John Curtis, born on February 17, 1818, in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County. He spent his life in Red Hook, New York, with his wife Jane Carter Beaumont Curtis and their progeny. He died on July 7, 1879. The house they lived in no longer exists and became the site of the First National Bank of Red Hook. One of his daughters, Lucy Irene, married John Alfred Fraleigh, which connects him to the genealogy of the Fraleigh's. His diary holds accounts of his life from 1848 to 1857, recounting various events from visitors he housed to even baptism.