William Currie was born on February 28, 1834 in Lanark County, ON. In 1860, he moved to St. Mary's, where he worked in mercantile and grain businesses until 1879, when he emigrated to Manitoba. The following year, he took up homesteading along the Assiniboine River, at a site known as Currie's Landing. He received and forwarded frieght from steamboats travelling the river. From 1893-1902, he served as baliff for the Brandon District, before resigning and moving to Brandon where he engaged in the real estate and fire insurance business.
Currie married Ellen Creighton of Blanchard, ON in 1861. Together they had six chrildren: Robert Wilson Currie, Margaret Anne Currie, Harriet Ellen Currie, William James Currie, James Weldon Currie, and Lottie Louise Currie.
William Currie died on March 30, 1931 in Brandon, MB.
Scope and Content
Item is a studio portrait of William Currie.
Notes
History/Bio information taken from the Manitoba Historical Society website (http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/currie_w.shtml)
Very poor. Item has been broken in half on a diagonal from top to botton. Upper right corner is missing. Various tape stains and some tape residue on the bottom left.
History / Biographical
Lottie Louisa Currie was born on September 9, 1876 in St. Mary's, Perth, ON, to William and Eleanor Currie. She came to the Brandon area with her family in the 1880s. Currie worked as a bookkeeper and stenographer for Smith & Burton, from at least 1906 until the business ceased operations in 1917.
Currie continued working in bookkeeping and accounts, first for Brandon Gas & Power Co., then for the Manitoba Power Commission. She appears to have retired around 1942. She is not listed as living in Brandon between 1943-1945, but was once again a resident by 1947. Currie was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, a charter member of the Brandon Business and Professional Women's Club and in 1916, she passed her examinations for the St. John's Ambulance Association.
Lottie Louisa Currie died on November 25, 1972 in Brandon, MB.
Smith & Burton, a grocery store that also had mail order and china departments, was founded by E.B. Smith and John Burton in the 1886. It was housed at a few locations in downtown Brandon; their location at 829 Rosser Avenue is the one that mostly likely appears in the photograph.
Scope and Content
Item is a portrait of office employees at Smith & Burton, grocers. Lottie Currie, daughter of William Currie, is shown standing on the left.
Low Dog 'Xunka Kuciyedon' (b.1846) This respected warrior became a war chief at age 14. In January of 1876, Low Dog and his band joined a party of Northern Cheyenne at the Red Cloud Agency and planned to hunt in the Powder River County. In March of that year, Low Dog's people set up camp with a large non-agency band of Northern Cheyenne and a few Oglala Sioux near the union of the Little Powder and Powder River. On Saint Patrick's day this sleeping village was attacked and destroyed by Colonel J.J. Reynolds. During the night of March 17th the Indians managed to recapture their horses. Without provisions the mixed band traveled northward to join Crazy Horse and later Sitting Bull on the Little Bighorn, where Low Dog led his people against Custer and the 7th Cavalry. Low Dog's account of the battle was published many times. (Harbaugh, P., 1982)
Long Dog 'Xunka Hanska'. Long Dog participated in many battles of the Sioux Wars and was thought to carry the favorable charm of a ghost which mad him invincible and granted his heroic success in war. Although severely wounded during the Custer battle, he returned to Standing Rock and lived out his days as a legendary warrior and chief. (Harbaugh, P., 1982)
Dimensions
23 X 19 cm
Size Overall
51 X 41 cm
Medium
Black and white photograph
Condition
Bowing back of picture along both vertical edges away from mat.
