John Curtain was born on June 25, 1855, in Vermont. He first appeared in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census at five years old, living in Burlington with Alexander and Caroline Curtain, who appear to have been his parents. His race was recorded as “mulatto,” a racial classification commonly used by census takers during the nineteenth century.
By the 1870 U.S. Federal Census, John had moved with his family to Plattsburgh, Clinton County, New York. Fourteen years old and identified as Black, John was attending school. His parents were recorded as Alexander and Caroline Curtin, a slight variation in the spelling of the family surname. Their household also included several adults and another child, illustrating the extended or shared households that were common during this period.
John’s life was tragically short. He died of consumption, now known as tuberculosis, on November 19, 1873, in Plattsburgh at just eighteen years and five months old. His obituary in the Burlington Free Press provides a rare glimpse into his character and community life beyond what can be learned from census records. It noted that John had experienced a religious conversion approximately seven years earlier and had become a member of the Methodist Church. He was remembered as kind, obliging, and gentlemanly, and his death was deeply felt by those who knew him.
Although John Curtain lived only eighteen years, his obituary transforms what might otherwise have been a few census entries into the story of a young man who attended school, participated in his church, and was valued by his community. His brief life provides an important glimpse into the experiences of a Black family whose history connected Burlington, Vermont, with Plattsburgh and New York’s North Country.