- George Law Curry
Infobox Politician
name = George Law Curry
width = 180px
height = 200px
caption = George Law Curry (1853)
small_
office = Governor ofOregon Territory
term_start = 1854
term_end = 1859
predecessor =John Wesley Davis
successor = position dissolved
constituency =
majority =
office2 = Secretary of the Oregon Territory
term_start2 =May 14 1853
term_end2 =January 27 1855
predecessor2 =Edward D. Hamilton
successor2 =Benjamin F. Harding
constituency =
majority2 =
office3 =
term_start3 =
term_end3 =
predecessor3 =
successor3 =
constituency3 =
majority3 =
birth_date = birth date|1820|7|2|mf=y
birth_place =Philadelphia ,Pennsylvania , U.S.
death_date = death date and age|1878|7|28|1820|7|2|mf=y
death_place = Portland,Oregon , U.S.
party = Democrat
relations =
spouse = Chloe Boone
civil partner =
children =
residence =
occupation =Politician Newspaper Publisher
religion =
website =
footnotes =George Law Curry (1820-1878) was a
U.S. political figure and newspaper publisher most notable for his activities inOregon .Curry County, Oregon is named in his honor. His wife Chloe Curry (née Boone) was the great-great-granddaughter of frontiersmanDaniel Boone .Early life
Curry was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1820, but spent some of his childhood inCaracas, Venezuela . In his adult life, he would enter journalism, editing a St. Louis newspaper before emigrating overland to theOregon Territory in 1846.Oregon
Once in Oregon, Curry's experience in the newspaper business landed him a job editing the "
Oregon Spectator ", an early newspaper owned byGeorge Abernethy . Abernethy's views that politics should be kept out of the "Spectator" lead Curry to resign from the paper after only a year and a half. Curry's belief that this policy was censorship put him at odds with the paper's management. He soon set up the "Oregon Free Press" in Oregon City in competition to his former employer.Curry served as Secretary of the Oregon Territory, twice stepping in as Acting Territorial Governor:
May 19 ,1853 -December 2 , 1853; upon Acting GovernorJoseph Lane 's return to Congress and for six months in 1854, upon the resignation of John W. Davis. PresidentFranklin Pierce then officially appointed Curry to the position, which he held until Oregon Statehood in 1859. As a prominent local man, Curry was received much more favorably by the population whereas most of his predecessors were seen as outsiders from the East Coast. During theYakima War in 1855, Governor Curry raised a force of 2,500 volunteers and led them into battle in support of federal troops.Oregon prepared for statehood under Governor Curry, approving a state constitution and electing
John Whiteaker as the first Governor of the State of Oregon in 1857. OnFebruary 14 ,1859 ; Congress passed the Oregon Statehood Bill, and PresidentJames Buchanan signed it; creating Oregon as the thirty-third state of the Union. Upon this act, Curry's position was abolished.Later life
After leaving office, Curry attempted a 1860 run for the
United States Senate , losing by one vote in the State Legislature.Lansing, Ronald B. 2005. "Nimrod: Courts, Claims, and Killing on the Oregon Frontier". Pullman: Washington State University Press. p. 267.] He diedJuly 28 ,1878 and buried at Lone Fir Cemetery,Portland, Oregon .ources
* [http://www.osl.state.or.us/home/lib/governors/glc.htm Oregon State Library]
* Klooster, Karl. Round the Roses II: More Past Portland Perspectives, pg. 97, 1992 ISBN 0-9619847-1-6
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.