Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/591

 CURRY CURTIS 587 by Rogue river and other streams ; area, 1,600 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 504, of whom 12 were Chinese. Cape Blanco, the westernmost point in the state, is in this county. Copper and some gold are found. The fisheries of the rivers and coast are productive. Timber is abundant, and there is some good soil. The chief productions in 1870 were 1,821 bushels of wheat, 1,274 of Indian corn, 2,601 of oats, 1,236 of peas and beans, 4,319 of potatoes, 149 tons of hay, and 24,110 Ibs. of wool. There were 373 horses, 925 milch cows, 2,350 other cattle, 7,722 sheep, and 635 swine. Capital, Ellensburg. CURRY, Daniel, D. D., an American clergyman and journalist, born near Peekskill, S. Y., Nov. 26, 1809. He graduated at Wesleyan university in 1827, and was elected principal of the Troy conference academy, West Poult- ney, Vt. In 1839 he was called to a professor- ship in the Georgia female college, at Macon, Ga. In January, 1841, he joined the Georgia conference, and three years later he was trans- ferred to the New York conference, and filled important stations in New York city and vicin- ity. In 1854 he was elected president of Indi- ana Asbury university. In 1857 he returned to New York, and subsequently was stationed suc- cessively in Brooklyn, Middletown, Conn., New Rochelle, and New York city, till 1864, when he was elected editor of the " Christian Advo- cate and Journal," New York, for four years. In May, 1872, he received his third successive appointment to this position. He has edited Southey's "Life of Wesley," and published a "Life of Wycliffe" and the "Metropolitan City of America." CURRYING. See LEATHER. CURSOR, Papirius. See PAPIBTTJS. CURTESY, the estate which at the common law the surviving husband has in the estates of inheritance of which the wife died seized. In order to this estate it is necessary that the relation of marriage should continue until the wife's decease, and that issue of the marriage should be born alive which by possibility might have inherited the estate ; and then the hus- band surviving shall have a freehold estate for his life. The Scotch law is similar. The sweeping terms employed in some of the American statutes, passed to secure to married women the control of their property, have probably had the effect to abolish this estate in some of the states. CURTIS. I. Benjamin Robbins, an American jurist, born in Watertown, Mass., Nov. 4, 1809. He graduated at Harvard college in 1829, was admitted to the bar in 1832, and commenced the practice of the law at Northfield, Mass., but soon removed to Boston, where he took a high rank and secured an extensive business. He was remarkable for the extent and readi- ness of his legal attainments, the clearness and accuracy of his statements, and the vigorous grasp of his logic. Upon the death of Judge Woodbury he was appointed a judge of the supreme court of the United States in Septem- ber, 1851, which office he resigned in 1857. He has since resumed the practice of his pro- fession in Boston, and frequently appears in important cases before the supreme court of the United States in Washington and in other parts of the country. Few distinguished law- yers in our country have devoted themselves so exclusively to their profession as Judge Cur- tis. He was for two years a member of the house of representatives in Massachusetts, but has taken very little part in politics. In 1868 he was one of the counsel that defended Presi- dent Johnson against the charges of impeach- ment, and made an argument which was widely commended for its legal soundness and clear- ness. He has published "Reports of Cases in the Circuit Courts of the United States " (2 vols., Boston, 1854); "Decisions of the Su- preme Court of the United States," with notes and a digest (22 vols., Boston) ; and a " Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States," from the origin of the court to 1854. II. George Tieknor, an American law- yer and juridical author, brother of the pre- ceding, born in Watertown, Mass., Nov. 28, 1812. He graduated at Harvard college in 1832, was admitted to the bar in 1836, and was engaged in the practice of the law in Bos- ton till 1862, when he removed to New York, where he has since continued his professional labors. While in Boston Mr. Curtis held the office of United States commissioner, and as such, in 1851, returned to his master a fugitive slave named Thomas Sims, for which act he was severely denounced by the abolitionists. He has made several valuable contributions to the literature of his profession, including treatises on the " Rights and Duties of Merchant Seamen " (1844), on the " Law of Copyright " (1847), and on the " Law of Patents " (1849 ; 2d ed., 1854 ; 4th ed., 1873). He has also compiled a volume of "Equity Precedents," a digest of English and American admiralty decisions, and two vol- umes of the series of digests of the reports of the United States published by Little, Brown, and co. He has also published " Commentaries on the Jurisprudence, Practice, and Peculiar Juris- diction of the Courts of the United States" (2 vols. 1854-'8), which was highly commended by Chief Justice Taney, and a " Life of Daniel Webster " (2 vols., New York, 1870). But the work by which he is best known is a u History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States " (2 vols., 1855-'8). Mr. Curtis served for two or three years as a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives, but he has allowed politics to interfere but little with the labors of his profession, and his historical and constitutional investigations. CURTIS, George William, an American author, born at Providence, R. I., Feb. 24, 1824. He received his early education in a private school at Jamaica Plain, Mass. At the age of 15 he removed with his father from Providence to