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”.
Presented by Nancy Rayburn