JAMES L. CURBO

The following bio was taken from page 168 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Shirley Koym

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

The Curbos probably descended from the French Huguenots that fled persecution in France. Just when our branch of the family came to America is unknown. They probably arrived in the late 1600’s. They were in Maryland in 1750, in North Carolina (Anson County) in the late 1700’s and in Edgefield, South Carolina in the early 1800’s. Then they migrated to Jackson County, Georgia. The name "Curbo" means raven. It is spelled Courbeaux or Courbois in France. The spelling in America is varied for many reasons. Anytime that you meet someone with the Curbo, Kerbo, Kirbo, etc., you can be assured there is a common ancestor somewhere.

James L. Curbo was born in Jackson County, Georgia in 1819. He was the son of James and Sarah Reed Curbo and the brother of Nathaniel, Celia, Matilda, Malinda and Rebecca. On May 23, 1838 he married Elizabeth Nicholas in Lincoln County, Tennessee. Their family moved to Texas in 1848. They settled on a farm 10 miles southwest of Henderson in the Gum Springs Community. The family is listed in the 1850 and 1860 Census in Rusk County. The first three of their children were born in Tennessee and the last two in Texas. The children were Thomas Benton, Hanah, Martha, Julia, and Newton. Evidently both James and Elizabeth died before 1870 because Thomas Benton, the oldest child, was head of the household in the 1870 Census.

On July 3, 1864, Thomas Benton married Sarah A. Nicholas. She was the daughter of Thomas Nicholas and Minerva Brookshire. Their children were Betty, Henry (T. H.), Nan, Tenn, Marvin, Sebe, and George. These children grew-up, married, and reared their families in the Gum Springs Community. Several of them are buried in the MOYERS Cemetery.

Henry (T. H.) (1870-1949) married Effie Mae Windle (1881-1927) on November 5, 1897. Their children were Roy, Eric Addie Mae, Donald, Vernon and Lola Belle. In the fall of 1915, T. H. Curbo sold his farm in the Gum Springs Community and bought the Bill English farm located two miles north of Henderson on the west side of the Old Longview Road from the R. T. Milner home and Milner Park. On January 1, 1916, he moved his family into their new home in order to send his children to the Henderson Schools.

Addie Mae graduated from Henderson High School, then earned her B. S. degree from North Texas State University and her M. A. degree from George Peabody of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, with a major in chemistry and a minor in biology. She taught chemistry at NTSU, Denton, Texas for eighteen years. On September 3, 1945 she married Charles E. Lloyd and returned to Rusk County. They live four miles northwest of Henderson on Highway 323. On January 5, 1947, she went to Kilgore Junior College as a teacher of chemistry. In September 1949, she was made chairman of the Biology Department, a position she held until her retirement in 1970.

Descendants of James and Elizabeth Curbo living in Rusk County in 1981 are Fay Curbo Burton, Geraldine Burton Stroud, Addie Mae Curbo Lloyd, Vernon M. Curbo, Banner Curbo Clark, the Ray Curbo family, and Ruby Curbo Miles.

Submitted by Mrs. Chas. E. Lloyd