Biography of Joseph F. Curren's son, Arthur J. Curren
60th Ohio Biographies

Arthur J. Curren
1876-After 1925



ARTHUR J. CURREN. One of the best built telephone properties in Ohio is the automatic telephone and cable system of the Elyria Telephone Company. Since no city can attain or maintain its full measure of prosperity without prompt and efficient service, the people of Elyria have taken due pride in the possession of facilities represented by this public utility, and those familiar with its development and improvement have given corresponding tribute to the work of Arthur J. Curren, who has had the management for many years and is the present chief executive of the company. Mr. Curren is a telephone engineer of broad experience and has been continuously identified with the telephone industry since 1900.

He was born at Delaware, Ohio, August 6, 1876, and his parents, Joseph F. and Mary Allison (Gavitt) Curren, were natives of the same county. His paternal grandparents were Stephen and Elizabeth (Stratton) Curren, the former a native of New York and the latter of Virginia. They became early settlers of the town of Norton in Delaware County, where Stephen Curren was proprietor of an inn on the old Columbus-Sandusky Stage Coach Line. The maternal grandparents were Ezekiel and Viola (Miller) Gavitt, the former a native of Granville, Ohio, and the latter of Sandusky County. Ezekiel Gavitt was a Methodist Episcopal circuit rider in Northern Ohio for many years, and finally settling at Ashley, Delaware County, where his death occurred at the age of eighty-six.

At the outbreak of the Civil war, Joseph F. Curren was twenty-one, and enlisted as a private in the Twentieth Infantry, taking part in many engagements, and receiving numerous promotions. He resigned as lieutenant in the Twentieth Regiment to accept the office of adjutant with the new Sixtieth Ohio Infantry. On the 17th of June, 1864, at the Battle of Fredericksburg, while in command of his regiment, he lost his right arm. It is a coincidence worthy of note, that on the the 17th of June, 1775, his great-uncle lost his leg at the Battle of Bunker Hill. After recovering sufficiently to rejoin his regiment, on account of the loss of his arm, he was transferred to the Veterans' Reserve Corps at Boston, and was still in active service at the close of the war. Returning home with an empty sleeve, he offered his sweetheart the release of her engagement, which was refused, and they were married at once and settled in Delaware, Ohio. Soon afterwards, he was appointed postmaster of Delaware, a position he held twelve years under three Presidents, Grant, Hayes and Garfield. After leaving the postoffice, he was in the real estate and insurance business and in 1895, organized the Citizens Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which still enjoys a prosperous business. With this company he was identified at the time of his death in 1917 at the age of seventy-nine. His widow now at that age survives him and resides at Delaware.

Arthur J. Curren was educated in public schools at Delaware, graduating with the class of 1894. Almost immediately he began his experience in public utility work, serving two years as collector and general bookkeeper of the Delaware Gas Company. Then came three years of work in Ohio Wesleyan University where he pursued the scientific course. His boyhood enthusiasm had been largely directed to electricity and at college he turned naturally to the electrical field.

In 1900, he took up telephone work, first with the Central Union Telephone Company, then for a brief time with the Cleveland Bell Company, leaving the Bell system to turn his attention to the independent field. That was the time when many independent plants were in construction throughout Ohio. As a field engineer with the Reserve Construction Company of Cleveland, he had a part in the building of the independent plants in the cities of Canton, Mansfield, and Lima.

In April, 1902, he joined Mr. George W. Beers of Fort Wayne, Indiana, as chief engineer of the Gas Belt Construction Company and in that capacity designed the telephone plants of Muncie, Alexander, and Elwood. From Indiana, returning to Ohio, Mr. Curren for nearly a year assisted in the promotion of the Queen City Telephone Company of Cincinnati, but through inability to secure the many necessary franchises for a comprehensive system, the enterprise was finally abandoned. In 1905, Mr. Curren accepted the management of the Elyria Telephone Company and since January, 1917, has been its president. The company in 1918 erected a beautiful building, installed an automatic telephone system, displacing the old style manual system. These superior mechanical facilities together with the cordial support and cooperation of the public, which management had successfully cultivated, made Mr. Curren prominent in Elyria. In 1922, his company purchased outright the local Bell Exchange. In no small degree the success of this public utility has been due to the splendid spirit of service that has actuated the personnel of the employees.

In addition to the heavy burdens he has carried as executive in the telephone business, Mr. Curren has manifested a keen interest in civic affairs. He is a member of the Pioneer's Telephone Associations of both Bell and Independent, was for many years a director of the Ohio State Telephone Association, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northern Building and Loan Association. He is a charter member of the Elyria Rotary Club, also Frank S. Harman Lodge of Masons, has taken the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rites, is a Shriner, is a member of the Elyria Country Club, Lakewood Country Club of Cleveland, is a Phi Delta Theta, and a member of the American Society of Electrical Engineers. His religious connection is with the Congregational Church and politically he is a republican. He comes of Revolutionary stock on both sides of the family. He married in July, 1905, Miss Lottie Kirk, who is likewise descended from Revolutionary ancestors. She has always been deeply interested in the success of her husband's business undertakings. She was born at Maysville, Kentucky, daughter of Robert C. and Ella (Flemming) Kirk, natives of Mason County, Kentucky. While they have no children of their own, Mrs. Curren has reared since the age of three years, Master Gilbert Jordan, her nephew.

The History of Ohio, Volume III. The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925, pages 224-225.


This information was transcribed and posted on the Ohio Footsteps Mailing List by Mrs. Gina M. Reasoner. She is not related and has no further information.


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