CURLEE LAND COMPANY
Baxter Co, Arkansas
(Photo from Baxter Co. Family Histories)
The Curlee Land Company was owned by Mack Emery Curlee,
the son of Joseph Nathan Curlee and grandson of John Obediah Curlee.
HISTORY OF BAXTER CO AR - Centennial Edition 1873-1973 976.7 Page 372-373 Joe Curlee, in company with a stepbrother, Sylvester Henry, left his home in Greenville, Illinois, in the fall of 1876 in a covered wagon equipped with camping outfit and cooking utensils, even to a cookstove. They headed for Arkansas to look for a good place to settle. Their father, John Curlee, a merchant at Greenville, told the boys to investigate the area around Little Rock, but they stopped in Baxter County to visit old friends, the Whit Reddick family, who lived on a large farm on White River where East Cotter is now located. He wrote such a glowing account of this country that the family decided to come. Mr. Curlee, his wife and daughters Lucy (who married John P. Clendenin) and Hattie (who married Dr. J.J. Morrow) boarded the Iron Mountain Railroad in St. Louis and arrived in Newport, which was the nearest railroad station to Mountain Home. They came via stagecoach to Batesville where the boys met them and took them to the Reddick home. Mr. Curlee bought a homestead claim two miles north of Mountain Home and later bought more land to go with it. Joe returned to Elmpoint, Illinois, in 1880 and married Miss Alice Smith. They came back to Mountain Home where he set up a drugstore.
In 1930, M.E. Curlee was operating the Curlee Drug Store. The crash of Wall Street had shaken the nation financially and the economy was at its lowest ebb. Curlee sold his drug store to Ray Wilks, because he could not say no to sick people and he was not financially able to extend unlimited credit. After selling the drugstore, he bought Ray's Real Estate Business. His first office was in the O.B. McClure building on the northwest side of the square, on the second floor. In the later 1930's he formed a partnership with Jack Hornbuckle and they moved into the Z.M. Horton law office building, soon afterwards building a new office on lot 505 Main Street where M.E. Curlee remained in the real estate business for nearly 35 years. In 1970, the firm was sold to John Speight. The former office of the M.E. Curlee Real Estate is now rented by Ozark Realty Company. BAXTER CO., ARK., FEDERAL LAND RECORDS CURLEE JOHN 32 20N 13W 0 1886/01/20 CURLEE JOHN 32 20N 13W 0 1886/01/20 CURLEE JOHN 32 20N 13W 160 1886/01/20 ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT - Saturday December 12 1987 Page 10A M.E. CURLEE, 97, former mayor, retired druggist MOUNTAIN HOME -- Mack Emery Curlee, 97, of Mountain Home, a retired pharmacist and realtor, died Wednesday. Curlee, was owner/operator of Curlee Land Co. former mayor, county judge for Baxter County, county assessor and president for Funeral will be at 2 p.m. today at Roller Funeral Home. Burial will be in Mountain Home Cemetery. Memorials may be made to a favorite charity or First Christian Church. Survivors are a son, Dean Curlee..., two daughters, Mrs. Alyce Marbury and Mrs. Delores Poynter, both of Mountain Home; five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
I corresponded with Alyce Curlee Marbury in the early 80's.
Charlotte
Curlee Ramsey
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cramsey/index.html
