ABC Biography: Henry Currey

The Life and Death of Henry Curry

Henry Currey was born on 25 May 1893 in Liberty, Clay County, Missouri, the eldest son of Hiram M. Curry and his wife Winnie M. Hutchison 【1】.

By June 1900, Henry was living with his parents in Delaware Township, Leavenworth County, Kansas, where he appeared on the federal census as a seven-year-old white male, born in May 1893 in Missouri 【2】. Five years later, in the 1905 Kansas State Census, Henry was enumerated with his family in Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas. At that time he was recorded as a twelve-year-old boy, born in Missouri 【3】.

Tragedy struck in the spring of 1906. In mid-April, the Leavenworth Times reported that Henry was dangerously ill with peritonitis, a serious inflammation of the abdominal lining 【4–5】. It was believed that his condition had been brought on after he was struck by a rock thrown by another boy. On 8 May 1906, Henry underwent surgery in an attempt to relieve his condition. Newspaper reports describe how the twelve-year-old had been suffering for more than four weeks and had been in a precarious state much of that time 【6–7】.

Despite medical intervention, Henry’s illness proved fatal. He died on 20 May 1906 in Leavenworth County at just twelve years of age 【1,8–9】. Obituaries in local newspapers recorded the sorrow of his family and community, with one article headlined “Appendicitis Fatal” noting the sudden loss 【9】.

Henry was buried three days later, on 23 May 1906, in Delaware Cemetery, Delaware Township, Leavenworth County, Kansas 【10–12】. Reports of his funeral emphasized that many schoolfellows and friends of the Curry family attended the service and burial, paying their respects to the young boy whose life had been cut short 【11–12】.

---

Citations

1. Hiram Currey, Hiram Currey Family Bible (New York: American Bible Society, 1880); Marcia Philbrick, Seneca, KS, Family Record.
2. 1900 U.S. Census, Leavenworth County, Kansas, population schedule, Delaware Township, ED 83, sheet 20B, image 40 of 48, household 364, Hiram M Carrey; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed Nov 2017); NARA T623.
3. 1905 Kansas State Census, Leavenworth County, Kansas, Lansing, page 2, image 3 of 58, household 11, H. M. Curry; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed Nov 2017); Kansas State Historical Society.
4. The Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, Kansas), “Tuesday, April 17,” local news, 19 Apr 1906, Henry Curry illness; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed Sep 2016).
5. The Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, Kansas), “City News,” 17 Apr 1906, Henry Curry illness; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed Sep 2016).
6. The Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, Kansas), “Wednesday, May 9,” local news, 10 May 1906, Henry Curry of Lansing operated on; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed Sep 2016).
7. The Lansing News (Lansing, Kansas), “Around Lansing,” 11 May 1906, p. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed 23 Aug 2025).
8. Lansing News (Lansing, Kansas), “Around Lansing,” 25 May 1906, p. 4, col. 3.
9. The Leavenworth Post (Leavenworth, Kansas), “Appendicitis Fatal,” obituary, 21 May 1906, p. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed 21 May 1906).
10. Find a Grave, database and images, Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com : viewed Sep 2016), memorial for Henry Curry (1893–1906), Memorial no. 149008342, citing Delaware Cemetery, Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas; created by Maggie O.
11. The Leavenworth Post (Leavenworth, Kansas), “Delaware and Vicinity,” local news, 24 May 1906; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed Sep 2016).
12. Western Life (Leavenworth, Kansas), “Delaware and Vicinity,” 24 May 1906, p. 4; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed 23 Aug 2025).