James Andrew Curran

GEDCOM Note

I have copy of Death Certificate

The Daily Missoulian, Tuesday Morning, May 28, 1918

James A. Curran Killed by Train The Daily Missoulian May 28, 1918

Evaro Resident Run Down by Butte Stub Yesterday at Milltown.

Hold Inquest Today

Accident Happens While on Way Home From Visit With Daughter

James A. Curran, a resident of Evaro, was killed instantly yesterday afternoon at Milltown when a Northern Pacific passenger train, the Butte Stub, struck the automobile he was driving at the crossing of the Blackfoot road. He was ridding alone. The car was demolished. Mr. Curran had been to Twin Creeks, up the Blackfoot, to visit his daughter, Mrs. Taggert, and was on his way to Missoula when the accident happened. Coroner Abbon Lucy was notified and the remains were brought to the Lucy undertaking rooms, were the inquest will be held today. The body will be taken to Stevensville Wednesday where funeral services will be held and internment will be made. In Montana 17 Years The deceased was 41 years old and came from Kansas City to Montana 17 years ago. For 12 years he resided in the Blackfoot valley, moving there to Miller Creek in 1913. Just a year ago he moved to Evaro. Surviving are a wife and nine children, the latter, Mrs. Myrtle Goff and Robert Curran of Stevensville; Mrs. Taggert of Twin Creeks; Emery, Lyle, Rosie, Jack, Harvey and Elma, all of Evaro.

Burial in Missoula Montana

James Andrew Curran was a farmer most of his life. When the family first came to Montana they settled on the McDermott ranch in the Bitter Root. Then James leased a ranch from Dr. Heidleman at the top of Bass Hill in the Bitter Root. Dr Heidleman was a doctor for the Indians at Jocko on the Flathead Indian Reservation. James ran a large herd of cattle and the main crop was hay. At haying time, the family men all came to put up the hay and the women came to cook. Bass Lake was near the ranch and the Bass School was a one room school that many of the Templeton and Curran relatives attended through the eighth grade. The Curran family usually moved to Stevensville on the east side of the river during the months of May and June to escape Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever since there was no vaccine during those years. The Curran family later lived near St. Mary's Mission in Stevensville and soon all of the other family members moved to town. James Curran took over the telephone office and did really well. When the flood hit Missoula in 1908 James spent a lot of time there repairing phone lines. He paddled across the Clark Fork River with the phone lines in his boat and reconnected the telephone lines form the north to the south side of Missoula. James was good with a hammer and saw, and tried hard to invent a shingling machine without results. The family lived in Stevensville until Rose was in the first grade in 1913. From there, James moved his family to a little place at the top of Bass Hill where Harvey was born. Then he later leased a ranch from Dr. McCullough on Miller Creek just outside of Missoula. Rose attended school at Miller Creek. James and the doctor were in partnership and had around 3500 sheep on the ranch. The family had lived on Miller Creek for two years. When the lease on the ranch was up in 1916, James moved his family to Evaro Montana about ten miles north of Missoula. He worked the railroad and in the woods. He drove a team of from four to six horses which pulled a large wagon and hauled logs to the tracks where they were loaded on the Northern Pacific Railroad and shipped to lumber mills. On May 27, 1918 when Rose was 12 years of age, her sister Elsie came from Bonner, Montana (just outside of Missoula) to visit the family. Her father James drove Elsie home to Bonner in his car. A brother Bill went with them. Bill decided to stay for a visit and James started home alone. His car was hit by a Northern Pacific train at 4:50 pm in Bonner and he was killed instantly. He was 47 years of age and left his wife and family of nine children. The authorities sent a telegram from Missoula to Evaro to inform Maude of his death. The date of his death was May 27, 1918. The railroad paid the Curran family a small amount of money because of the accident but it was not enough to take care of the family. Maude continued to keep place at Evaro. She took in washing for the men who worked in the lumber mills and raised cows, horses, and chickens. The older boys were still at home and worked in small sawmills in the woods around Evaro to help support the family.

by

Angela Hastin Sherwood, Oregon, USA

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry.com 1910 United States Federal Census Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006; @R17@ Year: 1910; Census Place: Stevens, Ravalli, Montana; Roll: T624_833; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0083; FHL microfilm: 1374846 Record for Maud Curran http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1910uscenindex&h=1676...

GEDCOM Source

Index to the Death and Burial Records of Missoula County, Montana Volume 1 by Paulette K. Parpart 1989 Source Medium: Book

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry.com 1910 United States Federal Census Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006; @R17@ Year: 1910; Census Place: Stevens, Ravalli, Montana; Roll: T624_833; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0083; FHL microfilm: 1374846 Record for Maud Curran http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1910uscenindex&h=1676...

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry.com 1910 United States Federal Census Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006; @R17@ Year: 1910; Census Place: Stevens, Ravalli, Montana; Roll: T624_833; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0083; FHL microfilm: 1374846 Record for Maud Curran http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1910uscenindex&h=1676...

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry.com Public Member Trees Name: The Generations Network, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006; @R1@ Database online. Record for Maud L Templeton