Nathaniel Currie
Nathaniel Currie (Curry) was elected MPP in the 1st Legislative Assembly of Ontario during the Confederation elections of 1867. Born of Irish immigrants in Chinguacousy, Upper Canada, the family farmed in the Glencoe area. His father, Nathaniel Currie Sn. petitioned for land in Mosa County, from York where he had originally petitioned for land in Upper Canada. Currie married Elizabeth Weeks in Mosa in 1845 having ten children together. He was buried in the Oakland Cemetery, Mosa, Row 11, no. 17 at age 74. As an early settler of Mosa Township, he became a Conservative provincial political figure  and later Reeve of Glencoe village for many years. Reeve Currie, the unofficial founder of the village, is reputed to have upheld the Black Donnellys right to walk freely in the streets of Glencoe. He did not run in the election 1871 but did run again for the Provincial Legislature in 1882, losing to George William Ross by a vote of 1651-1597. Parliamentary Work. Committees. As an MPP, he worked on the following Committees: Bills Introduced. Currie introduced a bill in March 1874 to provide for female suffrage and the political representation of real property according to value. The  bill stated that real property should be the basis of the vote and dual or plural votes per property should be allowed. Women of age holding property should be included in this vote. After much discussion the "Farmers' Sons Franchise Act" was passed in 1877, providing the vote to sons of land owners on the basis of property according to value, but not women. Notes of Interest. Nathaniel Currie was one of two justices involved in the "Emma Rees case". Emma Rees was a lieutenant in the Glencoe Salvation Army in 1886. The Salvation Army was a target for local  persecution while Emma Rees commanded a local detachment of the Army. A few residents of Glencoe, including some of the Donnelly clan, were fined and convicted for their activities against the Army and Emma Rees was fined for assault. Emma Rees appealed her conviction and charged Justices Simpson and Currie with unlawful arrest. She eventually won her suit and collected $700.