Santa
Clara County
Biographies
DAVID
A. CURRY
DAVID A. CURRY. The tendency of the highly cultured mind to
seek an outlet in the far west, and while studying its amazing development to
participate in its struggle for supremacy, is evidenced in many instances in
Santa Clara county, but rarely more forcibly than in the case of David A.
Curry, a scholar and educator of influence and extended experience, and at
present at the head of a large furniture business in Palo Alto. Although denied the advantages of influence
and wealth in his youth, Mr. Curry started out in life with many things in his
favor, chief among which was good family, the wholesome atmosphere of a middle west farm, and a good constitution. So well has he adjusted his abilities to his
surroundings and opportunities, that everything about him indicates the well
balanced, well groomed, painstaking and methodical man; one who would do
thoroughly and well whatever seemed to him worth doing at all, and in whom the
habits of caution, precision, and wise conservatism were firmly established.
Mr. Curry was born in Bloomington,
Monroe county, In., February 15, 1860, his family
having been established in the Hoosier state by his paternal grandfather,
Samuel, who came from South Carolina about 1829. His father, William R. Curry, was born
in Monroe county also, and in 1868 moved to Kansas,
where he engaged in extensive stock-raising and general farming operations, and
where he still makes his home. Samuel
Curry died at the home of his son in Kansas at the age of about sixty-eight. David A. Curry was eight years old when
the family moved to Kansas, and he attended the public schools of Winchester,
evidencing studious traits at an early age, and eventually graduating from the
University of Indiana at the age of twenty-three. For the year following his graduation he
taught Latin at the University, and then became principal of the Greensburg,
Ind., high school for two years. A
craving for further knowledge resulted in a post-graduate course at Harvard
College, after which he was principal of the university at Ogden, Utah, for
four years. From there he came to
Redwood City, Cal., and was principal of the high school of that town, and at
the same time took a post-graduate course in Latin and Greek at the Stanford
University.
As is the case with the majority of
educators, Mr. Curry did not accumulate a large competence from his
labors, a drain upon his finances resulting from his post-graduate courses and
special researches. He seriously felt
the strain of so many years of devotion to the higher branches of learning, and
in 1900 sought a change of effort by embarking in the furniture business in
Palo Alto on a small scale. That
excessive learning is not incompatible with financial sagacity is demonstrated to his own and other people’s satisfaction, for his business
has made rapid strides notwithstanding its comparative brief period of
existence, and its owner today is one of the financially substantial men of the
community. He carries a large stock of
all kinds of household and office furniture, and caters to the most exacting,
as well as easiest pleased of patrons.
An additional source of revenue is the West Shore Salt Company, Redwood
Cal., of which he is the organizer and president, and for the starting of which
he himself raised the money. The company
owns two hundred and eleven acres of land adjoining Redwood, and it is
estimated that there are at present twenty-five hundred tons of salt on the
ground.
While Mr. Curry’s reputation as an
educator is unexcelled, his acumen as a scholar unquestioned, and his ability
to successfully manage a furniture business well proved, it is as the promoter
of Camp Curry in the Yosemite that he will be most delightedly and gratefully
remembered. To contribute to the
pleasure and health of humanity is increasingly regarded in the light of a
benefaction, and this genial scholar thus returns to nature as a respite from
the wear of the classics and the worry of business life. Always a lover of nature, and an appreciater of her simple and sublime moods, he became
interested while teaching in organizing camping parties to the Yellowstone
Park, securing pleasure recruits from as far east as Omaha, Kansas City and
Chicago. With a party of thirty-nine
teachers from Denver, Colo., he made a twenty-five-day tour of Yellowstone
Park, in 1895. Later, in 1899, he
founded Camp Curry in the Yosemite. From then until the present time Camp Curry
has known an era of uninterrupted prosperity, its first regular year enrolling
two hundred and ninety guests, its second year four hundred guests, its third,
seven hundred, its fourth eight hundred, and its fifth and sixth thirteen hundred
guests each season. Mr. Curry
spends his summers at the camp, where he is its most welcome guest. It is located one mile up the valley from the
Sentinel Hotel on the electric light line.
Above towers Glacier Point, an almost perpendicular wall of three
thousand two hundred feet; the camp ground is sandy and covered with a carpet
of pine needles. An abundance of water
is piped from the bottom of Glacier Point, and tents are furnished for one or
two or any number as the exigencies of the case may require. A hotel in connection furnishes wholesome and
appetizing viands, but as in the matter of dress and general entertainment, no
attempt is made at ostentation, or at aught that would interfere with perfect
rest, sanitation, or the keenest enjoyment of an outing. An effort is made to harmonize expenses with
the income of the average individual bent upon a pleasure trip, and it is the
first camp of the kind to bring Yosemite rates within the reach of all. Mr. and Mrs. Curry have had twelve
years of experience in the Yosemite and Yellowstone Park, and thoroughly
understand the art of making people feel at home. Mr. Curry has recently purchased Hazel
Green, a somewhat treeless opening of one hundred and sixty acres in the
government timber reservation, in the midst of a splendid forest of sugar pine,
spruce and fir trees, which rise to a height of one hundred and fifty feet. This addition is to be made the base of
supplies for Camp Curry. Its elevation
is five thousand five hundred feet, and with the most delightful climate in
California, as its owner says, “a long, balmy spring day throughout the
summer.” In connection with his camps at
Hazel Green and Yosemite, Mr. Curry is interested in the Santa Fe Stage
Line, from Merced to the Yosemite Valley.
He was married March 6, 1886, to
Jennie Foster, a native of Indiana, and a fellow graduate of the University of
Indiana. They are the parents of three
children, Foster, Mary Louise and Marjorie Lucile. Mr. Curry is a Republican in politics,
and a member and trustee of the Congregational Church, and superintendent of
the Sunday-school. He is also town
trustee of Palo Alto.
[Inserted by D.
Toole.]
DAVID
A. CURRY
1895 Sep 1, The
San Francisco Call, P4, San Francisco, California
Professor David A. Curry of Ogden, Utah,
and formerly of the Indiana State University has been elected principal of the
new Union High School, which will open on Monday, September 14, at Redwood
City.
1899 May 21, The
San Francisco Call, P10, San Francisco, California
Curry’s Yosemite camping excursions –
All expenses, $50, for 12 days, 8 days in the alley; investigate my plan. David A. Curry, care of
Valley Road, 321 Market st., S.F.
1899 Sep 16, San Francisco Chronicle,
P14, San Francisco, California
Hawaiian excursion rate is $185 for 31
days. Call on David A. Curry, 19
Montgomery st.
1900 Feb 13, The
San Francisco Call, P7, San Francisco, California
Affairs at Yosemite
Commissioners Meet to Audit Bills and
Hear Petitions
The Yosemite Valley Commissioners held a
meeting yesterday at the offices of W. W. Foote in the Claus Spreckels building, but owing to the illness of Mr. Foote
and A. J. Lehrman, the secretary of the board, nearly
all the business of any importance went over to the next regular meeting. In the absence of Mr. Foote W. G. Henshaw took the chair and W. H. Metson
performed the duties of Secretary Lehrman. The petition of David A. curry of Redwood
City for permission to use the camp grounds near Glacier Point was referred to
the buildings committee, which will report favorably. <snipped>
1902 Apr 5, San Francisco Chronicle, P2,
San Francisco, California
Stanford Students Create a Disturbance
Warrants Issued as the Result of the
Visit of an “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” Company to Palo Alto
Stanford University, April 4 – As the
result of a joilification at the expense of an “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin” troupe and the proprietor of Nortree Hall,
Palo Alto’s one theater, two Stanford students, Frank E. Nangle
and a freshman named Coen, were this afternoon haled
before Justice S. W. Charles of Palo Alto and bound over until to-morrow for pleading.
M. H. Newberg, ’02, was also honored with a warrant, as was “Richard
Roe,” but neither was visible to the law’s minions this afternoon. The trouble arose from what is known in
college vernacular as a “rough house,” which took place all impromptu just
outside of Nortree Hall last night. Terry’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” company was
billed for an appearance, and among the prospective audience waiting for
admission was a mob of 200 students, with Nangle
and his compatriots as the alleged leaders.
A slight disturbance was created on the narrow stairway leading to the
audience room in the second story, which assumed larger proportions when the
owner of the building, David A. Curry, appeared on the scene with buckets of
water with which he soused the crowd below.
His indignation had waxed so great by to-day that the arrests were
ordered.
1905 Apr 1, Santa Cruz Sentinel, P1,
Santa Cruz, California
Slot Machine Owners are Arrested
Four Palo Alto Men Taken Into Custody by
Police
Palo Alto – Four Palo Alto men – Joseph
Larkin, Charles Anthony, Walter Krouse and F. Slade –
were arrested on warrants sworn out by David A. Curry, charging them with
owning and operating slot machines, contrary to the State law and the city
ordinance. Their trial is set for
Saturday. Trustee Curry commenced his
crusade against the slot machines in Palo Alto several days ago by sending out
letters to the different cigar dealers warning them of trouble if they did not
remove the machines. All the machines,
except those at Larkin’s, were removed until Monday, when they were again put
in place. On Tuesday it was rumored that
the men were to be arrested, but the warrants were not served until next day.
1908 Feb 7, The
San Francisco Call, P8, San Francisco, California
Joins Battle Over
Saloons of Menlo
D. A. Curry Replies to Lawyer Who Defends
Liquor Selling in Town
Palo Alto, Feb. 6 – David A. Curry of
Camp Curry fame in the Yosemite valley, and a furniture dealer of this place,
is after Attorney James T. O’Keefe of Menlo Park hammer and tongs for the
lawyer’s defense of the saloons of Menlo Park before the San Mateo county board
of supervisors Monday. At that time
O’Keefe in a long speech defended the saloons of his home town, stating that
all the rowdyism that occurred in Menlo Park was the
work of college students, claiming with their absence that the town would be
peaceful and quiet. Relative to this
question Curry has given out the following open letter: “To James T. O’Keefe – Dear Sir: I heard your address to the San Mateo
supervisors on last Monday in defense of saloons in general, and Menlo saloons
in particular. Since you uttered your
words in support of saloons Menlo liquor has been directly responsible for the
death of two people, viz., the Chinaman at the Harrington place and the student
Cooley in Palo Alto. Please count for yourself
the tragedies caused by liquor within your Menlo district during the present
winter. Your saloons have caused another
death in Palo Alto recently. Your San
Mateo county liquor was responsible for three lives at once but a few years
ago. Two persons were the innocent
victims of your fondly cherished curse and blight on the Christian civilization
of the twentieth century. I am
thoroughly acquainted with a county in prohibition Kansas which is frequently
sneered at by saloon interests, where there is not one man in jail where ten
are found in your county; nor is there is[sic] one
violent death where there are ten in San Mateo county. The population is about the same. Those who sell liquor and those who encourage
it as a legitimate business should share the responsibility of crime and
disgrace which follow in its wake. Very sincerely, David A. Curry.”
1913 Aug 15, San Francisco Chronicle,
P2, San Francisco, California
Vernal Falls is a Baptismal Font
Infant Daughter of Curry Family
Christened in Rainbow Spray
Special Dispatch
to the “Chronicle.”
Yosemite, August 14 – While the
declining sun glinted through the iridescent spray of the beautiful Vernal
Falls, Wednesday afternoon, the infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Foster
Curry was christened Katherine Cherry Curry by Rev. George Maxwell of the
Episcopal church of Sausalito. The
ceremony was witnessed by the parents and the immediate relatives of the Curry
and Cherry families. A more romantic
scene for a baptism could hardly be found.
Above the party, a great, curling white wave, seventy feet wide, leaped
over the granite cliff to plunge perpendicularly into a pool, 350 feet below,
half veiled in a spray of scintillating rainbows. As the minister reached to the dripping
mosses to gather a handful of water for the performance of the rite, it was
noted by the company present that a brilliant rainbow encircled the group like
a halo. This good omen produced a
profound impression upon the people gathered in the spray of the foaming
falls. The very name Vernal Falls
suggests youth and hope, love and constancy, and the simple ceremony of the
baptism was one of the most impressive spectacles ever beheld
in the Yosemite valley. Katherine Cherry Curry, for whom Vernal Falls
will ever have the deepest significance and most hallowed memory, is the
granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. David A. Curry, the proprietors of Camp
Curry. Her maternal grandparents are Mr.
and Mrs. Francis Halleck Cherry of San Francisco. All were present and beheld the baby
christened in the very dress her mother wore.
1914 Dec 19, San Francisco Chronicle,
P16, San Francisco, California
David A. Curry, “Stentor
of the Yosemite,” and his remarkable motion pictures have been entertaining and
instructing large audiences at the Savoy Theater. Tomorrow and tomorrow night will be the last
times in which to see these wonderful motion pictures of America’s greatest
scenic marvel, and hear the lecture on the beauties and the mysteries of
Yosemite.
1916 May 26, Oakland Tribune, P22, Oakland, California
Curry Publishes New Yosemite Auto Guide
David A. Curry, who has been fighting
the battles of the motorists for years in regard to opening the Yosemite to
automobiles, has issued an attractive automobile guide. This guide contains all the rules for
motorists entering the valley, with maps and general details of the trip. Not only is the guide attractive in
appearance but it is handy for motorists and contains the information they will
need. These guides will be sent free to
those who write to Camp Curry, Yosemite, or Camp Curry headquarters, 687 Market
street, San Francisco.
1916 Nov 4, Oakland Tribune, P5,
Oakland, California
To Visit Islands as a Winter Vacation
Palo Alto, Nov. 4 – David A. Curry
reached Palo Alto yesterday at the conclusion of his Yosemite season and will
be at home until next Tuesday when he sails for a pleasure trip to
Honolulu. Mrs. Curry and his
daughters, Miss Mary and Miss Marjorie, will accompany him. He will take his Yosemite pictures and
deliver lectures while on the island.
Camp Curry, he says, has had this summer the most successful season in
its history.
1917 May 1, Bakersfield Californian, P2,
Bakersfield, California
David Curry, Founder Yosemite Camp, Dead
San Francisco, May 1, David A. Curry,
founder of the first hotel camp in the Yosemite National Park, whose friends throughout the West number
thousands, died today at the German Hospital here. Curry sustained an injury to his foot several
months ago. Blood poisoning set in and
following a relapse the end came.
1917 Apr 30, Oakland Tribune, P2,
Oakland, California
David Curry Dies
San Francisco, April 30 – David A.
Curry, veteran resort proprietor of the Yosemite valley,
died this morning at the German hospital.
Curry was operated upon on Monday and on Saturday was reported to have
been greatly improved. A sudden turn for
the worse occurred during the early morning hours.
1917 May 7, Oakland Tribune, P8, Oakland, California
Spirit of the State Press
Thousands of people from all over the
world have stayed at Camp Curry, in Yosemite valley,
and many Californians, particularly, will read with regret that the master of
the place is gone. David A. Curry
will halloo no more from his place in the valley to Glacier Point until the
cliffs resound with the great volume of his voice. Old-time visitors to the camp will miss the
big plain man who moved among his guests, not saying very much, but giving a
feeling of at-homeness to them. A Big Voice called to him on Monday and he
answered it. And so another picturesque
figure associated with our California mountains almost
as closely as the old-time stage driver has passed on up the trail to the
summit. Stockton Mail.
1948 Oct 11, Oakland Tribune, P13,
Oakland, California
Death Strikes Mrs. Curry, 87
Yosemite National Park, Oct. 11 – Mrs.
Jennie Foster Curry, 87, co-founder of Camp Curry here, died yesterday. Mrs. Curry, whom Park residents called
“Mother,” had been confined to her bed most of the time since she returned to
Yosemite at the beginning of the summer.
However, she still received many of the friends she had made during the
50 years since she and her late husband, David A.
Curry, founded the camp which bears their name.
The Currys developed their world-famed haven
for campers from a beginning of seven tents.
Born in Indiana
A native of Rushville, Ind., Mrs. Curry
was married shortly after her graduation from Indiana University. Both she and her husband were teachers. Before moving to Redwood City in 1895, they
taught in Ohio, Missouri and Utah. Curry
was the first principal of Sequoia Union High School in Redwood City. The couple, who were accompanied by Dr. David
Starr Jordan, Stanford University’s first president, when they set up their
camp here, selected Stanford college students to work for them in the summer. One of the students was Donald B. Tresidder, who later married one of the Currys’
daughters, Mary Louise. Tresidder became president of Stanford. He died in January.
Operated Camp
Mr. and Mrs. Curry operated the camp
together until he died in 1917. She was
active in the management of Camp Curry and of the Yosemite Park & Curry
Company for a quarter century thereafter.
From 1925 until his death, Dr. Tresidder
was president of the company. Yosemite’s
“fire fall” from Glacier Point became a nightly ceremony due to the Currys. The family
saw pack-trails and horse-stage roads give way to modern highways as the years
passed. In ill health during the past
few years, Mrs. Curry spent her winters in Los Angeles. She returned here every
summer, however. Mrs. Curry is survived
by her daughters, Mrs. Tresidder and Mrs. Robert T.
Williams of Honolulu. Mrs. Tresidder succeeded her husband as president of the
Yosemite Park & Curry Company.
Funeral services will be private.
A memorial service will be held at 8 p.m. tomorrow in the Yosemite
Church Bowl.
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1264-1265. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Donna Toole.