Charles Forrest Curry (March 14, 1858 – October 10, 1930) was an American businessman and politician who served nine terms as a U.S. representative from California from 1913 until his death in 1930.
Early life and education Curry was born in Naperville, Illinois in 1858 and attended the common schools and the Episcopal Academy in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. He studied one year at the University of Washington in Seattle and was also educated by a private tutor. In 1872, he moved with his parents to Seattle and then to San Francisco the following year, settling in the South of Market neighborhood.
Career
There, Curry engaged in agricultural pursuits and the cattle, lumber and mining businesses. He served as a member of the State Assembly in 1887 and 1888. He became admitted to the bar of San Francisco in 1888 and was then the superintendent of Station B post office, San Francisco, from 1890 to 1894. After that Curry served as clerk of San Francisco city and county between 1894 and 1898. He was the Secretary of State of California from 1899 to 1910.
He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 1910. The following year, he was appointed Building and Loan Commissioner of California. In the same year, he served as the representative to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition for the Pacific Coast and Intermountain States.
Congress Curry was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-third Congress. He served eight consecutive terms from March 4, 1913, until his death in Washington, D.C., October 10, 1930 at which point his son won his seat as a write-in candidate.
In the 67th Congress, he presented a paper titled "Alien Land Laws and Alien Rights." In it, he wrote "The miscegenation of the white with the yellow race always results in the production of a hybrid mongrel mentally, morally, and physically inferior to either race, inheriting the mental, moral, and physical defects of both parents."
During his tenure as a congressman, he served as chairman of the Committee on Territories (Sixty-sixth through Seventy-first Congresses).
Personal life and death Curry died in Washington, D.C. on October 10, 1930. After his death, he was interred in Abbey Mausoleum (near Arlington National Cemetery), Arlington, Virginia. He was reinterred in National Memorial Park, Falls Church, Virginia.
Curry was the father of Charles Forrest Curry, Jr.
Legacy In 1921, Curry had a new elementary school named in his honor in Vallejo, California. Charles F. Curry school was located at 321 Wallace Avenue, and was in operation from 1921 until 1973. The grounds also housed Carol Vista school, a facility for handicapped and special needs students.
Electoral history
See also List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1900–1949)
References
Political Graveyard website
External links