Santa Clara County
Biographies
BENJAMIN O. CURRY
BENJAMIN O. CURRY. Picturesque Norway has sent no more
representative son to aid in the upbuilding of Santa Clara county
than Benjamin O. Curry, since 1895 identified with an extensive real-estate and
insurance business in Campbell, and formerly a successful manipulator of mining
interests. Mr. Curry came to the United States in 1872, from Trondhjem, Norway, where he was born May 7, 1852.
His twenty years of existence had been spent on a farm, and his education had
been acquired in the public schools for which his country is famed. On this
side of the water he became immediately identified with iron mining on Lake
Superior, and in 1874 took advantage of the lake region panic and removed to
the silver and gold mines of Nevada. For ten years his success was in the
ascendency, and he was not only one of the discoverers of the Black Rock
District, but left his name immortalized in the state, in the Curry mountains, rich in silver and lead.
Mr. Curry came to Eldorado county,
Cal., in 1884, and after investigating the chances here became extensively
engaged in mining and lumbering, in time organizing the American River Land
& Lumber Company, of which he was manager for two years. At the present
time he owns land in that region, section 3, township 11, range 10, and known
as the Confidence, and is rich in quartz which as yet has not been developed.
The mining property is near the St. Lawrence mine, and in the mind of
Mr. Curry is associated with an important event in his life, which is none
other than his marriage to Caroline M. Hakkemoller,
a native of El Dorado county, and daughter of Henry Hakkemoller,
who was born in Berlin, Germany. Mr. Hakkemoller
began life in the mining country as a farmer, freighter, and miner, and also
conducted a large general merchandise store in the early days. Success came his
way, also wealth and prominence, and he died in 1888 with a standing which any
man might envy.
In 1891 Mr. Curry came to Campbell and bought ten acres
of land in the foothills a mile southwest of the town, which he set out in
apricots, prunes and oranges, the latter being especially thrifty owing to the
entire absence of frost. In 1895 he entered upon a large real-estate business,
and rents, insurance, and notary public enterprise, and since then has been the
means of locating hundreds of people in the town and surrounding country. In
his capacity as a fruit grower he is a director, and one of the chief promoters
of the Central Santa Clara Fruit Company. For years he has taken a keen
interest in Republican undertakings, and aside from other offices of trust and
responsibility, is at present serving his second term as a member of the school
hoard at Campbell. He is a charter member of Lodge No. 42,
I. O. O. F., of Campbell, and joined the order in Eureka, Nev.
He is also a member of the Fraternal Aid and the Orchard City Grange, of
Campbell, known as Patrons of Husbandry. Too much cannot be said of the
sterling traits of character which have encompassed the success of
Mr. Curry, or of the fine and honorable means by which his competence has
been earned. He is rich in the friendship of people in
high places in the county, and by all is esteemed for his public-spiritedness,
enterprise and generosity.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard 09 May 2015.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages
596-599. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Marie
Hassard.