Early Days in Lyman #29

EARLY DAYS IN THE TOWN OF LYMAN
by Bela Foster
 
Continuing . . .
A write-up of the early days in Lyman Township would hardly be complete if it were confined to the township boundaries. Many people who lived just over the edge in adjoining townships have had prominent parts in the development of this township.
About the time of the early Lyman settlers there were several families came to the vicinity which is now the northeast corner of Wall Town. These included such names as Currie, Trigger, Dodd, Gilkerson, Kenney, and others. Each of them shall be taken up in time but today we shall write of the Curries. In 1869 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Currie settled in the northeast quarter of Section 7-24-9. His brother, James Currie settled in the southeast quarter of the same section. Other members of the Currie family, cousins, also came about that time.
Robert Currie was a man of strong individuality. He hated pomp and show. He was a university graduate, educated in Scotland and England, licensed to practice law also educated and trained as a theologian but preferring the independent life of a farmer. He was a very successful farmer. Joined to his life as a farmer he was a "capitalist" as well and his investments were generally sound. To his neighbors he was simply a farmer like themselves. To the railway and utility magnets he was a shrewd investor.
Robert Currie and his wife are both deceased. They left one son and three daughters. The son, Arthur Currie still lives on the home farm. The daughters are Miss Altheria Currie, a school teacher, who spends her vacation on the old home farm with her brother. Miss Mary N. Currie is a teacher in the Roberts High School. She also spends her spare time "down on the farm." The youngest daughter is Mrs. Irene Phelps of Chicago.
Mr. and Mrs. James Currie are still living on their old home places. Like his brother, Robert, he is well educated and enjoys the benefits of a literary life. However his prime occupation is that of farming in which he has been very successful. Mr. and Mrs. James Currie have three sons and one daughter. These are Robert T. Currie who lives on a farm adjoining his father's, Rollo Currie and Paul Currie who conduct a machine shop in Paxton. The daughter is Miss Mary Currie who is teaching school in New Mexico down near the "Old Mexican line."
There are many items of interest relating to the Currie families. An uncle of theirs whose name was William Currie was a ship carpenter before coming to America. When he came across he went to Mexico and became interested in mining and was very successful. He visited the families here about 1884 and while here used his skill as a ship carpenter to make many household articles which remain as heirlooms in the families. Soon after he was here he returned to his home across the Atlantic and while he never returned to this vicinity he is well remembered by those that live here. This William Currie was an uncle of Robert and James Currie.
Gabriel, William, Thomas, and Jennie Currie were cousins of Robert and James. Gabriel died many years. We know but little of him here. William married Miss Margaret Smith, sister of John P. Smith of Roberts. They moved to Nebraska long ago.
Thomas Currie lived on the farm in Section 11 which is now occupied by Raymond Currie. He died several years ago. He left his widow and one son, Raymond Currie who live in Roberts.
Miss Jennie Currie married Frederick Fenic Dodd and they lived in section fifteen. Mr. Dodd died several years ago. They had two sons and one daughter. The daughter is Mrs. Burley F. Allgood. Mr. and Mrs. Allgood have one daughter, Mrs. Hazel Martis.
Albert Dodd married Miss Mary Olson of Thawville. They have one daughter, Lois. They live near their mother's home. Thomas Dodd married Miss Beulah White. They lived at the home of his mother in Wall Town and he conducts the farm.
In connection with the Currie families there is one thing that should not be omitted. In the early days when this community was mostly open prairie the wagon roads followed the higher places regardless of lines. The road from what is now Lyman township to Loda which was the nearest market went across the Robert Currie farm. The original sod still remains in Arthur Currie's pasture. The old trail crossed this pasture and the tracks of the wagons which carried the produce from this community are still visible.
No plow has ever touched the virgin sod in that field. The same old blue grass sod that greeted the first white settler and the same old tracks in that blue grass sod that the first white settlers made, are all plainly visible across that pasture.

--Roberts Herald. 2 October 1935. Bela Foster.