Martin E. Curran Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1377-1378 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	MARTIN E. CURRAN, one of the most honored citizens of Fort Pierre, 
was born in Port Washington, Ozaukee county, Wisconsin, on the 22d of 
February, 1849. His father, Thomas Curran, who was born in Kilkenny, 
Ireland, whence he accompanied his parents on their removal to America, 
became one of the pioneers of Wisconsin, where he died when our subject 
was a boy of about eight years, the mother surviving a number of years. 
The subject passed his early youth in Columbia county, Wisconsin, where 
he received his educational training in the common schools. He learned 
the carpenter's trade, to which he continued to devote his attention in 
Wisconsin until coming to South Dakota, in 1883. He took up his 
residence in Fort Pierre and turned his attention to contracting and 
building, meeting with success in this vocation, in which he has ever 
since been concerned, being one of the reliable and straightforward 
business men of the town and one whose name is a synonym of absolute 
integrity. Upon the organization of Stanley county, in 1890, he was 
elected its treasurer, serving three years and giving a most 
satisfactory administration of fiscal affairs, while in the same year he 
was elected city treasurer, of which position he remained incumbent for 
six consecutive years, while for an equal period he held the office of 
treasurer of the school district, being a member of the board of 
education and one of its most progressive and valued workers for nine 
years, within which time was erected the fine union school building in 
Fort Pierre, his influence having been most potent in bringing this 
improvement to a satisfactory issue, so that the building stands in a 
sense as a monument to his enterprise and public spirit. Within late 
years his hearing has become quite seriously impaired and he has thus 
refused to accept further nomination for public office though he still 
maintains the deepest interest in all that concerns the progress and 
material and civic prosperity of his home town and county as well as the 
state of his adoption. He is a man of broad information, having read 
widely and with marked discrimination end haying an excellent library of 
the best standard literature. He is well known in the county and has the 
unqualified respect of all classes. In politics he is a staunch 
Republican and fraternally is identified with the Masonic order and the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, while in 1884 he was one of the 
organizers of the local lodge of Good Templars in Fort Pierre, taking an 
active part in its work until the organization lapsed, after a period of 
about three years. 

	At Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on the 16th of June, 1873, was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Curran to Miss Charlotte E. Coleman, who 
was born and reared in that state, and they have four living children, 
Harry, Richard, Clinton and Wallace. Harry, the eldest of the children, 
enlisted in the Thirty-fourth Regiment of United States Volunteers, with 
which he went to the Philippines, serving nineteen months and being 
mustered out in the city of San Francisco. In April, 1901, he was in the 
state of Washington, and since that time his parents have lost all trace 
of him, causing to fall upon them a great burden of grief and constant 
anxiety.