See also
Related names in Tensas Parish agriculture:
Joseph Tullis Curry | |
|---|---|
| Louisiana State Representative for Tensas Parish | |
| In office 1930–1944 | |
| Preceded by | Daniel F. Ashford |
| Succeeded by | J.C. Seaman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 26,1895 St. Joseph,Tensas Parish Louisiana,USA |
| Died | August 21,1961 (aged 66) |
| Resting place | Natchez City Cemetery in Natchez,Mississippi |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Rita Camors Curry (died 1944) |
| Children | Josephine Curry Evans (1935-1961) |
| Residence(s) | St. Joseph,Louisiana |
| Alma mater | Culver Military Academy University of Virginia |
| Occupation | Cotton planter |
Joseph Tullis Curry (July 24,1895 - August 21,1961) [1] was a cotton planter from St. Joseph in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana,who served from 1930 to 1944 as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. [2]
His father,Joseph Curry (1855-1919),is often mistakenly referred to as "Sr." to avoid confusion with the son,whose middle name is derived not from the father but from the maiden name of his mother,the former Dorcea "Dot" Tullis. The senior Curry,a merchant and planter,had been part of the posse in 1878 which apprehended some one thousand African Americans in a revolt near Waterproof against then parish judge and later State Senator Charles C. Cordill. The senior Curry was first a deputy sheriff and then was elected Tensas Parish clerk of court,a position which he retained for many years. Dot Curry's brothers were Robert Lee Tullis (c. 1865–1955),a former secretary to a mayor of New Orleans and thereafter a longtime professor and dean of the Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge,and Hugh Tullis (1857-1931),an attorney and district judge in the delta country. Curry's cousin,Garner Hugh Tullis,served for three terms as the president of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange. [3] [4]
Curry attended Culver Military Academy in Culver,Indiana,and the University of Virginia at Charlottesville,Virginia. He was a United States Army officer during World War I. [4]
Like most of the Tensas Parish planters,Curry was a member of the Episcopal Church. He was also affiliated with the Masonic lodge. [4]
After military service,Curry became the secretary-treasurer of the Panola Company,a large agricultural operation in St. Joseph. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and a director of the Bank of St. Joseph. He was part of a contingent from Tensas Parish who successfully lobbied in Washington,D.C.,to block construction of the proposed Eudora Floodway,named for Eudora,Arkansas,the origin of Bayou Macon. The flood would have run near the boundary of East Carroll and West Carroll parishes and potentially placed vast Louisiana acreage to the south and east in danger in the event of severe flooding like that which had occurred in 1927. [4]
Curry won a special election for the House after Daniel F. Ashford,another St. Joseph planter,died in office in 1929. Curry was chairman for part of his tenure of the Public Works,Lands,and Levee Committee,a panel of particular importance to the parishes along the Mississippi River. [4] Originally anti-Long,like most of the planter class,Curry by his second full term had begun to vote increasingly with the Long faction that he had first opposed. Sheriff Elliot D. Coleman,who served from 1936 to 1960,was also staunchly pro-Long;indeed he had been a bodyguard at the assassination in Baton Rouge in 1935 of Huey Pierce Long,Jr.,and claimed to have fired two shots at proclaimed assassin Carl Weiss. [5] The 1935-1936 state elections,with memory of Huey Long's demise fresh in the minds of voters,proved devastating to many anti-Longites. The yeoman and tenant farmers gained the voter majority over the planters and business class. Where planters remained in office they did so through their political flexibility. The particular blot to the planter came with the unseating in 1936 of U.S. Representative Riley J. Wilson,one of Huey Long's unsuccessful gubernatorial primary opponents in 1928. [4]
Curry was married to the former Rita Camors (1901-1944). He was a widower for the last seventeen years of his life. He died some five weeks after the passing of their daughter,Josephine Curry Evans (1935-1961). The Currys,including his parents,are interred at Natchez City Cemetery in Natchez,Mississippi. [1]
Related names in Tensas Parish agriculture:
Tensas Parish is a parish located in the northeastern section of the State of Louisiana; its eastern border is the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,147. It is the least populated parish in Louisiana. The parish seat is St. Joseph. The name Tensas is derived from the historic indigenous Taensa people. The parish was founded in 1843 following Indian Removal.
Concordia Parish borders the Mississippi River in eastern central Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,687. The parish seat is Vidalia. The parish was formed in 1807.
St. Joseph, often called St. Joe, is a town in, and the parish seat of, rural Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States, in the delta of the Mississippi River. The population was 1,176 at the 2010 census. The town had an African-American majority of 77.4 percent in 2010.
Natchez, officially the City of Natchez, is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, Natchez was a prominent city in the antebellum years, a center of cotton planters and Mississippi River trade.
The Natchez District was one of two areas established in the Kingdom of Great Britain's West Florida colony during the 1770s – the other being the Tombigbee District. The first Anglo settlers in the district came primarily from other parts of British America. The district was recognized to be the area east of the Mississippi River from Bayou Sara in the south and Bayou Pierre in the north.
The Huey P. Long - O.K. Allen Bridge is a truss cantilever bridge over the Mississippi River carrying US 190 and one rail line between East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana and West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.
Louisiana Highway 4 (LA 4) is a state highway located in northern Louisiana. It runs 164.54 miles (264.80 km) in an east–west direction from U.S. Highway 71 (US 71) at Loggy Bayou to LA 605 in Newellton.
U.S. Highway 65 (US 65) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that spans 966 miles (1,555 km) from Clayton, Louisiana to Albert Lea, Minnesota. Within the state of Louisiana, the highway travels 100.77 miles (162.17 km) from the national southern terminus at US 425/LA 15 in Clayton to the Arkansas state line north of Lake Providence.
Robert H. Snyder was a Democratic politician from Tensas Parish, Louisiana.
Samuel Winter Martien was a wealthy cotton planter who served as a Democrat from 1906 to 1920 in the Louisiana House of Representatives from his adopted Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana.
Thomas Magruder Wade, I, was an educator, politician, and civic leader from Newellton in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana.
Charles C. Cordill, was a cotton planter and politician from Tensas Parish in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. He was a member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1884 until 1912 in which he represented both Tensas and neighboring Concordia Parish to the south.
Daniel Fowler Ashford was a cotton planter from St. Joseph in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who served from 1916 until his death in office as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives.
Clifford Cleveland Brooks, also known as C. C. Brooks, was a Georgia native who served as a Democrat from 1924 to 1932 in the Louisiana State Senate. Brooks represented the delta parishes: Tensas, Madison, East Carroll, and Concordia, a rich farming region along the Mississippi River in eastern Louisiana ranging from Vidalia to Tallulah to Lake Providence. At the time, two state senators served from the four-parish district.
Jefferson B. Snyder, was a lawyer and politician from the Mississippi River delta country of northeastern Louisiana. Snyder became a virtual political boss of Madison, Tensas, and East Carroll parishes; his leadership was rarely challenged, and politicians courted his endorsements.
Leonard Mason Spencer was a lawyer and planter from Tallulah, Louisiana, who was from 1924 to 1936 a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for Madison Parish, located alongside the rich farming delta of the Mississippi River.
Norris Charles Craft Williamson was a Democrat who served from 1924 to 1932 in the Louisiana State Senate. A resident of Lake Providence, Williamson represented the delta parishes: Tensas, Madison, East Carroll, and Concordia, a rich farming region along the Mississippi River. Included in his district were Vidalia, Ferriday, St. Joseph, and Tallulah. At the time, two state senators represented the four-parish district.
Larry G. Sale was a law enforcement officer from Claiborne Parish in north Louisiana considered to have been his state's most decorated soldier of World War I.
Clyde Vernon Ratcliff, Sr., was an American cotton planter and politician from Newellton, Louisiana, who served as a Democrat from 1944 to 1948 in the Louisiana State Senate. He represented the delta parishes: Tensas, Madison, East Carroll, and Concordia, a rich farming region along the Mississippi River in eastern Louisiana ranging from Vidalia to Lake Providence. The four parishes elected two senators at the time, and Ratcliff's seat-mate was Andrew L. Sevier of Tallulah in Madison Parish.
George Henry Clinton was a chemist, lawyer, and Democratic politician from St. Joseph in Tensas Parish in the northeastern Mississippi River delta of the U.S. state of Louisiana.
