Curry began his political career at age 23 when he became a member of Colfax County's delegation at the Democratic Territorial Convention in Albuquerque.

He then engaged in the hotel business in Socorro, New Mexico, was private secretary to US Senator Holm O. Bursum in 1921 and 1922, and was a member of the International Boundary Commission from 1922 to 1927.

In April 1932, he was falsely reported to have died in Hillsboro; Curry's son Clifford unsuccessfully sued the Albuquerque Journal for causing a heart attack upon reading the story in the newspaper.

[3] After retiring, Curry moved to a ranch near Cutter, and served as State Historian from 1945 until his death in Albuquerque on November 27, 1947, with interment in the Santa Fe National Cemetery.

Assured that the Pulahan forces were falling from attrition, Curry negotiated to meet at a neutral small barrio not shown on most maps, Magtaon in Mapanas.

Curry barely escaped and in retaliation ordered [4]"in your operations outside the towns and barrios you may kill anyone you have reason to [believe] a pulahan'; those who were members of the 'Magtaon band' were to be 'exterminated'"[4]