Daniel Curtis was born into the early morning hush of colonial Wallingford on August 7, 1707—a Wednesday, if the town recorders had their almanac right. He was the son of Isaac Curtis and Abigail Tuttle, both descended from some of the earliest Puritan settlers of New Haven Colony. At the time of his birth, Wallingford was a bustling yet close-knit agricultural community nestled between ridges and meadows along the Quinnipiac River. The people there lived by rhythms of harvest and holy days, their lives shaped by the twin forces of Congregational piety and the hard demands of the land.