 Curry, a Georgia native educated at Harvard Law School, served in the state legislature and Congress prior to the American Civil War, during which he served in the Confederate Army.In 1881 he was chosen to serve as the southern agent for the Peabody Education Fund and in 1889 as an agent for the Slater Fund.Both of these charitable funds were established for the purpose of improving educational resources in the South during the post-Civil War period.