| Sherman Co. and Family History Vol 1:198-199: William E. Curry Family Guy's father, William E. Curry, came west with his brother-in-law, Greenberry Price, grandfather of the late Wilmont Price. They traveled with a party of other hopeful homesteaders, by rail in an immigrant car, from Shelbyville, Illinois to Stratton, Nebraska and arrived there on February 27, 1886,, William Curry's 21 birthday. From Stratton, Mr. Curry and Mr. Price traveled by foot to the Curry homestead site about 25 miles northwest of what is now Goodland. They set up their homestead sites, walked back to Stratton and returned with their supplies and belongings. William Curry began working on proving his homestead. He dug a dugout home which consisted of a room dug out underneath the ground, much like a cellar. He and Mr. Price then broke small areas of sod in which to plant small crops of corn and wheat and garden products. They had no horses but used a team of oxen, brought out by Mr. Price, hitched to a hand-guided sod breaking plow. There were still a few buffalo in this territory at that time and Mr. Curry did kill a buffalo about 10 miles northwest of what is now Guy Curry's farm. Goodland had not yet been founded but there were two small towns in the area, Itasca and Voltaire; however they did not have much there in the way of supplies.. Mr. Curry traveled to Fort Wallace in a wagon hiitched to Mr. Price's ooxen when they needed supplies. There were still herds of wild horses in the arrea. Things were tough for these young homesteaders and, listening to how they lived and things they went through, makes a body wonder how the stuck it out. Of course, one reason Mr. Curry stuck it out may have been for love and start for a new life. It seems that when William Curry left Illinois, he left behind a sweetheart. Miss Margaret Brady waited five long years for William to prove his homesteead and come back for her. In the meaantime, they kept in touch by mail. That, even, was veery different and difficult out here at that time, than it is now. When William Curry weent to see if he had received a letter from, or to mail a letter to, his sweetheart, he walked from his homestead back to stratton, Nebraska. That may have been part of the reason why sometime during this five years Mr. Curry hired on to hep build the B & M Railroad from Stratton to St. Francis, Kansas. At least he didn't have so far to walk for news from home. The time finally came when Mr. Curry had proved his homestead and boarded the B & M back to Illinois for his sweetheart William Curry and Margaret Brady married in 1891 and journeyed back to their new home.. The Curry's reared a family of five children: Glen, Guy, Sylvia Phillips, Ralph and Goldie McDaniel. Life was hard and frightening at times. When the ment went to Ft. Wallace for supplies the women and children were left alone for several days. There were times that Indian Bands passed through and frightened them, but never caused any trouble. The Curry family continued raising small amounts of corn and wheat but they added some livestock, including hogs, several milk cows and chickens. There were times when they had nothing to feed the hogs, so the saying began of "it's time to go straw the hogs." The Curry's did add to their dugout by building a sod house on top, using the dugout as a basement. They had the sod house addition at the time of Guy's birth. The children worked alongside the parents; they really did not have children's chores and adult chores. The livestock had to be cared for, eggs gathered and, of course, the gathering of cow chips for fuel. They used to hitch a tilt box wagon to a team of horses (they did eventually get work horses), drive to a ranch that raised large herds of cattle and gather cow chips. These were then stored in a shed for winter fuel. The cattle had to be herded to keep them from the crops and garden as there were absolutely no fences. This was usually done by the younger ones. Guy and Glen broke out much of the sod for their fields, still with the walk-behind plow, but now using their work horses. Church and church gatherings were a large source of eentertainment during this time. Guy remembered that as he got older, they used to have "literaries" at the school where they had debates and other types of entertainment, about one a week. Then there were also country dances and community baseeball games. During the early wars, Guy remembers, the farmers were usually asked to stay home and raise crops which, by the way , used to go up in price at that time. Now he has noticed during war times prices tend to drop. Both William Curry and his son, Guy, were at the organizational meeting of The Farmer's Equity Union and both were charter members. This was the beginning of our present cooperative. William Curry served as president of the board for several years during the 1920's. They formed this cooperative to help control the price they received for their crops. Before the cooperative there wass no competition for the independent elevators and the farmer had to take the price offered him for his grains. Guy Curry and his wife, Ida, have two sons, Bill, who lives in Loveland, Colorado, and Wendell, who farms in partnership with his father. Wendell is also a Co-op member and previoouslly served on the Oil Company board. Curry, W. E. - W. E. Curry of Goodland, KS, died 5 Dec 1937. Funeral and burial services were held at Goodland, probably on Tuesday. The cause of his death was not known to relatives here as this was written and they had not been apprised of his sickness. Mr. Curry was born in Ash Grove township about 74 or 75 years ago but went to Kansas in 1885. His wife, who survives was Maggie Bradyof Shelby County. Three sons and two daughters, all living in the west, also are left, together with several grandchildren. S. H. Curry of Lovington, Mrs. J. V. Tressler of Ash Grove and Mrs. Ella Blue of Shelbyville are brother and sisters of the deceased. Mrs. Tressler and Mrs. Blue left Monday for Goodland to attend the funeral. Although Mr. Curry left this community 52 years ago, he has been back on visits at different times and kept in touch with Shelby county affairs and relatives of whom there are quite a number. Windsor Gazette - 9 Dec 1937 |