Thomas Spicer Curlett (1847 – May 7, 1914) was a Republican farmer, postmaster and state legislator in Lancaster County, Virginia, during Reconstruction.[1]
He was born in Baltimore. His father, John Curlett (died February 17, 1896), was a bank director and philanthropist.[2] He was a student at Loyola College in Baltimore in 1864.[3] On November 4, 1868, he married Susie Spicer (1849-1933) of Lancaster County, who would survive him, as would their son John (1870-1944), who would also serve in the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1906 and also act as an oyster inspector.
During the American Civil War, Spicer was a private in Company B of the Maryland Volunteers Eastern Shore Infantry.[4] A photograph of him in uniform sold at auction.[5]
On January 6, 1874, he became the postmaster for Litwalton in the Whitechapel district of Lancaster County.[6] Spicer represented Lancaster County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1875 to 1879, until census reorganization combined it with nearby Richmond County. He represented both counties 1885 to 1887.[7] In 1888-1889 he was one of the principal farmers in the Litwalton division of the county.[8] The Chesapeake Watchman lampooned his candidacy and denounced his previous affiliation with Republicans.[9] Henry Straughan Hathaway who owned Enon Hall wrote to him denouncing his political affiliation with blacks.[10]
Curlett may have returned to Baltimore by 1894 and worked as a salesman,[11] though his wife and son remained in Lancaster County, Virginia. He died on May 7, 1914, in Baltimore.[12]
United States
