Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Currie, Samuel 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com December 3, 2007, 12:32 am

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1885

Samuel Currie, retired farmer, resident at Morrison, has been a citizen of 
Whiteside County since 1838, when he became a member of its pioneer 
agricultural element, and has since been a factor in the development of 
Northwestern Illinois. He was born Aug. 15, 1810, in Roxburgshire, Scotland, 
on the river Tweed. His father, John Currie, was a native of Yetholm, in the 
same shire, and was born Oct. 25, 1776. His mother, Hannah (Lockey) Currie was 
born in Ilderton, Northumberlandshire, England, Nov. 11, 1784. The marriage of 
his parents took place at Jedburgh, May 27, 1805, and in May, 1818, the family 
emigrated to America. They settled at first in the State of New York, where 
they remained until November, 1819, when they went to York, in Canada (now 
Toronto). In March, 1820, they took possession of a farm in Scarborough, in 
the Dominion, where the father died, Sept. 17, 1830. The mother died Dec. 18, 
1861, in East Whitby, Canada. There are (in 1885), but four survivors of their 
ten children, who were born in the following order: Sarah (deceased) was the 
wife of Joseph Lundy. James is living in retirement in the township of Whitby, 
Canada; has been for many years a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
John was a farmer; Andrew was a merchant tailor, and Robert, formerly a farmer 
in Kansas, are all deceased. George is engaged in the business of sheep-
raising in Montana. Mark was during his lifetime a carriage builder and 
blacksmith in Canada. Margaret is deceased. William resides in Lloyd, Wis., 
and was a millwright before his retirement from active business life. Mr. 
Currie attained to adult age in the Dominion, and when about 24 years of age 
rented a saw-mill and engaged in manufacture of lumber, in which he was 
interested about five years. During that period Mackenzie's Rebellion, known 
also to the history as the Patriot War, startled the representatives of the 
British government in the Dominion, and Mr. Currie joined the insurgents in 
the ill-fated struggle. He was shot through his right arm in one of the 
encounters of the conflict, and has suffered from the consequences all his 
life. He found Canadian rule no more palatable after the rebellion had been 
crushed than before, and, in June, 1838, he bid a final farewell to 
monarchical government and came to Illinois, locating primarily in Carroll 
County, where he remained one year. In 1839 he came to Whiteside County and 
entered a claim of 240 acres of land on section 30, Clyde Township, which 
comprised 160 acres of prairie and 80 acres of timber—one of the finest and 
most promising tracts of land in the township and which he converted into a 
model farm. He resided on his estate 25 years, pursuing his agricultural 
projects and engaged during the latter part of that period in loaning money. 
He has operated to some extent in the business last named since his removal to 
Morrison, in October, 1864, when he retired from active participation in a 
laborious life. He is the owner of considerable property, variously situated 
in the county. Mr. Currie has been married twice. He first formed a 
matrimonial alliance, in Scarborough, Canada, June 15, 1833, with Jane 
Patrick, who died May 27, 1840, after becoming the mother of two sons—Asa and 
John—who followed their young mother to the silent land beyond while they were 
still in youth. She was born June 4, 1812. Mr. Currie was united in marriage 
to Julia Thomas, Sept. 17, 1840, in the township of Mt. Pleasant. Mrs. Currie 
was born Dec. 10, 1817, in St. Clair, Ill. Her parents, Anthony M. and Jane 
(Jordan) Thomas, were born in South Carolina, and were married in 1805, in St. 
Clair County, whither the former had come in 1804. Anthony Thomas was a 
soldier of 1812. He came to Mt. Pleasant in 1837, where he died Sept. 8, 1850. 
His wife died Sept. 12, 1858.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

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