CURWOOD
CHAPTER ONE
THE CHILD PRODIGY
Little did the stern though kind-hearted citizens of Owosso, Michigan realize that on the eventful morning of June 12, 1878, the newly-born second son of James Moran and Abigail Griffen Curwood would in time plummet across the literary horizon as the brightest star to have appeared in years. His name was James Oliver Curwood.
From the outset the parents had trouble with their new son, finding it very difficult to please his childish desires. Perhaps ancestry had a bearing here, and if it did, it may all be traced back to the thrilling career of the famous Captain Frederick A. Marrayat, great seaman and popular novelist of yesteryear. He was the lad’s great-uncle.
Jimmie Curwood’s birth took place in the days when Owosso was a small town of some eight thousand population, and trees grew in the center of the streets. It was that era of the nineteenth century when livestock and fowl were free to roam about the city at will, and the horse and buggy played an important part in the development of transportation.
Likewise so it was in that district of Owosso known as West Town. It was in this particular part of town that Jimmie Curwood played so much with his friends (bad though they were), and came forth from bitter schoolboy battles unscathed. Later in life he remarked about West Town in the following manner: