Jim Currie or Curry is not listed on the Beecher Island monument, but he was at the fight according to many other researchers.

Spokane Daily Chronicle
Spokane, Washington
September 21, 1899
Page 1

Gasped and Fell Dead
James Curry had just Tine to Say “Goodbye.”

James Curry, who has been engaged in the laundry business in this city with Mrs. J. C. (Anna) Sommert at 238 Front Avenue, fell dead last night, presumably of heart failure. He had been boarding with Mrs. Sommert, and for the last 18 months has been sick. In the last 2 or 3 days he had gotten decidedly worse. This morning between 2 and 3 o’clock he rose from the chair in which he was sitting. As he did so he staggered, said “good bye” to his landlady, gasped and fell dead.

Mrs. Sommert immediately called in the neighbors who in turn notified the police. Coroner Baker ordered the body taken to Gillman’s undertaking establishment, where it is today. Mr. Curry has a brother in Shreveport, LA., who will be notified. Death is believed to have resulted from natural causes and no inquest will be held.

Note 2006: His grave marker has his name spelled “Currie”.

THE FORT WAYNE JOURNAL GAZETTE
Fort Wayne, Indiana
October 5, 1899
Thursday Morning
Page 10, Column 2

“JIM” Currie IS DEAD

BAD MAN OF TEXAS WHO TRIED TO KILL MAURICE BARRYMORE

DROPS OFF AT SPOKANE - CURRIE HAD MANY A DEATH NOTCH ON HIS REVOLVER BUTT - ONE OF HIS BOLDEST DEEDS WAS THE CHALLENGING OF WILD BILL TO A DUEL

SPOKANE Oct 4, - Jim Currie, famous as one of the most daring scouts of the west, and notorious as a bad man during the boom days in western Kansas and TEXAS, dropped dead of heart disease in this city last Sunday morning. Currie is the man who attempted to kill Maurice BARRYMORE, the actor, in TEXAS, but missed him and killed Dick Porter, a member of the latter’s company, instead. The attempt upon BARRYMORE was but an incident in a stormy life which included dozens of shooting scrapes and such a list of deaths as to make the story read like the pages of a romance.

Currie was born in Ireland, but was brought to this country in his early youth. His parents settled in Indiana and Currie made his home in that state until the breaking out of the war. He was attracted to the railroad business and began working in engine houses while still a small boy. He had not yet secured his engine when hostilities started, but as soon as the first call for volunteers was issued he gave up his work and enlisted.

Currie served through the entire Civil War, and at it’s completion was discharged with honor. Upon his return home he was unable to secure a situation and naturally drifted west, landing after several weeks of wandering in Hays City, Kansas, which was then a scene of wild excitement. It was then the terminus of the Kansas and Pacific Railroad and was naturally a center of business, stage lines carrying the traffic from there on to Denver, Santa Fe and other western towns. The Indians of western Kansas did not approve of the railroad, and devoted all their energies to making life interesting for the employees of the corporation. Trains were ditched, ties burned and miles of track torn up. The Indians would be beside the tracks and wait for the trains, and would welcome them with fusillades of shots, to the great discomfort of the passengers and crew. The officials of the company had great trouble finding men with nerve enough to pull a train, until Jim Currie came along. As soon as he struck Hays City he applied for a job and was given one of the trains across the “bad lands”, a position that he held down for several years. It was the custom after leaving Harker, the border of the Indian territory, to put out all lights and pull down the blinds so that the train might not be seen by the Indians. Without headlight, Jim Currie would sit at the throttle, and at a lively rate pull his train across the dangerous country into Hays City.

“JIM” CURRIE’S BAND OF SCOUTS

In 1868 the Indians became worse than ever and the whole country was in a fever of excitement. Currie left his engine and organized a band of scouts known as “Jim Curries Scouts”. In August of that year he fought the memorable battle of the “Republican”, one of the most famous battles in the history of western Indian wars. Currie and his band of fifty men were surrounded on the open plain by Chief Roman Nose and 3000 warriors. Escape seemed impossible. Drawing his men into a small circle, Currie ordered all the horses killed. Behind the barricade formed by their bodies the men dug trenches, and protected only by these rude works, Currie and his men for eight days kept back the horde of redskins. During that time they had nothing to eat but the flesh of the horses they had killed the first day. The sun shone down with scorching heat, but they managed to procure a little water by digging a well with their knives. On the first night of the siege two of the imprisoned scouts stole out in search of aid. The next night two more followed them, for fear that the first might have been killed or captured. Late on the afternoon of the eighth day reinforcements came and the Indians were routed. It was in this battle that Lieutenant Tony Forsyth, received eight wounds.

After the Indian was Currie returned to Hays City, and, although he became very popular, he soon made a reputation as a dangerous man. One day while playing a game of poker with man named Gilmore, he became incensed and threatened to shoot Gilmore’s tongue off. Gilmore jumped up from the table and ran out of the room, pursued by Currie. Gilmore turned and said: “For God’s sake Jim, don’t shoot,” but as he opened his mouth Currie thrust the barrel of the gun in and pulled the trigger. The ball cut Gilmore’s tongue off and lodged in the back of his neck, failing, however, to kill him.

HE ENCOUNTERS WILD BILL

“The story that Currie once backed down , Wild Bill, is not correct”, said one old timer in talking about the dead man. “Bill and Jim were old acquaintances. One day they met in Paddy Welch’s saloon. Currie said to Bill; ‘This town is not large enough for both of us. Come out on the sidewalk and I will fight you a duel to see this of us stays.’ Bill replied: ‘No, Jim, you and I are old time friends. I do not want to have any trouble with you. I will not fight you in a duel, but whenever, you want to shoot, commence.’ That was all there was to it. Both lived in the town for some time afterward, although each kept his own end.”

Many stories are told of Currie while running the saloon in Hays City. At one time the thirty eighth Infantry, colored, was being massed there and Currie became involved in a dispute with a band of the soldiers. Single handed he jumped into the crowd and began to hammer right and left with the butt end of his revolver when it went off, shooting him in the mouth. Some of his friends came to his rescue and that night when roll call was sounded some thirty soldiers failed to answer.

Colonel Jennison, a well know sporting man of Kansas City, once paid Hays City a visit. Currie gave him a royal welcome. Colonel Jennison was wearing a silk hat that please the western man, and he expressed a desire to have one like it. “When I go back to Kansas City, “ said the Colonel, “I will have one made and sent to you.” In due time the hat arrived, but for some reason, probably an oversight, it came C.O.D., a circumstance that immediately aroused Currie’s wrath. A few days later he had a misunderstanding with a negro and killed him. The remains were put in a rough box and expressed to Colonel Jennison in Kansas City, C.O.D.

Hundreds of similar stories are told and the victims of Curries ever ready gun were from all sorts and conditions of life. In time Hays City became too civilized for Currie, and when there began to be talk of legal punishment for murder, he moved on to Ellsworth. One morning he got into a street fight there and after it was all over and the smoke began to clear away it was found that six highly respected citizens of Ellsworth were dead, several more were wounded and Currie was unharmed. This incident was a little bit too much for the people of Ellsworth and they soon managed to make life so uncomfortable for Currie that he decided to move on.

ATTACK ON MAURICE BARRYMORE

From there he drifted down to TEXAS. He started a restaurant in Marshall, but went broke and secured a position as engineer with the TEXAS and Pacific. It was about this time that he made his famous attack upon Maurice BARRYMORE. The train was standing at Marshall one day when the actor and engineer became involved in conversation. Barrymore made some comment that aroused Currie’s nasty temper and he at once whipped out his revolver and fired before anyone could seize his hand. Barrymore dodged but the bullet struck Dick Porter, a member of his company, killing him instantly. Currie shot again, but this time without effect. He was overpowered and placed under arrest. After a long trial, in which he was materially assisted by an organization of which he was a charter member. Currie was at last liberated.

This incident seemed to take all the bravado and dash out of Currie. It was the first time he had been brought in contact with the law. He drifted around the west, keeping very quiet and never revealing his identity, except when compelled to. To prevent the old temptation coming back to him, he even quit carrying a gun. A few years ago he came to Spokane and has lived quietly here, only a few of his old friends recognizing in him the notorious bad man of western Kansas. His end came suddenly, heart disease causing him to drop dead on the street last Sunday.

Currie had been granted a pension by the government, but he never drew a cent of it. It is rumored that he left considerable property, but it is known that for several years past he has been taken care of by a friend of his prosperous days. He may have left property, but it is much more probable that he spent as he went.

With all his faults, those that knew Jim Currie best say that his charitable deeds knew no bounds and that if he was handy with his gun it was because this was necessary in the days he lived and in the country where there was no law, no officers, and nothing but the rule of might and six-shooters.

THE FORT WAYNE Daily SENTINEL
Fort Wayne, Indiana
March 28, 1879
Thursday Evening
Page 3, Column 3 & 4

HE FOUGHT WITH HAYES

Jim Currie, the Murderer, a “Gallant Union Soldier,” and Not a Native of the South - A Man that Wild Bill Feared

[Little Rock, Ark., Gazette]
The murder of Mr. Ben C. Porter, of the Diplomacy Dramatic Company, was one of the most brutal known in the long list of “Lone Star” death dealing. Of course the people of TEXAS, as the people of other civilized states, look upon such a transaction with horror. Additional particulars only show the matter up in a more murderous light. J. J. Sheppard and Earnest Stanley, of Emerson’s minstrels, arrived in the city yesterday afternoon, and from them we learn the following facts, they having been present at the time of the shooting.
Previous to the murder, James Currie met Sheppard and Stanley, and seemed very much disposed to create a disturbance, insomuch that the two gentlemen avoided him. On the following morning the Diplomacy company was in a restaurant at the depot, as previously stated, when Currie, the murderer, walked in. Making an obscene remark, Mr. Porter very gentlemanly called him aside and remonstrated with him, telling him he should not speak so in the presence of ladies. “What the hell have you got to do with it?” exclaimed the assassin, drawing two revolvers.
Mr. Maurice BARRYMORE walked up just at this time, and, drawing off his coat, remarked; “We are unarmed; but I’ll give you what you want.”
Without saying anything more, and without further provocation, Currie fired both pistols almost simultaneously - one at Porter and the other at BARRYMORE - a quick as a flash he fired again. The first discharge intended for Porter struck him in the lower part of the body, and the next ball went through his bowels. The first shot intended for BARRYMORE missed, - the next struck his right arm. Porter fell to the floor and died within forty minutes. He suffered greatly, his last words being, “Give me some more morphine.”
After Porter fell, Currie fired at Miss Cummings with both pistols, and, missing her, advanced and placed the muzzles of both weapons to her bosom. The affrightened woman shrank back and avoided the deadly discharge. The brute then turned and fired several times at a boy, and then someone else; and then; when he saw no one else he desired to murder, to show his utter lack of feeling, walked up to a dog lying on the floor and stomped his head.
Of about forty men who gathered around the place, not one had nerve enough to attempt an arrest. Currie after doing all he could; walked back into the restaurant, and in an insulting manner demanded; “What do I owe here?” and then added, “I’ll see you again,” walked out and gave himself up.
[Dallas, TEXAS Herald]

James Currie was born of highly respectable parents in New York. At the commencement of the war he enlisted in the federal army and served as a non-commissioned officer in President Hayes’s regiment until it closed. He then went to Kansas and was employed as engineer on the Kansas Pacific road until 1868, when he joined General Forsyth in his Indian expedition, as a scout. He was in the fight on the Republican Fork, when fifty scouts were attacked by Indians Currie being one of those who survived. He again returned and took a position on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. When in Kansas it is said that he killed a cigar maker for intimacy with his mistress. He is said to be feared by even the greatest desperados, Bill Hickok, known as “Wild Bill,” the most desperate man in the Black Hills, and who was there killed, used to state that he was afraid of but one man, and that was Jim Currie. His health failed him in Kansas, he journeyed south, and was employed as an engineer on the New Orleans and Chicago Railroad. About six years ago he came to TEXAS and was given employment on the TEXAS and Pacific road as engineer. This position he held until about two years since, when he was selected as a detective on the road. In that position he did much to clean up the station thieves that infested certain points on the line of the road. His great courage was such that General Superintendent Noble had but to say do a thing, and no matter how hazardous Currie undertook its accomplishment. We are informed that Honorable Andrew Currie, Mayor of Shreveport, is a brother of James Currie.

[Marshall Letter in Dallas Commercial]

Your correspondent today endeavored, as directed, to see James Currie, and learn from him what he might communicate concerning his terrible deed of bloodshed, and which has so deeply aroused indignation toward him, and sympathy for his dead and wounded victims, of the people of the entire state of TEXAS. The effort was unavailing, and any reports that may secure circulation as being statements from him are unreliable, as his case has been entrusted to his legal advisers and defenders, who peremptorily refuse to allow him to be interviewed by anyone concerned with his unprovoked and death-deserving crime. His counsel are among the most able lawyers of TEXAS and Louisiana - being Messre. Turner and Lipscomb and A. Pope, of Marshall, and M. S. Crane, of Shreveport. Currie was today brought before Justice of the Peace Hanson, of this city, for preliminary examination, but his counsel waived all legal proceedings and secured a postponement until next week. The case will probably be called next Wednesday.