During the last half of his life, my maternal grandfather, Thomas Curran [DS.4.5], was the social, economic, and political focus of the lives of most members of his extended Curran family in the Chicago area. Therefore, we must know something about the life of Tom Curran in order to understand the social environment of other members of our extended family.

SIBLINGS

Three children of Daniel [DS.4] and Elizabeth married 3 siblings in the Harper family of 9 children.

The father of Elizabeth Payne married 3 times and had 24 children (of whom at least 17 lived to adulthood.

For many years, most members of the Curran, Harper, and Payne families lived within an area of about two square miles in Chicago. The close social relationships between the members of these three large families were similar to what we might expect to find in a village in Ireland or Scotland a hundred years earlier. The big difference was that adults in the adjacent neighborhoods in Chicago spoke German, Czech, Yiddish, and Italian.

THE FIRST NINETEEN YEARS

RECORD OF BAPTISM

Thomas
Thomas
Thomas
Thomas

CIVIL MARRIAGE
According to our oral family history, Tom Curran and Mary Finan were married while he was 18 years old and she was 15 years old, i.e. circa Nov 1887. In an index of male names on marriage licenses, I found License 120577 dated 7 Nov 1887and issued to a Thomas Curran. I have not yet seen the text of the document and probably never will. The film that should contain that record contained instead a note indicating that the combination license and marriage record No. 120577 had not been returned to the appropriate office by the official who conducted the marriage ceremony. I examined an index of female names on marriage licenses of the appropriate period but did not find any record of a Mollie or Mary Finan.

In a sample of 700 marriage licenses from the same roll of film as No. 120577, I found that exactly four percent of the documents were not returned to the Clerk of the County Court. I can imagine many reasons for not returning the executed certificate. In the case of Tom and Mary, I think they kept it for their own archives.

According to our oral history, Tom [DS.4.5] and Mollie were married in the rectory of the church. This has led to speculation that Tom may not have been a Catholic at that time. However, we now know that he was baptized in Holy Family Church on 26 Nov 1868.

The civil record of the church marriage is a combination marriage license and marriage certificate:

STATE OF ILLINOIS                                                                            126780

  COOK COUNTY

Marriage may be Celebrated between Mr. Thomas Curran
of Chicago in the County of Cook and the State of Illinois, of the age of 21 years, and
Miss Mollie Finan of Chicago, in the County of Cook
and State of Illinois, of the age of 18 years.

Witness: HENRY WULFF, Clerk of the County Court of said Cook County, and the
Seal thereof, at my office in Chicago, this 10^th day of
May A. D. 1888

            Henry Wulff
                     Clerk of the County Court

Tom [DS.4.5] and Mollie [DS.4.5S₁] had 12 children, 27 grandchildren, and at least 77 great grandchildren. From the seven sons who lived to be adults, there were only two grandsons named Curran and no great grandsons named Curran. Thus, while Tom [DS.4.5] and Mollie [DS.4.5S₁] have numerous descendants, none of them is named Curran.

My mother [DS.4.5.7] told me that, in addition to their own children, Tom [DS.4.5] and Mollie [DS.4.5S₁] always seemed to have one or two other children from the neighborhood living with them, children who had nowhere else to go.

LISTINGS IN CHICAGO DIRECTORIES
1888 Curren Thomas, lab. h. rear 724 Centre av. [became 2151 S. Racine Ave.]
1889 Curran Thomas, boxmkr. h. 840 Allport .[became 2101 Allport Street]
1891 Curran Thomas, boxmkr. h. 840 Allport
1892 Curran Thomas, lab. h. 856 N. Ashland av.
1893 Curran Thomas, lab. h. 856 N. Ashland av.
1894 Curran Thomas, saloon 701 Centre av. [about 2118 S. Racine Ave]
1895 Curran Thomas, boxmkr. h. 701 Centre av.
1896 Curran Thomas, saloon 701 Centre av.
1897 Curran Thomas, saloon 701 S. Centre av.
1898 Curran Thomas saloon 701 S Centre av
1899 Curran Thomas saloon 701 S Centre av
1900 Curran Thomas saloon 701 S Centre av
1901 Curran Thomas saloon 682 S Centre av [became 2023 S. Racine Ave.]
1902 Curran Thomas saloon 682 S Centre av
1903 Curran Thomas saloon 682 S Centre av
1904 Curran Thomas saloon 682 S Centre av
1905 Curran Thomas saloon 682 S Centre av
1907 Curran Thomas saloon 682 S Centre av
1908 Curran Thomas saloon 682 S Centre av
1909 Curran Thomas saloon 682 S Centre av
1910 Curran Thomas saloon 2023 S Centre av
1911 Curran Thos saloon 2023 S Centre av
1912 Curran Thos saloon 2023 S Centre av
1913 Curran Thos (Curran Bros) 2103 Allport h 2023 S Centre av
1913 Curran Thos saloon h 2023 S Centre av
1914 Curran Thos (Curran & Co) 2106 S Racine av and saloon 2023 S Racine av
1915 Curran Thos (Curran & Co) 2106 S Racine av and saloon 2023 S Racine av
1915 Curran Thos saloons 1300 S Wabash av, 1301 S State and
2023 S Racine av h 5723 Broadway
1916 Curran Thos (Curran & Co) 2106 S Racine av h 2023 S Racine av
1916 Curran Thos saloon 1301 S State and 2023 S Racine av h 5723 Broadway
1917 Curran Thos saloon 1301 S State and 2023 S Racine av h 3723 Broadway
1917 Curran & Co (Thos & James) 2106 S Racine av fire brick mnfgs
1923 Curran Thos brk mfg h 2023 S Racine av
1928 Curran Thos h 1847 S Ashland av

In addition to the usual errors in the city directories, some uncertainty was added by the fact that there were two men named Thomas Curran who operated saloons in Chicago at about the same time. My grandfather [DS.4.5] never resided, or had a business, at 1300 S. Wabash, 1301 S. State, 5723 Broadway, or 3723 Broadway.²⁷

CURRAN’S BUFFET
Curran's Buffet was the kind of establishment that would be called a pub today. Most people arriving around meal time would have a meal. At other times, customers would have at least a snack with their drink, perhaps a hard boiled egg.

Curran's Buffet was always called a "saloon". In the early 19th century, the word "saloon" designated a luxurious hall or a first-class lounge on a ship or passenger train. By 1890, "saloon" had come to mean any retail establishment that sold alcoholic beverages by the glass. By the 1930’s, Hollywood westerns had given the word a negative connotation.

Mollie’s initial roll in the family business was to cook the food for the Curran Buffet. This was mostly pot roast, "corn beef", or other large pieces of boiled meat in accordance with the taste of the customers. The family ate from the same supply of food as did their customers.

The Curran-style corn beef was a delight of which I have been deprived ever since my mother last cooked it for me circa 1950. The beef is removed from the brine well before it reaches the sad, overdone condition found in delicatessens. It is then boiled together with cabbage, potatoes, and turnips.

Tom apparently knew that restaurants attract customers with good food and service but make their money from the drinks. I see the choice of the name "Curran's Buffet" as a good marketing move that emphasized the food to get people in the door. Once inside, they were tempted to stay and become part of the discussion of local political issues that affected them directly.

The Chicago Directories indicate that Tom's brother Will [DS.4.4] (age 24) operated a saloon at 701 Centre Ave. in 1891 and that Tom [DS.4.5] operated a saloon at that same address from 1894 to 1900. In 1901 and thereafter, Tom operated a saloon at 682 S. Centre Ave. The first building may have been destroyed by fire since I have been unable to find any record of it after 1900. It was missing from the list compiled in 1909 to report the standardized new numbers together with the old numbers for buildings.

Tom [DS.4.5] never drank after his marriage to Mollie [DS.4.5S₁] even though he owned and operated a "saloon". My mother remembers him saying, "A drunk is funny to everybody except to his family."  Tom and his family lived on the second floor; the saloon was confined to the first floor. Tom [DS.4.5] later owned two additional saloons, one at Van Buren and Clark, the other at 18^th Street and Blue Island Avenue.²⁷

My sister Loretta (b. 16 Jan 1922) was a frequent visitor to the saloon on Racine Avenue while our grandfather was still living. While our parents were visiting the family upstairs, Loretta would go downstairs to ask the customers in the saloon for pennies. When her father discovered what she was doing, he told her that she could accept pennies if they were offered but that she must not ask for them. Loretta, of course, immediately went downstairs and announced to everybody that she was not allowed to ask for pennies but that she could take them if anybody wanted to give them to her.

I visited the saloon at 2023 S. Racine Avenue during the daytime circa 1931 (after the death of Tom Curran and after the saloon had gone downhill during the early years of the Great Depression). I was with my parents and at least one sibling. I recall that the saloon was on a corner. The original main entrance (on Racine Avenue) was not open. We walked around the corner to the right and knocked on a side door. A man inside opened an eyelevel sliding panel about 5 inches high and about 8 inches wide and said something to my father. I don’t remember the exact words in my father’s reply but they were about as follows: "This is Tom Curran’s daughter, Laura, and her family. We’re here to see _____." We were then admitted.  Inside were 3 to 5 men, all in dark clothing and most (perhaps all) wearing fedora hats. There was a man behind the bar who wore a white shirt but no coat or hat. One man, seated at the far end of the bar and wearing a gray fedora and open overcoat, turned toward us and spoke to my parents in a soft voice and in a way that indicated to me that he was part of my mother’s family. However, he did not resemble any family member that I had met. He looked to have been born about 1880 ± 10. Based on the 1897-family-photograph that I have seen in recent years, I think he was Tom Curran’s brother, Dan (b. 5 Aug 1877). However, his sharp nose and angular facial features remind me of the photographs that I have seen of Eudicide Hebert (Arpin) and her descendants. So the man may have been a Harper.

The barroom was about 25 feet wide and about 50 feet long. Looking from the back of the room toward the front, the bar was along the wall on the right. Along the left wall were about three small, square, worn, bare tables, each adequate to seat four people. The tables, chairs, bar stools, and probably the bar, were made of a light colored wood which showed the remains of varnish applied many years earlier. The plaster wall behind the bar had probably once been painted a light blue. Everything was clean but appeared to be stained with the tar and oil from 50 years of tobacco smoke. From inside the room, the front left corner of the room appeared to be cut off diagonally (at about a 30 degree angle with the main street) to provide a location for the front door. There may have been something on the walls but nothing caught my attention. My impression is that there was nothing on the bar and very little on the shelf behind the bar. In retrospect, I think that such a low overhead operation was the only kind of saloon that people in that neighborhood could afford to patronize in 1931.

As I entered the side door, the entire barroom seemed to be to my left.  My guess is that there was a room to the right that was used by the boarders and that the upper floor was used only by  Tom's nuclear family.

Sometime before September 1922, Tom [DS.4.5] sold the building at 2023 South Racine Avenue to Mrs. Gloria Carmody. He leased the building (at least until 31 January 1923). Tom [DS.4.5] lived with his family on the second floor and was the proprietor of a "soft drink establishment" on the first floor. Later, the building was owned by John Janicek but the lower floor still operated under the name of "Curran’s Buffet". Tom’s brothers, Dan [DS.4.8] and Jim [DS.4.7] were present when it was raided and two barrels of beer seized on 9 April 1927. By then, Tom [DS.4.5] had probably moved with his family to his final residence at 1847 South Ashland avenue. 

DISTILLERIES
According to Marty Sweeney [DS.4.7.6S]: Just before the start of the Prohibition Era (which lasted from 16 January 1919 to 5 December 1933), Tom Curran [DS.4.5], Ernest Kunde (sp?), and a Mr. Melodie (sp?) owned all the local liquor distilleries. They delivered the barrels via horse and wagon before and during Prohibition. They moved the liquor at night. Tom Curran [DS.4.5] and others rode shotgun. During Prohibition, the "hoods" often broke in and tried to steal the liquor. Marty did not give me any details about those violent encounters. At one time, Jim Curran [DS.4.7] had many barrels of Tom Curran’s whiskey buried in his yard. "That was how he [Jim?] made most of his money."

I recall hearing my father speaking to my mother about a Mr. Melodie in the 1930’s or 1940’s. The first name may have been Frank.

Loretta McGrath told me that Tom Curran had some arrangement with "the Italians on Taylor Street". She did not know any details. I presume that he sold them whiskey by the barrel. I have no clues to political deals.

POLITICAL CAREER
Tom Curran [DS.4.5] was a great believer in working for the city on the theory that Chicago would never go out of business. He encouraged his sons-in-law in that direction. Two became firemen and one a policeman.

Tom [DS.4.5] was active in politics for 40 years (i.e. from 1888 until his death in 1928). He was a Representative in the Illinois legislature for 22 years (from 1906 until his death). Although Representatives were elected for a term of two years, I think I read (circa 1940) that the legislature met for only six months each year in the early 1900’s.

The photo at the right shows Tom Curran as he appeared circa 1920.

Thomas Curran and John T. Nebeck were the Delegates from the 5th District in the Illinois Delegation to the 1920 Republican National Convention. The Convention chose Warren Gamaliel Harding, who was subsequently elected President of the United States.

His daughter Nellie recalled that Tom hired a private tutor to come to his home and help advance his educational level. My guess is that this educational adventure was undertaken after Tom’s first six-month session in the state Legislature in 1906 taught him the importance of more education. I think that Nellie said the tutor was Spanish.

The little that I have been able to learn about Tom’s political philosophy indicated that he supported labor unions. His brother Jim [DS.4.7] and his uncle, James H. Payne, were active in the box makers union. Tom [DS.4.5] and his father [DS.4] had both worked as box makers.

One of the stories published in a Chicago newspaper immediately after Tom's death said that Tom [DS.4.5] had been a strong supporter of "Bulwerism" [sp?]. If my recollection of the spelling is correct, then the reference is probably to the economic philosophy of Edward George Earle Bulwer (1st Lord Lytton) (25 May 1803—18 Jan 1873), although the reference might be to a descendant. The relevant economic philosophy concerned protectionism.

The one legislative action that my mother (his daughter) remembered best was his success in pushing through the law that outlawed the common drinking cup in factories in Illinois.

On 12 March 1928, Tom [DS.4.5] was appointed by Gov. Small (for the second time) to be Superintendent of "West Parks". The unified Chicago Park District did not exist until after his death. As Superintendent of West Parks, Tom [DS.4.5] controlled the patronage for about 1,000 jobs.

Tom Curran (a Republican) had some kind of political relationship with Anton Cermak (a Democrat). Tom, who had patronage control over more than a thousand jobs, gave Cermak a substantial block of those jobs, thereby enabling Cermak to remain a strong factor in the Chicago Democratic Party. I never heard what Tom received from Cermak in return.

In the Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, 23 May 1967, there is a long article about Judge Abraham L. Marovitz and Joe E. Lewis (the comedian). Grace Curran (Sweeney) [DS.4.7.6] remembers the judge visiting her father [DS.4.7] when Jim [DS.4.7] was very sick. Tom Curran [DS.4.5] originally sponsored A. L. Marovitz for a job in the State’s Attorney’s Office. Around Christmas 1978, Judge Marovitz told Grace [DS.4.7.6]: "I was told to go and see Tom Curran [DS.4.5] and he’d take care of me." The future judge said, "But I’m a Democrat." "They" said, "It doesn’t make any difference. You go and see him." And Tom [DS.4.5] put him in the State’s Attorney’s Office. Judge Marovitz was still on the bench in April 1980.

Since Judge Marovitz remained a friend of the Curran family throughout his life, we learned a little about his personal life. The story is that Judge Marovitz was "in love for a generation with an Irish girl; his mother was an Orthodox Jew and hers was equally Catholic, and they did not want to break their mothers' hearts by marrying."