C. Earl Currah

C. EARL CURRAH has a well earned reputation among the people who accomplish things in Logan County. For several years of his earlier life he was a successful teacher and now commands a large law practice and is serving as county attorney of Logan County. He has identified himself spiritedly with the local affairs and is an effective and earnest citizen.

He was born at Unadilla, Otoe County, Nebraska, October 1, 1882. His grandfather, John Emerson Currah, was born in England, at Durham, August 9, 1827. In 1852, at the age of twenty-five, he came to the United States and located in Grant County, Wisconsin, where he was identified with mining and also had a farm. Later he moved to Nebraska and died at Unadilla March 27, 1897. John E. Currah married Ann Robson. She was born at Durham, Eagland, in 1830. She died at Lincoln, Nebraska, July 2, 1912. Of their children still living the following reference is made: Mary, a resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, widow of James Robertson, who was a merchant and farmer; John E.; Emma, wife of Robert Wall, a farmer at Elmwood, Nebraska; James R., a farmer at Smith Center, Kansas; Frances A., wife of Z. B. Warren, a farmer and stockman at Peace, Kansas, and now commissioner of the Third District of Logan County; Robert, a ranchman at Keota, Colorado; Anna, unmarried, with home at Lincoln, Nebraska; Joseph, a farmer in Wyoming; Walter, who lives at York, Nebraska.

John E. Currah, father of C. Earl, was born in Grant County, Wisconsin, in 1856, and grew to manhood there. Going west, he located in Cass County, Nebraska, moved to Otoe County, where he married and followed farming, and in April, 1887, came to Logan County, Kansas, where he was among the early settlers. During thirty years of residence in that county he has become one of the large land owners and most capable farmers and stockmen. His original homestead of 160 acres is eighteen miles southeast of Russell Springs in Lees Township. It is still his home, but he has expended his holdings to 1,600 acres, devoted to diversified farming and stock raising. He is treasurer of Lees Township, has held various township offices, and has taken much part in local affairs generally. He is a republican. His first wife was Minnie Wall, who was born in Missouri in 1858 and died in Otoe, Nebraska, January 22, 1884. She was the mother of three children, May, wife of Charles Calfee, a harness maker living at Greenwood, Nebraska; C. Earl; and Minnie, wife of Will R. Jones, a farmer in the State of Wyoming. John E. Currah married for his second wife, Alice Ebersole, a native of Missouri but at the time of her marriage a resident of Logan County. To this union were born two children: Adah, a teacher in Logan County, and Ralph, who is a member of the Student Army Training Corps at Kansas University.

C. Earl Currah, during his boyhood, attended public schools in Otoe County, Nebraska, and in 1905 graduated from the normal course of York College at York, Nebraska. The following year he was principal of schools at Arborville in York County, and for two years was assistant supervisor of manual training at Boulder, Colorado. He was then called to Leadville, Colorado, established a course of manual training in the public schools, and was supervisor two years.

Successful though he was as a teacher, Mr. Currah had his ambition settled upon the law, and in pursuance of that aim he entered the fall of 1911 the law department of the University of Michigan. He was there two years, had further practical experience in the office of the Burton Abstract Company at Detroit, and in June, 1914, graduated LL. B. from the Detroit College of Law. He is a member of the Michigan Bar, and he practiced law one year in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1917 Mr. Currah returned to Russell Springs, Kansas, where he has since conducted a general civil and criminal practice. Much of his time is taken up with his public duties as county attorney, an office to which he was elected in 1916. He is a member of the Logan County Bar Association, a democrat, is superintendent of the Sunday School of the Methodist Church, and is affiliated with Palmyra Lodge No. 30 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Palmyra, Nebraska.

Mr. Currah married at Brown City, Michigan, January 12, 1918, Miss Mary Ware. Mrs. Currah is a woman of unusual attainments and has special fitness for the work of the world apart from her sphere as a home maker. Her parents are James and Ida (Carter) Ware, retired farmers of Brown City, Michigan. She is a graduate of the high school of Yale, Michigan, after which she taught in the schools of that state for eight years. In 1911 she entered the Training School for Nurses at the University of Michigan, graduating after the three years' course in 1914. She was then given a position on the staff of the Training School, and while there completed an advanced course. In June, 1917, she was made executive officer of the Ann Arbor Chapter of the Red Cross, working under the auspices of the National Red Cross Association. Since her marriage Mrs. Currah has taken a position as primary teacher in the public schools of Russell Springs in order to meet the emergency for teachers caused by the war.

Page 2139.