Palm Beach County FlArchives Biographies.....Currie, George G. June 6, 1867 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 March 30, 2010, 9:11 am Source: The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol.II pg.215-6 1923 Author: The History of Florida: Past & Present CURRIE, GEORGE GRAHAM. An author and scholar, “Poet Laureate of Florida”, GEORGE GRAHAM CURRIE enjoys his well earned literary honors as an incident to a very practical career as a lawyer and business man. Life has been for him one long opportunity to accomplish work and gain experience of the world. He was born in the Province of Quebec, Canada, June 6, 1867, son of FRANCIS P. and ELLEN H. (CURRIE)[sic] CURRIE. He had a public school education, and at the age of nineteen began travels that carried him to many parts of North America and for two years he journeyed to and fro in Europe. In the course of these adventures he made a five hundred mile canoe trip from Juneau, Alaska, to the Skeena River in British Columbia. Mr. CURRIE became a resident of West Palm Beach in 1895, one year after the Florida East Coast Railway was completed to that place. Consequently he was a pioneer of the community, and since then has been one of the most active and influential factors in the development of the town and county. He was admitted to the Florida bar in 1897, and for a quarter of a century has carried on an extensive practice as a lawyer. At successive times he has been associated with some of the leading members of the South Florida bar, including C.C. CHILLINGWORTH, MITCHELL D. PRICE, M.D. CARMICHAEL, JEROME E. WIDEMAN, and his present law partner, R.S. YEOMANS. In 1906 Mr. CURRIE married Miss LULU MARION ANGEVINE of Michigan. They were married at West Palm Beach. They have two children BANZAI and IMOGENE. Mr. CURRIE organized and was the first president of the Farmer’s Bank and Trust Company, has been president of the Curried Investment and Title Guaranty Company and was founder of the Palm Beach County Fair Association. He has served as secretary of the West Palm Beach Public Library, and has been active in various literary and social clubs. He is also a former mayor of West Palm Beach, and at one time was treasurer of Dade County. Some of the outstanding achievements credited to him in the development of this section should receive mention here. His first enterprise was Pleasant City, located on the Dixie Highway, in the North Side of West Palm Beach, a subdivision for colored [sic] people. Following that he purchased the land comprising the former estate of JOSEPH JEFFERSON, the great actor, who for many years had made his winter home here and whose presence lent distinction to West Palm Beach. This property Mr. CURRIE had developed into a very high class residence subdivision known as Jefferson Park, which easily ranks as the best residential section of the city. Mr. CURRIE took special pains to see that the property maintained a high character in keeping with the illustrious artist whose name it bears. This was followed by the opening and development of Bethesda Park in the north section of the city, fronting on Lake Worth and extending to the Dixie Highway, another high class residence subdivision with all modern municipal improvements. Mr. CURRIE then opened and developed Osceola Park at Delray, the flourishing town on the Dixie Highway in the southern part of Palm Beach County. Along the Dixie Highway he opened Rustic Bridge Park at Pompano and Acre Home Park, a subdivision seven miles north of the city, a very fortunate location on account of its nearness to the new industrial town of Kelsey City. His excursions into literary authorship have been made chiefly in the field of poetry. Mr. CURRIE is author of “Sonnets and Love Songs”, published in 1912; “In the Other Man’s Place”, published in 1913; “Epitaphs, Epigrams and other Ephemera”, published in 1914, but his most notable work, and perhaps the one that will be longest associated with his fame as a poet is “Songs of Florida”, recently published by James T. White & Company of New York. This volume has had a most generous appreciation and recognition not only in Florida but throughout the United States, and it has been accorded many flattering reviews in newspapers, literary journals and by individuals. One commendation especially prized by its author is a letter from United States Senator DUNCAN U. FLETCHER of Jacksonville, a warm personal friend of Mr. CURRIE and himself a writer and literary critic as well as Florida’s greatest statesman. The foreword to “Songs of Florida”, contributed by Judge JOE EARMAN of West Palm Beach, contains a sentence that merits quotation in this brief biography: “Those who read this volume and do not know Hon. GEORGE GRAHAM CURRIE are hereby assured that he is a pioneer citizen of West Palm Beach, one of the original developers of this section, and of whom it can be said without contradiction that he has done more than any other one individual to develop Palm Beach County and its vast resources”. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/palmbeach/bios/currie19bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/flfiles/ File size: 5.5 Kb