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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
WILLIAM S. CURRIER, junior member of the firm of Charles Currier & Son, is a native of Mahaska County, born in White Oak Township, Nov. 26, 1852. His parents, Charles and Angeline (Harris) Currier, are numbered among the early settlers of the county. (See sketch of Charles Currier.) William was reared in the country, and as soon as old and stout enough to handle a half bushel of grain, was put to work in his father's mill. In the milling business he has since continued, and to-day it is said that as a miller, he perhaps, has no superior in the State of Iowa, if in the West, practically or mechanically speaking. He has made milling the study of his life, and is the inventor of the Currier Middlings Mill, a piece of machinery designed to take up the middlings as they are left by the ordinary process of milling, even in the best mills, reducing them so that they may be mixed with the other product of the mill, where they properly belong. The machinery used in this system does this work successfully, as has been thoroughly proven. The buhrs used in the middling mills are made of a peculiar kind of stone found only in a quarry of stone upon the farm of Charles Currier, and near the Currier Mills, section 7, White Oak Township. The buhrs are guaranteed against heating or glazing. The process for using the middlings was discovered by Mr. Currier in 1876, and in 1878 he put one of the buhrs and the necessary machinery in Siebel & Co.'s Mill, at Oskaloosa, which proved very satisfactory. A company was soon afterward organized for the manufacture of the machinery, and large numbers of mills have been made and shipped to all parts of the Union, and in every instance satisfaction was given. Had it not been for the introduction of the roller process for the grinding of wheat, it is probable there would not have been a flouring-mill in the whole country without one of Currier's Middlings Mills. As stated, Mr. Carrier began working in the mill at a very early age. His educational advantages were therefore limited, but he has made a practical use of knowledge acquired, reflecting on what he reads, so that he has a well-stored mind of useful information. At the age of seventeen he was placed in charge of the mill, and with the exception of a year and a half in Eddyville, where he also run a mill, he has since been in charge. In 1880 he was made a full partner in the business, and the firm name of Charles Currier & Son was adopted. In the conduct of the mill he has ever been ready to adopt any improvements that could be made, and in pursuance of which in the winter of 1886-87 put in the roller system. The mill was erected by the senior member of the firm in 1859, and is a frame structure on a stone foundation. It is 40x 44 feet, two and a half stories high, and is in good repair. The power by which the mill is run consists of two improved rose wheels and one turbine. The capacity of the mill is fifty barrels every twenty-four hours. The reputation of the mill has always been so well maintained that the name of Charles Currier & Son upon a sack of flour, is sufficient guarantee of its quality. William S. Currier and Malinda J. McKanna were united in marriage May 8, 1874. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. McKanna, who now reside in Oskaloosa. Two children have blest their union -Harley and Ralph. Politically Mr. Currier is a Republican. Being yet on the sunny side of forty, and with plenty of grit and energy, there is yet a bright future before him.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy