Frank Dunklee Currier (1853 - 1921)
Born and died at Canaan (NH).
Businessman; state and national legislator.
Portrait by Daniel Strain, n.d.
Presented to the State 1893 - 1895.

Currier (1853 - 1921) was born and died at Canaan (NH). He was the third generation of his family to become a trader at Canaan, but after completing his schooling he read law. He was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar at age twenty-one (1874).

Currier spent several years alternating between his East Canaan (NH) law practice and travels to the American West. He became an ardent supporter of the Greenback Party, and so alarmed his friends that they promised to send him to Concord. Currier was elected a State Representative in 1879; the town history observes that Currier "like other young men became conspicuous for much speaking," and he was not reelected [William A. Wallace, History of Canaan (1910), 338.]

Defeated at the polls, Currier became Secretary of the New Hampshire Republican Party (served 1882 - 1890). He also became Clerk of the Senate (served 1883 - 1887). He was a delegate to the 1884 Republican National Convention, and in 1886 was named President of the State Senate.

With good political connections, Currier was appointed to a good political job, Naval Officer at The Port of Boston (served 1890 - 1894). He served as a State Representative (1898) and as Speaker of the House (1899). In 1900 he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives and was elected to five terms (served March 1901 - March 1913). He was defeated for reelection in 1912.

References: Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1774 - 1989 (1989); William A. Wallace, History of Canaan, New Hampshire (1910).