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Andrew Currie
Born on March 4, 1843 in Ibricken, County Clare, Ireland
to James Currie and Mary Griffin Currie, Andrew Currie
arrived in New York at the age of six with his two
brothers. He moved to Shreveport in 1859 at the age of
nineteen.1
Currie joined the Caddo Rifles under Captain Shivers and
went with the company to Virginia. He was taken prisoner
twice during the four years that he served in the
Confederate Army and held in Federal prisons.2
He
escaped the Federal prison with others by climbing out
of a chimney. He returned to the South and joined the
Red River Rangers under Captain Nutt. He served as one
of the two sentinels who stood over the body of
Stonewall Jackson before the funeral took place.3
Currie was in Vincennes, Indiana for about a year after
the end of the war before he returned to Shreveport. He
then entered the sheriff’s office as a deputy, later to
be elected constable.4
He married Annie Gregg Currie in
Marshall,
Texas on
October 17, 1876. 5
She
was the daughter of George Gammon Gregg, one of the
builders of the first railroad constructed in the
Texarkana area, and Mary Ann Wilson.6
The Curries had two children, Andrew Currie, Jr. and
Mary Bell Currie Wallick.7 In 1889 he moved to
Shreveport and at the outbreak of the war he joined
Company A of the 1st Louisiana Volunteers. He was
captured at the Arkansas Post and held in Springfield,
Illinois for three months. He was at Camp Morton, a
prison camp in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the end of the
war.
8
He served on the police jury, as a member of the City
Council for seven years, and as postmaster under
President Cleveland for five years.9
As
a member of the Louisiana State Legislature, he was the
author of the bill that established Louisiana
Polytechnic Institute at
Ruston, Louisiana. He also pushed for the sale of state
lands for the construction of levees and for the
abolition of the Louisiana State Lottery.10
In
1876 he entered the insurance business.11
Currie became mayor of
Shreveport
in 1878, serving for twelve years until 1890.12
He was the first Democratic mayor since the Civil War.13
Under
him the first iron railroad and traffic bridge over the
Red River was built; the Vicksburg, Shreveport, and
Pacific Railroad was brought into the area; and the
Kansas City Southern Railroad soon arrived.14 He also
persuaded the Cotton Belt Railroad to come through the
area.15
John
R. Jones built the first electrified street railway in
the South under Currie.16
He then served as a state senator from 1892 until
1896.17
Currie
was a stockholder in the Shreveport Times in 1872, and
by 1887 he owned it. The first society column was
started under him, written by a woman named Mrs. Rule,
who chose “Pansy” as her penname.18
He
donated land for St. John’s Cemetery on Texas Avenue and
the playgrounds in West Shreveport.19
In 1895 the house at
530 Kirby Place,
which was built in 1859 and originally located at 2901
Creswell, was sold to Currie.20
In 1909 he wrote that
Cross
Lake should be used as the city’s water supply.21
Andrew Currie died at 12:20 AM at his home on February
9, 1918 after suffering from broache-grippe for three
weeks. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in the
Confederate section after a funeral service at Holy
Trinity.
References
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