Robert Curran

ROBERT CURRAN. - As a general thing, a man who has spent the early years of his life on the water does not make much of a success on land, but this is not true of Robert Curran, the prominent dairyman in Quindaro township. If his record on sea was good, his record since he gave up the life of a sailor has been still better. He has won reputation for himself as a dairyman of a first class character.

He was born in county Down, Ireland, August 18, 1852, where he received what little schooling he ever had. His father was a sailor and he used to take Robert with him on his trips, and thus he was really brought up on the ocean. When he was eighteen years old he came to America, locating in Chicago, and not knowing any other business than that of a sailor, he got a position on the lakes and sailed on the lakes for some years. He has had many interesting experiences during his nautical life, having once been where Sampson fired the first shot at the Spaniards. He came to Kansas in 1882, where he worked for Fowler's packing house in the winter and sailed in the summer time. He handled the first killing that Fowler ever made in America. He has been engaged in the dairy business several times and in 1911 he bought a farm of twenty-four acres at Bethel, Kansas, but his dairy of fifty-one cows he keeps at at Wellborn six miles from Kansas City, Kansas, post office. He has a shed which is absolutely sanitary in all respects; all the feeding is done under covered troughs and he has an up-to-date bottling machine with which he bottles one hundred gallons of milk each day. He sells forty gallons a day to St. Margaret's Hospital in Kansas City, which in itself is a sufficient guaranty of the cleanliness of the dairy.

While Mr. Curran was living in Chicago he married Isabel J. Cochran, a daughter of John Cochran. Four children have been born to this union, Agnes, Rachel, James and Robert. Agnes is now Mrs. Henry Pflanz, of Wichita. Rachael is married to Russell Savage and lives on Riverview avenue, at the corner of Tenth street.

Mr. Curran is contemplating the erection of a handsome home, having been successful in his business. He has invested some in real estate, having bought and sold various properties, in which transactions he made good bargains each time. Since his arrival in America Mr. Curran has been very successful and has become greatly respected in the county in which he lives. He is possessed of the impulsive temperament of the Irish, with the warm, generous nature that usually accompanies such a temperament. It is his pride to have everything connected with his dairy thoroughly modern and clean and to sell only milk which is unusually rich and pure. He has many friends who admire him for his sterling character and like him because of his fund of humor and the many interesting stories he can tell them in regard to his varied experiences.