Annie Curtis, city namesake, and her brother, Melville, 1879.
Anne Bonfield Bowman was born January 28, 1846, in Belville, New Jersey as Anne “Annie” Bonfield Curtis. She was the daughter of Sophia Louise Allsopp and M. Melville Curtis.
Annie married Amos Bowman in 1871 in Smartsville, California. They had four children: Wendell Curtis Bowman, Clytie Lucrietia (Bowman) Greeno, Bondfield Benjamin Bowman, and Menno Morris Bowman. They spent the beginning of their marriage in California and later moved to Anacortes in 1877. Annie Bowman is mentioned in pioneer diaries and stories, but she spent much of the 1880s living in Sumas with her children while her husband worked on railroad or mining surveys in Canada. She appears to have lived her life largely out of the public eye following the 1890 Anacortes boom.
She spent her later years in California and took care of her son before she unexpectedly passed away.
Annie Curtis passed away on April 7, 1906, in Pacific Grove, California and is interred at Grand View Cemetery in Anacortes, Washington.
Melville Curtis (Jr.) was born June 30, 1849 (Washington Death Certificates list his birth as 1848) in New Jersey. He was the son of Louise Allsopp and Melville Curtis (Sr.). He had four sisters: Lucretia, Louise, Annie Bonfield Curtis Bowman, and Sarah; and a brother, Allen Allsopp Curtis.
His father passed away when he was a child and he received most of his schooling in Canada while he lived with his mother’s family. Melville came back to New York study metallurgy and mining engineering from Troy Polytechnic Institute.
In 1881, he moved to Nevada and worked for the Manhattan Silver Mining Company for 6 years. He briefly bought an interest in the Cotton Eva Lumber Company in Mendocino, California but quickly sold it. In 1888, he moved to Port Townsend, Washington and worked at the Puget Sound Iron Co. until 1890. Back in the early 1880s, he had started investing in large amounts of property on Fidalgo and by 1890 he had moved to Fidalgo to settle there. His family followed in 1892 after he had built the family home.
Once Melville moved to Anacortes he owned several businesses, including the Curtis Dock company, Anacortes Ice Company, Fidalgo Island Packing Company, and the Fidalgo Bay Land Company. He also served as Mayor of Anacortes in 1893 and 1895 and was a member of the city council many times in the early 1900s. He was a member of the park board from its beginning in 1919 and several times a member of the Anacortes school board. Melville was a large holder of real estate in the city and presented Cap Sante park to the city in memory of a park in Quebec that he often went to as a child.
He married Fannie Backus Wright on October 23, 1883 in Smartsville, California. They had four daughters: Morri, Louise, Alleen, and Helen. The family lived at 201 “V” St on Cap Sante.
Melville passed away on March 13, 1925 and is interred at Grand View Cemetery in Anacortes, Washington.
