Lewis V. Curry, the Postmaster of Fenton and a prominent hardware merchant, was born in Brighton, Livingston County, Mich., October 25, 1837. He is one of the most successful business men of this village and exerts a broad influence in the community. His father, Lewis M. Curry, was born in New York, January 31, 1807, and died at Brighton, July 14, 1842. The grandfather, John Curry, was a native of New York, and like his son, passed his last days at Brighton. The ancestry is supposed to be of Scotch extraction but the family for generations has lived in the North of Ireland. The great-grandfather of our subject, William Curry, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and lived to be almost ninety-six years old.

The grandfather of our subject came to Michigan about the age of forty-four, he was a highly respected citizen and a valuable member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His son, Lewis M., became first a teacher and then a lawyer, graduating at Owego. He was married February 25, 1835, to Sarah A. Maynard and the following year came West, where he engaged in the mercantile business in Brighton, Livingston County. On account of ill health he subsequently removed too Smithfield Pa., but returned to Michigan and undertook teaching, and died in 1842. He was a man of marked ability and had purposed to practice law eventually. The mother of our subject still lives in Brighton at the age of seventy-three, and she is now the wife of David Thompson. She is well known as a stanch Presbyterian. their were two children by the first marriage and three by the second.

Mr. Curry was the first white child born in Brighton and was quite young when his father died. He took a course at the Normal School, Ypsilanti, also at the Commercial College at Detroit, and until he was fifteen years old he worked in his stepfather's foundry, thus obtaining a good knowledge of that business. He spent five years clerking in a store and somewhat later clerked for a year in Brighton. In 1852 he went too Colorado across the plains and saw much of the various tribes of Indians and thousand of buffaloes. They located at Boulder and mined on the Boulder River which they changed from its natural channel, and were successful for about six months. Denver had then but one log house "The house that Jack built." Returning to the East he again resumed clerking.

In June, 1861, Mr. Curry enlisted in the army. He raised nearly the whole of Company K, Ninth Michigan Infantry and was made its Second Lieutenant. The Ninth built forts at the junction of the Salt River with the Ohio, and at various other points. This regment was placed mostly in positions of trust and did not see much active service. In 1862 it was sent to guard the Nashville and Louisville Railroad, and took part in the battle of Ft. Donaldson. It had the honor of encountering the great raider, Morgan, May 5, 1862, and drove him from point to point. Lieut. Curry was in charge of a force of about three hundred men at Murfreesboro, previous to the time when Gen. Forrest attacked that city with three mounted cavalry, and our subject was captured with the entire force, but he slipped out through the lines and escaped. Having reported to Nashville he was sent to Camp Chase at Columbus, Ohio, to take charge of the paroled prisoners, but in October he returned to Nashville in time to participate in the battle of Stone River, after which he resigned on account of being afflicted with inflammation of the eyes and was nearly blind for four years. He was offered a captaincy if he would return to the army, but ill health prevented an acceptance of this honor.

In February, 1863, Lieut. Curry located at Fenton and engaged in the grocery business and two years later took up the drug business. In the fall of 1867 he purchased a hardware store in which business he still continues. He was married August 12, 1862, at 199 Cass Street, Detroit, too Miss Abbie J., daughter of Chamberlain and Lucy (Thompson) Barry.

Mrs. Curry was born in Sodus, N. Y., May 16, 1842. Mr. Barry now lives Fowlerville, Mich., Mr. and Mrs. Curry have seven children, Ira G., who graduated at the Michigan University in the Class of '86 and is in the hardware business at Owosso; Arthur L., who is in the same line of business here; Herbert V. (deceased); twins who died in infancy; Lura May and Grace A., and to all of these has been granted an excellent education.

Mr. Curry has been active politically and is frequently a delegate to Republican conventions. Besides being Chairman of the township Committee he has been Marshal of Fenton Township, Clerk, and a member of the Common Council, and was appointed Postmaster of Fenton in July, 1890. The Fenton Union Agricultural Society has for eight years had his services as Treasurer. He is a member of the Board of Trustees in the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which he and Mrs. Curry both belong, and he is identified with the Knights of Honor and the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is Commander at present.