From History of Walworth County Wisconsin by Albert Clayton Beckwith, Vol. II, 
Publ. 1912 - Page 984-987
 
JAMES S. CURRAN.  It is a well known fact, fully recognized by physicians and 
by all others who have made the subject a study, that a quiet life and steady 
habits promote longevity.  In the cities where the people are falling over 
each other in their desperate attempts to get rich suddenly, and where they 
are, as a consequence, on a severe nervous strain all the time, the mortality 
tables are much higher than in the rural districts.  The farmer may, 
therefore, congratulate himself that though his life may be less eventful it 
is certainly much longer than is that of his cousin in the city.  This 
important fact should be borne in mind when the young men catch the fever to 
be clerks in some cheap grocery in a town or village or hide away to the 
nearest metropolis and secure employment in a smoke-surcharged, noisy machine 
shop or factory.  How much better is the life of the farmer who has won a fine 
farm from the dense woods, reared a large family of healthy children, made a 
comfortable home and is able to spend his old age in peace and surrounded by 
plenty, beloved by all who have known him.  Some such a man is the subject of 
this sketch.
 
James S. CURRAN, a well known and highly esteemed citizen of Lyons township, 
Walworth county, was born in Jackson county, Michigan, December 5, 1839.  He 
is the son of Henry and Margaret (McQUADE) CURRAN, early settlers near Lake 
Geneva, in Lyons township.  Henry CURRAN was born in county Fermanagh, 
Ireland, about 1803, and it is believed that Margaret McQUADE was from the 
same locality.  Henry CURRAN was the son of John and Ellen (McNAMEE) CURRAN.  
He was one of a family of four children, James, John, Mary and Henry.  The 
family came to New York in 1815 and lived for some time in New York city, 
where the death of John CURRAN, and also that of his daughter, Mary, 
occurred.  The son, John, went to New Brunswick.  The widow and the other two 
children, James and Henry, moved to Michigan and settled in Jackson county.  
Henry CURRAN was married in New Jersey to Margaret McQUADE, before they came 
to Michigan.  James was married in the last named state to Jane BROWN, 
daughter of George and Anna (DUGAN) BROWN, she also being of Irish parentage.  
Her parents were from county Fermanagh, but she was born in the isle of 
Jersey, where her father was stationed as a soldier in the British army.  She 
was ten years old when her parents brought her to New York, thence to Michigan.
 
About 1839 Henry and James CURRAN walked all the way from Jackson county, 
Michigan, to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and here they located farms, which they 
entered from the government, about three miles east of Lake Geneva, then 
returned to the Wolverine state for their families, which they brought back 
with ox teams, a slow journey through the wilderness, and here they began life 
in true pioneer fashion, clearing their land, erecting log cabins and putting 
out a little crop, and in due course of time they had made good homes here.  
James S. CURRAN recalls the trip with his parents through Chicago when he was 
only about five years old, when that city was only a straggling village in a 
swamp. His father squatted on a piece of land in the northeast corner of 
section 32, in Lyons township, Walworth county.  Later selling his claim, he 
squatted on another farm in section 27, and this was the family home for the 
next fourteen years.  The father later moved a little nearer Lake Geneva and 
farmed there the rest of his active life.  During their last years both 
parents made their home with their son, James, who, with true devotion, chose 
rather to care for his parents than to marry and establish a family home for 
himself.  At his home the mother's death occurred in 1883 and there the father 
passed away in 1885.  The old couple had lived through the hardships of 
pioneer life, and although they were not numbered among the famous nor the 
wealthy, they performed their duties in the light of truth and right and did 
such good as they could, and earned the high esteem in which they were held by 
all who knew them.  They were faithful members of the Catholic church and in 
the early days the vicar-general of the Milwaukee diocese occasionally came to 
the locality in which the CURRANS resided, celebrating mass at the cabin of 
the subject's parents in the early days.  When the first Catholic church was 
built upon Catholic Hill in the east edge of Lake Geneva, Henry and James 
CURRAN carried timbers on their backs nearly a mile and up the long hill to 
where the church was built.  James CURRAN, uncle of James S. CURRAN, also 
spent his life near Lake Geneva, and here reared a family of ten children.  He 
was well known and well liked, and his death occurred on August 26, 1877.
 
Thirteen children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Henry CURRAN, of whom only four 
grew to maturity, namely: Ellen, who married Thomas BRENNAN, and died, leaving 
eight children; James S., of this sketch; Jane, who married William BARRY, a 
machinist, and lives in Chicago; Henry a machinist, lives in Chicago.
 
James S. CURRAN was reared on the home farm where he worked hard when a boy, 
near Lake Geneva.  He received such education at the old-fashioned schools, 
taught in log-houses, afforded in the days of the first settlers here.  In 
1863 he went to Nevada with a large number of horses, and he remained there 
three years, working in timber, charcoal, coal and tar, and he thereby got a 
very good financial start.  Returning to Walworth county, Wisconsin, in 1866, 
he purchased one hundred acres of land in section 32, the south edge of Lyons 
township.  He returned to Nevada in 1867 and remained there three years, then 
came back to his boyhood home in Walworth county, and in 1870 bought more land 
adjoining his first tract.  Here he has engaged successfully in general 
farming and stock raising, and is now the owner of one of the choice farms of 
the locality, consisting of two hundred forty-two and one-half acres in 
sections 31 and 32, and he has lived here for over forty years.  He has kept 
his place well developed, well improved and well tilled and he has a pleasant 
home.  He has always been a man of great industry and endurance, and now, 
although past his seventy-second milestone, he still works in the fields with 
those who help him with the work on his large farm.
 
His niece, Mrs. SCHLAX, and her husband and family live with him, she 
presiding over the household and they assisting with the work on the farm.  
Before her marriage she was known as Julia BRENNAN, daughter of Thomas and 
Ellen (CURRAN) BRENNAN.  The mother was a sister of the subject and was born 
in New Jersey.  Thomas BRENNAN was from Lowell, Massachusetts.  To Thomas 
BRENNAN and wife eight children were born, namely: George, of Chicago; 
Margaret, wife of James Knowles, of Chicago; Mary, wife of Thomas McDONALD, 
lives at Lake Como; James lives in Chicago; Julia, wife of Mr. SCHLAX; 
William, of Chicago; Miss Jane BRENNAN, of the Blackstone Hotel, Chicago; 
Nellie, wife of John MARIGA, of Chicago.  The BRENNAN home was in Lyons 
township and there the children grew up and the parents died, the death of the 
father occurring in March 1881, and the mother in April 1, 1907.  They and 
their children were members of the Catholic church.
 
Julia BRENNAN was married on February 24, 1892 to Michael Anton SCHLAX.  He 
was born in Randall township, Kenosha county, Wisconsin, July 24, 1868, and is 
the son of Anton and Anna (TOLLEY) SCHLAX.  His father was from Germany and 
his mother a native of New York.  His father still lives in Kenosha county, 
this state, on the farm where the son, Michael A., was born, and where the 
mother died about 1884.
 
Michael A. SCHLAX grew up on the home farm, where he remained until he was 
about eighteen years of age, then learned the blacksmith's trade at West 
Chicago.  Later he went to Sycamore, Wisconsin, where he worked successfully 
at his trade until about 1889, then came to Lake Geneva, where he continued 
blacksmithing with his usual success until March 1, 1911, when he moved his 
family to Mr. CURRANS's farm, where they now reside.
 
Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. .SCHLAX, named as follows: Earle, 
Homer, Marjorie, Michael, Ellen and Dorothy Jane.  Members of this family all 
belong to the Catholic church
 
Mr. CURRAN is now one of the old landmarks of this community, which he has 
seen transformed from a wild stretch of woods to a fine farming section, and 
in this work of transformation he has played no inconspicuous part.  He talks 
interestingly of the early days here and of his experiences in the far West.  
He is a pleasant, companionable old gentleman, who has the respect of all who 
know him.
 
Submitted by Carol