Book examines woman’s life and southeast Iowa history

By JEFF HUTTON Courier associate editor

FAIRFIELD — Bruce Curtis’ book is both a biography and a history lesson.

“Like Ordinary People: An Illustrated Iowa Social Biography of Josephine Mae Teeter Curtis and Her Times, 1903-2007” examines the life of Curtis’ mother and her world in Jefferson and Wapello counties.

Curtis said the book was borne from his work as a historian and professor as well as his desire to share stories from his mother’s remarkable life.

“Once I became a historian, I got interested in looking back on my mother’s life and my own,” he told the Courier from his home in East Lansing, Mich. “I also was interested in genealogy.”

The book, which includes information about Josephine Curtis’ parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, is a guide to what life was like during the 19th and 20th centuries in southeast Iowa.

Curtis’ book began with a series of interview with his mother, as well as his father, back in the 1960s.

Those interviews, along with countless hours of research at area libraries and examination of area newspaper articles, kept Curtis busy.

Despite his work as a professor at Michigan State University, Curtis made frequent trips back home to Iowa to continue the research and visit his mother and other family members.

The book carefully weaves his mother’s life with the history of southeast Iowa — the 1920s, for example, was a period of social change, especially for some women.

Josephine told her son how young women were bobbing their hair, scandalous at the time, and that she did just that in 1925. The result — her father refused to speak to her for some time.

Curtis writes about his mother when she taught school, including her first year as a teacher at Turkey Scratch School No. 7 in Des Moines Township in Jefferson County.

He details how his mother spent $50 — about a month’s salary at the time — and purchase a set of encyclopedias to aid her students. She kept those books, toting them to different schools over the years, until the Great Depression and she was forced to sell the books, getting just $16 for the set.

Josephine died in January of 2007 at the age 103.

Those interviews, Curtis said, are more valuable now and the book, he hopes, will provide his children and grandchildren a greater sense to who his mother was and the times she lived in.

“I want everyone to get this idea, especially young people, that ordinary people can be extraordinary,” Curtis said.

The author admits the book is quite personal, but his mother’s honesty and openness made writing much easier.

And because he was an honest, non-judgmental person, Curtis said the book honors his mother and captures “the growth of an ordinary Iowa farm girl into a caring, spiritually strong farm wife and civic-minded retiree.”

Curtis and his wife, Joy Hilleary Curtis, are both formerly of Fairfield. He studied history at Parsons College in Fairfield and the University of Iowa. For 30 years he taught English composition, American studies and gender studies at Michigan State University. He retired as a professor emeritus and continues geneaology research.

Jeff Hutton can be reached at (641) 683-5380 or via e-mail at jeff@ottumwacourier.com.

For your information

Author Bruce Curtis will hold a book signing event for his book, “Like Ordinary People: An Illustrated Iowa Social Biography of Josephine Mae Teeter Curtis and Her Times, 1903-2007” from 1-5 p.m. Sunday at the Fairfield Public Library.