T. Spicer Curlett
Portrait of Curlett, c.1887
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Lancaster and Richmond
In office
December 9, 1885  December 7, 1887
Preceded byL.R. Stewart
Succeeded byEugene S. Phillips
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Lancaster County
In office
December 6, 1871  December 1, 1875
Preceded byArmistead S. Nickens
Succeeded byCharles Pitts
Personal details
Born
Thomas Spicer Curlett

1847 (1847)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
DiedMay 7, 1914(1914-05-07) (aged 67)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Susie Chilton
(m. 1868)
ChildrenJohn
EducationLoyola College
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/serviceUnion Army
Unit1st Eastern Shore Infantry
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Thomas Spicer Curlett (1847 – May 7, 1914) was a Republican farmer, postmaster and state legislator in Lancaster County, Virginia, during Reconstruction.[1]

Early and family life

He was born in Baltimore. His father, John Curlett (died February 17, 1896), was a bank director and philanthropist.[2] He was a student at Loyola College in Baltimore in 1864.[3] On November 4, 1868, he married Susie Spicer (1849-1933) of Lancaster County, who would survive him, as would their son John (1870-1944), who would also serve in the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1906 and also act as an oyster inspector.

Career

During the American Civil War, Spicer was a private in Company B of the Maryland Volunteers Eastern Shore Infantry.[4] A photograph of him in uniform sold at auction.[5]

On January 6, 1874, he became the postmaster for Litwalton in the Whitechapel district of Lancaster County.[6] Spicer represented Lancaster County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1875 to 1879, until census reorganization combined it with nearby Richmond County. He represented both counties 1885 to 1887.[7] In 1888-1889 he was one of the principal farmers in the Litwalton division of the county.[8] The Chesapeake Watchman lampooned his candidacy and denounced his previous affiliation with Republicans.[9] Henry Straughan Hathaway who owned Enon Hall wrote to him denouncing his political affiliation with blacks.[10]

Curlett may have returned to Baltimore by 1894 and worked as a salesman,[11] though his wife and son remained in Lancaster County, Virginia. He died on May 7, 1914, in Baltimore.[12]

References

  1. "House History".
  2. Forrest, Clarence H. (1898). "Official History of the Fire Department of the City of Baltimore: Together with Biographies and Portraits of Eminent Citizens of Baltimore".
  3. Loyola college directory on ancestry.com
  4. History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-1865, Vols. 1-2 p. 329 of 587 on ancestry.com
  5. "Products". Archived from the original on 2021-07-10. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  6. Postmaster appointments on ancestry.com
  7. Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978, pp. 522, 526, 542
  8. Carolyn H. Jett, Lancaster County, Virginia: Where the River meets the Bay, (Lancaster County History Book Committee, 2003) p. 389
  9. "chesapeake watchman 2". The Free Lance. Newspapers.com. 2019-01-28. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  10. "Enon Hall - "Henry Straughan Hathaway -- Portrait in Lancaster Court House"".
  11. Baltimore Maryland city directory on ancestry.com
  12. "T. Spicer Curlett Dead". Northern Neck News. May 15, 1914. p. 2. Retrieved March 10, 2022 via Virginia Chronicle.
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