Person:Stephen Curry (2)

Stephen Douglas Curry was probably named after Stephen Douglas, the candidate who was defeated by Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860, the year Stephen was born. According to his obituary, Stephen married Nancy Catherine Hart in 1885. Sometime around the turn of the century (in 1889 according to his obituary in the SSP Daily Reporter) Stephen and Nancy Curry moved to South St. Paul, where his sister Mary 'Molly' Catherine Curry Phillips had come a few years earlier. (She was a founding member of the South Park Congregational Church, later called Clark Memorial.)

Stephen was a building contractor. In July 1905 he started to build the home of C. W. Clark at 1905 Bryant Ave. in South St. Paul. He also ran for City Council in that city and during the years before his death he worked for the city water dept. In March 1915 he was injured in a fall while doing some construction work, according to an article in the So. St. Paul Reporter. That newspaper also reported on 7 July 1916 that "Mr. and Mrs. S. D. Curry of South Park are staying at White Bear Lake." Their son Craig Curry was spending two weeks vacation there as well.

On April 28, 1925 S. D. Curry was run down by an automobile while running across the street at Concord and Bryant avenues to catch a streetcar at about 7:30 A.M. His left knee, arm and shoulder, and the side of his face was bruised and he was taken to Northern Pacific Hospital.

Stephen and Nancy were active members of Clark Memorial Church from 1899. A reception was given at the church in honor of their golden wedding anniversary on May 5, 1935. Stephen served the church as a trustee, treasurer, and as deacon. He was also a charter member of the S.S.P. I.O.O.F. and Riverview Rebekah lodges.

His obituary in the Reporter on 21 January 1936 said he had been a resident of South Park since 1899. He died at his home following an illness of seven months; he had spent time in the West Side General (later called Riverview) and University Hospitals. Survivors listed were his widow, Nancy; daughters Pheta Snyder of Owatonna and Forrest Derr of South Park; son Craig Curry of Washington, D.C.; sisters Mrs. A. Gilbreath of St. Paul; Mrs. Alice Gray of Madison, Wis.; and Mrs. Viola Clark of Shelbyville, IL; brother E.C. Curry of Pierre, SD; 8 grandchildren and 6 great-granchildren. A son, Shirley Curry, died in SSP on 3 March 1936. Pallbearers at Stephen's funeral were SSP mayor S. W. Dennison, Karl K. Kochendorfer, Harry Fagen, Harold E. Sloan and Herbert and Elmer Swanson. He may have had relatives in Beloit, WI as the newspaper reported that he had returned from there after several weeks on Jan. 20, 1917.