Tazewell County IL Archives News.....William Reid Curran, 1854-1921 1921
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Deb Haines http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00003.html#0000719 October 24, 2011, 8:36 pm

Journal Of IL State Historical Society, Vol 14 1921
(By Ralph Dempset.)

William Reid Curran was born in Hardin County, Ohio, December 3, 1854, and 
died at bis home in Pekin, Illinois, February 26, 1921.

One who rises to distinction above his fellow men, does so by reason of his 
exceptional value as a citizen and a public servant. Those qualities of a man 
which, blended together, determine his character, are difficult to portray. 
What Judge Curran achieved in his various activities evidences best the manner 
of man he was. From his works accomplished we may gain knowledge of his 
character and know why he was honored by his fellows.

When one knows the habits and environment of the forbears, less difficulty is 
encountered in tracing to their origin, virtues and characteristics found in 
the offspring, than when that knowledge is wanting. Not much is known of the 
antecedents of William Reid Curran. His father, Thomas Smith Curran and mother 
Margaret Reid Curran with their family, consisting of William Reid Curran, and 
another son Charles who died in early manhood, moved from their home in Hardin 
County, Ohio, to a farm in Livingston County, Illinois in 1859 where they 
lived until 1865 when the family moved to the Village of Chatsworth, Illinois. 
Here Wilbam Reid Curran grew to manhood, and availed himself of the rather 
limited school facilities which Chatsworth offered at that early period.
He had none of the advantages that wealth, social position or family influence 
may offer and he must have concluded in his early youth that such progress as 
he was to make, must come from his unaided efforts. Certain it is that with 
limited schooling, he became an educated man; with no assistance from his 
family, he established himself in the profession of the law and amassed a 
competency; without family influence or prestige, he rose to distinction and 
honor in his State.

Poorly equipped as he was, with knowledge gained from books; without college 
or university training and with his education in the law such as it was, 
gained by study in the office of Attorney Samuel T. Fosdick at Chatsworth, 
Illinois, over a period of two years during which he also taught a country 
school near Forrest, Illinois, on July 4, 1876 at the age of twenty-one years, 
he was admitted to the Bar of the State of Illinois. His admission to practice 
in the United States District and Circuit Courts took place in the month of 
April 1888, and in March 1897, he was admitted to practice before the Supreme 
Court of the United States.

His first effort to establish himself in his profession was at the little Town 
of Delavan, Tazewell County, Illinois, in the year 1876 immediately following 
his admission to the Bar. He remained at Delavan with but indifferent success 
until the year 1880 when he moved to Pekin, the County Seat of Tazewell 
County, where he continued in the active practice of the law until a few days 
before his death. On December 28, 1876, not long after locating in Delavan, he 
was united in marriage with Mary C. Burgess and she and one daughter Bessie C. 
Smith survive him.

His strong will, tenacity of purpose and determination to advance himself in 
the law, were put to the test when he entered the field in Tazewell County. 
Here he had to meet and cope with practitioners, ripe in experience and 
skilled in the arts of their profession, who were the peers of any of the 
lawyers of Central Illinois. Among these able lawyers he was soon accepted as 
an equal, and in time he was recognized as the leader of the Bar of his 
County, a position which he held until he gave up active practice in the 
Courts two or three years prior to his death.

William Reid Curran was possessed of unusual strength of will, a clear vision, 
confidence in his fellow men and an abiding faith in the Christian Religion. 
He had a logical and retentive mind, stored with a mass of useful information 
which he commanded with facility.

He was fearless in the discharge of his duties and tireless and ardent in his 
labors; once having formed his opinion and determined upon his plan of action, 
nothing would change his conviction or cause him to waiver in his course, save 
proof that he was in the wrong. His influence in public affairs was always 
toward the right; his moral courage never was questioned.

No opponent ever concluded an engagement with him at the Bar without respect 
for his ability as a lawyer. No difficult problem ever discouraged him. He was 
quick to see advantages in a situation which to his associates seemed 
hopeless. At all times respectful to the Courts, he maintained his dignity as 
a lawyer and a man, and nothing moved him from his chosen course in the 
furtherance justly of his client's cause. Of commanding presence, possessed of 
unusual oratorical ability and dramatic talent, the recognition which he 
gained among his fellow lawyers of Central Illinois as a trial lawyer of 
unusual skill and ability, he never lost. For a period of more than twenty-
five years preceding his death, he appeared as counsel in every important case 
tried in the Tazewell County Circuit Court and his aid and counsel were often 
sought by lawyers and litigants in the Courts of many Counties throughout the 
State. If he was intemperate in anything, it was in work and in times of 
business stress, he drew heavily upon his seeming abundance of physical and 
nervous strength.

He was active in the affairs of The Tazewell County, State and American Bar 
Associations. He was President of the Tazewell County Bar Association in 1902-
1903, and the lawyers of this State honored him by electing him President of 
the State Bar Association for the year 1910-1911.

His rare attainments as a lawyer were recognized by the Judges as well as the 
lawyers of his Circuit, and from 1886 until 1894 he served as Master-in-
Chancery of Tazewell County. The voters of his County honored him by electing 
him County Judge in 1894, a position which he held until 1898.

"While he was most widely known as a lawyer and although the demands of his 
professional life were most heavy, he applied himself with diligence to many 
tasks in other lines, and took time to share with his fellow men the 
obligations of citizenship.

In 1911, he organized the Banner Special Drainage & Levee District in the 
Counties of Peoria and Fulton in the State of Illinois, whereby thousands of 
acres of overflow land were reclaimed from the waters of the Illinois River 
and reduced to cultivation in spite of difficulties which would have 
disheartened one of more limited vision and less courage.

As a Director of the Lincoln Circuit Marking Association, and as a member of 
the Tazewell County Historical Society, and a Director of the Illinois State 
Historical Society, he displayed a keen interest in the furtherance of the 
objects of those societies, as is so well known to members thereof with whom 
he was associated.

He was instrumental in the organization of the Tazewell County Memorial 
Association, of which he was President at the time of his death, and during 
the last two years of his life, he gave freely of his time to the end that 
that association might bring about the erection of a suitable memorial in 
commemoration of the soldiers of all wars who had claimed Tazewell County as 
their home.

His faith in men was constant. He was ever ready with encouragement and aid 
for those who had failed or saw disaster confronting them. That his efforts to 
aid his fellow men sometimes came to naught, as seemingly they did at times, 
never discouraged him or weakened his conviction that the good in men far 
outweighed the evil in them and that his helping hand might be all that was 
needed to bring uppermost the good and turn them from the path of failure to 
the highway of accomplishment.

His admiration for Abraham Lincoln, knew no bounds, and he never lost an 
opportunity to add to his knowledge of the life of the great emancipator. His 
address on the life of Lincoln delivered at Pekin on the occasion of the 
Lincoln Day Celebration February 12,1909, later printed in pamphlet form, 
attracted favorable attention throughout the nation.

This address was an unusual literary production and proved that its author had 
a rare knowledge of the character of the martyred President Lincoln.

The Congregational Church of which he was a member, knew him as a worker in 
the vineyard and as one always ready to give freely of his time and to aid 
financially in advancing the cause of the Christian religion.

As one of the founders of The Pekin Union Mission, he had the satisfaction of 
living to see the abundant good work of the Mission bear fruit. A few years 
ago he purchased and gave to the Pekin Union Mission, a building adjoining the 
property then owned by the Mission, in order that the work of that institution 
might be not retarded for lack of proper space. Fully conscious that the gift 
without the giver is bare, he took an active part in the conduct of the 
affairs of the Mission and continued as a teacher in the Mission Sunday School 
long after his physical strength had so failed him, that he was compelled to 
remain seated in conducting his class work. His sincere and unselfish devotion 
to this work after he had been forbidden by his physician to continue it, best 
evidences his keen desire to aid in the betterment of those in his home City 
who otherwise would have grown up without the good influences of the Pekin 
Union Mission. Although he reached a high station in his chosen profession and 
was honored for his activities in civic affairs, he will be as long and 
favorably remembered for what, he gave and what he did to help make the poor 
boys and girls of his home City, better men and women through his mission 
work, as for any other phase of his activities.

To his memory can be most fittingly applied this tribute:
He never failed to march breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break; 
Never thought though right were worsted, "Wrong would triumph; Held we fall to 
rise, are beaten to fight harder, Sleep to wake.


Additional Comments:
Source: Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Published Quarterly 
by the Illinois State Historical Society, Springfield, Illinois. Vol. 14 April-
July, 1921 No. 1-2.

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