Julius Bolivar Curtis (December 10, 1825 – June 10, 1907) was a lawyer and judge in

Fairfield County, Connecticut Fairfield County is a County (United States), county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is the List of counties in Connecticut, most populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. A ...

, practicing for over fifty years. He was a member of the

Connecticut Senate The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 99,280 inhabitants. Sena ...

representing the 12th District from 1858 to 1859 and from 1860 to 1861. He was born in

Newtown, Connecticut Newtown is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is part of the Greater Danbury metropolitan area as well as the New York metropolitan area. Newtown was founded in 1705, and later incorporated in 1711. As of the 2020 censu ...

on December 10, 1825, the son of Nichols and Ann Bennitt Curtis. He attended Newtown Academy, and the New York State and National Law School at

Ballston Spa, New York Ballston Spa is a village and the county seat of Saratoga County, New York, United States, located southwest of Saratoga Springs. The population of the village, named after Rev. Eliphalet Ball, a Congregationalist clergyman and an early settler, wa ...

. He was admitted to the bar on December 27, 1850. He began practicing law in Greenwich in 1851. He was elected a Burgess of the Borough of

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

from 1855 to 1865, and served as Borough Attorney during the same period. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, he served on the Military Committee of the town of Greenwich. He moved to Stamford in 1864. He was elected Judge of the Probate Court in 1867 for the district of Stamford, holding the post through 1870. He was judge of the Borough Court of Stamford from 1887 to 1893. He was elected to the

from Stamford. In this capacity, he was an ''ex officio'' member of the Corporation of Yale College. Curtis had been a Republican since the organization of the party in Connecticut. However, he had previously sympathized with the

Free Soil Party The Free Soil Party was a short-lived coalition political party in the United States active from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was largely focused on the single issue of opposing the expansion of slavery into ...

and the American Party. He was a member of the General Council of the American Bar Association beginning in 1889, and from 1885 to 1889 served as one of its Vice-Presidents. He served as a director of the Stamford Street Railroad Company beginning in 1887. Curtis married his first wife, Mary Acker on October 30, 1854. She died on February 23, 1884. They had two children: Louis J. Curtis and Sarah L. Mackey. His second wife was Alice Kneeland Grain. They married on May 11, 1886. From 1896 to 1905, he was president of the Fairfield Bar Association. He died in Stamford on June 10, 1907, of "old age."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Julius 1825 births 1907 deaths Connecticut city council members Connecticut Free Soilers Connecticut Know Nothings Connecticut lawyers Connecticut state court judges Republican Party Connecticut state senators Municipal judges in the United States People from Newtown, Connecticut Politicians from Greenwich, Connecticut Politicians from Stamford, Connecticut State and National Law School alumni Toleration Party politicians 19th-century American judges