John William Curry was born January 28, 1833, in in Green Turtle Cay, Abaco to John Curry (1811-1882) and Mary Ward Kemp (1814-1883).

His siblings included…

• Benjamin Samuel (1835)
• William Samuel (1837)
• Amelia (1839)
• Joseph (1841)
• Samuel George (1843)
• Amos (1846)
• Charles Oliver (1850)
• Robert (1851)
• Mary Ellen (1852)
• Dudley Buchanan (1857)
• Jemima Lillian (1859)

On March 19,1856, in Key West, Florida, John William married Elizabeth Abigail Hutcheson (1834-1907) from Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera. She is the daughter of Richard Micklewhite Hutcheson (1805-1879) and Charlotte Chesapeake Longley (1807-1863).

Their children included…

• Arvid Penbrook (1857)
• John Richard (1859)
• Mary Louisa (1861)
• Charlotte Amelia (1863)
• Amelia Ellen (1863)
• Samuel Edwin (1865)
• Ellen Euphemia (1868)
• Charles Theodore (1870)
• Ella Graham (1870)
• Florida Virginia (1872)

John William with his parents and siblings moved to Key West, Florida between the late 1830s and early 1840s. The 1910 census indicates the year 1839.

The 1850 Census below shows John William as an eighteen-year-old clerk in Key West.

By the time the 1860 Census was taken, John William had married and moved to Manatee, Florida

The Curry family came to Manatee in 1859 when they purchased 320 acres, a spring, and two homes. Captain John Curry and his wife, Mary Ward (née Kemp), were both Bahamian. John and “Polly” (as he called Mary) left the Bahamas in the 1840s and moved to Key West. Their house still stands there. In Key West, John became a ship builder, mariner and wrecker (collecting cargo from wrecked ships to sell for profit). In the late 1850s, Capt. John became disenchanted with wrecking and did not want his sons involved in the trade. So they changed course and he and his two sons, John W. and Benjamin S., sailed to the Manatee River to purchase cattle to resell in Cuba. He saw the benefits of the area and brought his large family (including his 12 children and some of their families) back with him to settle. They first purchased the land of Dr. Franklin Branch which included the stockade that Manatee residents took shelter in during the Seminole Wars. The family soon became some of the leading cattlemen in Manatee County.

Source: http://www.manateevillage.org

John William was a Confederate soldier who served in Company “A” of Col. Munnerlyn’s Battalion, Confederate States Army.

John William Curry passed away February 11, 1921 (age 88) in Manatee, Florida. He is buried at Major Adams Cemetery, located at the intersection of 3rd Street and Martin Luther King Drive in Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida. He is my 1st cousin 4 times removed.