July 2, 1820. From 1824 to 1829 he lived with his parents in Caracas, South America. On returning to the United States, the family settled in Boston. At the age of eleven he was apprenticed to a jeweler. One of his fellow-workmen was the late Hon. William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. All spare moments were employed in study and reading. He developed literary tastes quite early, and read original poems and delivered addresses before the Mechanics' Apprentice Library in Boston, of which he was a member and president for two years. He became a resident of Saint Louis in 1843, where he formed an acquaintance with Joseph M. Field, the actor and manager, father of Miss Kate Field, and with him published the Reveille. In 1846 he started to Oregon, arriving at Oregon City August 30th. After leaving the Spectator he bought about eighty pounds of type from the Catholic missionaries and determined to start an opposition paper.
It was difficult for Mr. Curry to decide upon a name, and he sought advice from Peter G. Stewart, a personal friend. "Why," said the latter, "since you don't want to be muzzled, why not call it the Free Press?" The suggestion pleased Mr. Curry, and the name was adopted. The motto was the following:
"Here shall the Press the people's rights maintain,
Unawed by influence, and unbribed by gain."
Having no press he caused one to be made, mainly out of wood—a rude affair. The type, having been used to print the French language, had but few letter w's. The editor had to write without double u's, but the country and its inhabitants were too weird and wild and wonderful, and his own fancy too warm, and his ways too winning for him not to be willing to wield a pen as free and untrammeled as were his surroundings; so he whittled a number of w's out of hard wood to supply the deficiency.
