steam engine into Marion county. This mill was located on the lot now occupied by the C. Rhynsburger home. After two years he built another sawmill on East Third street, about two blocks east of where the Washington mill was formerly located. Here he also added a flour mill to his establishment. In 1857 he traded his mills to John B. Hamilton for part of the land which was afterwards well known as the Porterville farm. Here he lived for many years and became known as one of Marion county's most progressive and successful farmers and stock raisers. He married Miss Mary A. Chezum, December 31, 1840. By this union there were thirteen children, four of whom died in early infancy. The others were James, Elisabeth (Mrs. Wm. Millison), Marion, Nancy (Mrs. N. Wray), William, Charles, Mary F. and Joseph F. (twins), and Margaret Catherine. Mr. Porter owned the first reaper in the county and also operated one of the first threshing machines.
WILLIAM JESSE CURTIS was born at Aurora, Ind., on the 2d day of August, 1838. He is the son of Hon. I. C. Curtis, a leading lawyer for many years of Marion county, Iowa, and Lucy Holman Curtis, who was a daughter of Judge Jesse L. Holman, a Supreme Court judge of the state of Indiana, and afterwards judge of the United States District Court for the District of Indiana, appointed by President Andrew Jackson.
In 1884 the Curtis family moved from Aurora, Ind., to Marion county, Iowa, and settled on the banks of the Des Moines river, some six or seven miles southeast of the present city of Pella. About 1856 the Curtis family moved to Pella and resided there until the spring of 1864.
The father of William Jesse Curtis was deeply interested in the location of Central College at Pella and for several years was its active agent. As soon as the college school was open, under the direction of Rev. E. H. Scarf, William Jesse Curtis was one of its students, and for several years thereafter attended the school, his teachers being Dr. Scarf, Dr. Elihu Gunn, Professor A. N. Currier and Mrs. D. C. A. Stoddard. On the 21st of November, 1861, Mr. Curtis was married to Miss Frances S. Cowles, a sister of Edward Cowles, a prominent merchant of Pella, Dr. E. H. Scarf performing the marriage ceremony. On February 2, 1863, Mr. Curtis' son, Holman Cowles Curtis, who now resides at San Bernardino,
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WILLIAM JESSE CURTIS