George Curtiss refused to publish many items of news because he would not injure the reputation of any citizen in his paper, even though the facts were clear. Yet, he never ducked a verbal argument and never hesitated to take the progressive side on civic issues, even though it might cost him subscriptions. He was a "dry" in all the local option arguments. He boosted the laying of pavements, the building of new schools, and worked hard to get the hard roads constructed through El Paso, when many of his contemporaries thought these improvements would bankrupt the town. El Paso owes much to the memory of George R. Curtiss, El Paso booster, long-range planner and optimist.

Clay Donner was born in El Paso, Illinois on May 13, 1891, the son of Peter and Anna Risser Donner. He attended the Jefferson Park school, and graduated from that high school with the class of 1909. The following two years he attended the University of Illinois. He married Marie E. Oster on November 23, 1930, and to them were born daughter Joyce Ann and son Clay Allen Donner. Clay Sr. worked as a mechanic for two years, and from 1913 to 1915 he was an automobile and machinery salesman for his father and uncle who had formed the Donner & Risser Company.

From 1915 to 1917 he was secretary of the Indiana Mutual Automobile Insurance Company of La Porte, Indiana. From June 19, 1917 when he first enlisted in the Illinois National Guard, he rose steadily in rank. He served in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I as a first lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps with the 33rd Division, and he remained in the service after returning home. He was promoted successively through the grades until on March 30, 1940 he was made Colonel and Assistant Adjutant General in the Military and Naval Department of the State of Illinois. In the second World War he was assigned to state selective service work, with headquarters in Springfield, Illinois, then Columbus, Ohio, and with final headquarters in Washington, D. C. In September, 1947 he was relieved from active duty and reappointed as Assistant Adjutant General for Illinois with the rank of Brigadier General. Donner retired in the summer of 1951, and on October 24 he became Director of Civilian Defense for Springfield and Sangamon County.

Brigadier General Donner is a Mason, Knight Templar and a Shriner. His home address is 805 South Glenwood Avenue in Springfield, Illinois.

Major General Robinson Earl Duff, Chief of the Army Security Agency, was born two miles west of El Paso on the place known as the Frank Koerner farm, on January 18, 1895, the son of Robinson Cunningham and Katherine Ida Duff. His father grew up in Pontiac

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