Putnam B. Curry

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Putnam B. Curry, just outside Orange. Now, some men arrive in Texas already knowing what they're after.

Others seem to find out along the way. Putnam B. Curry, born September 16, 1835, up in New York, appears to have been the second kind.

He made his first move in 1860, when he came down to Galveston. And then, before he'd had much chance to settle into anything, the Civil War arrived, 1861 to 1865, and Curry enlisted in the Confederate army. He saw action along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Whatever that coast showed him during those years, he came out the other side with his eyes fixed on a particular corner of Texas. In 1868, he married Eliza Ann Ochiltree, born in 1845. Together they had four children.

And it was right around that same stretch of time, the late 1860s, that Curry made his way to Orange and opened a mercantile firm. Now, a mercantile firm is a solid start. But Putnam B.

Curry was not a man content to stop at solid. He ran a hotel. He published a newspaper.

He became a leader in the business community. And he was an active Mason on top of all that. Eliza Ann passed in 1907.

Putnam followed on May 15, 1910. Between those two dates and the New York birth of a boy who wound up in Orange, Texas, there's a whole life built, brick by brick, deal by deal, edition by edition, right on the Gulf Coast he once defended. That's the kind of story Orange holds onto.

What the marker says

(Sept. 16, 1835 - May 15, 1910) A native of New York, Putnam B. Curry moved to Galveston in 1860. He enlisted in the Confederate army and saw action along the Texas Gulf Coast during the Civil War (1861-1865). In 1868 he married Eliza Ann Ochiltree (1845-1907); they had four children. In the late 1860s, Curry settled in Orange and opened a mercantile firm. Later he ran a hotel and published a newspaper. A leader in the business community, Curry was also an active Maron.