JENNIE ADELE CURIEUX
The information below has been compiled from a variety of sources. If the reader has access to information that can be documented and that will correct or add to this woman’s biographical information, please contact the Nevada Women’s History Project.
At A Glance:
Born: July 26, 1881, Eureka, NV
Died: Dec. 23, 1961, Tonopah, NV
Maiden Name: Jennie Adele Gregovich
Race/Nationality/Ethnic Background: Austrian
Married: Frank Curieux, July 12, 1905 – 1907
Children: Catherine A. Curieux Pennebaker
Primary City and County of Residence and Work:
Tonopah, Nye County, Nevada
Major Fields of Work: schoolteacher, Nye County Auditor and Recorder, 1917-1921
Educator taught elementary school for almost 40 years
From age 17, Jennie Adele Gregovich Curieux devoted more than half her life to teaching in rural Nevada schools. She taught elementary school for almost 40 years. She was elected to public office in Nye County for two terms.
Jennie was born July 26, 1881, to Emma and John Gregovich in Eureka, Nevada, and graduated from Eureka High School. She obtained her teacher certification on July 30, 1898, and began teaching in Little Cherry in Nye County, commuting 85 miles by buckboard from Eureka, a trip that took three days. She was paid $30 per month plus room and board. Her next teaching positions were in White River in eastern Nye County, Huntington in Elko County, Ruby Hill for three years, and Beowawe for two years.
The Eureka Sentinel, 1905
At age 24, Jennie married Frank Curieux of Beowawe on July 12, 1905. Her husband owned a bar, store, and hotel in Beowawe and also had extensive mining interests. The couple had one daughter, Catherine, who was 9 months old when Frank died in 1907 as a result of injuries suffered in a train accident.
Jennie and her daughter moved to Tonopah, where Jennie would spend the rest of her life. She taught in Tonopah elementary grades from September 1908 to January 1917.
Jennie took a break from teaching in 1916 to run successfully for the office of Nye County Recorder and Auditor, one of the first women in the state to win election to office after the Nevada Legislature passed a constitutional amendment in 1914 giving women the right to vote and hold county and state offices.
Jennie served two two-year terms as County Recorder and Auditor from 1917 to 1921. She was distinguished by receiving the largest vote on the county ticket, in spite of having an opponent in the 1918 election. In 1921 she returned to teaching in Tonopah and taught first grade from 1921 through the 1951 school year.
In professional activities, she was a charter member of her Delta Kappa Gamma chapter, the international honorary organization for women educators. Jennie represented Nevada in 1930 at the national convention of the National Education Association in Columbus, Ohio. She was county NEA director, director and treasurer of the Nevada State Education Association and a member of the state textbook committee.
Jennie died on December 23, 1961, at age 80, after a two-month illness. She is buried in the New Tonopah Cemetery. Her husband Frank Curieux is buried in the Masonic Memorial Gardens in Reno, Nevada.
Researched by Patti Bernard and written by Janice Hoke. Posted October 2017. Updated 2025.
Sources of information
Ancestry.com. U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. [Jennie Adele Curieux]
Ancestry.com. Year: 1900; Census Place: Eureka, Eureka, Nevada; Roll: 943; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0015. [Jennie L Greyovich]
Ancestry.com. Year: 1910; Census Place: Tonopah Precinct 2, Nye, Nevada; Roll: T624_859; Page: 9b; Enumeration District: 0058; FHL microfilm: 1374872. [Jennie A Curieux]
Ancestry.com. Year: 1920; Census Place: Tonopah, Nye, Nevada; Roll: T625_1005; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 30. [Jenniete Currieux]
Ancestry.com. Year: 1930; Census Place: Tonopah, Nye, Nevada; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 0021; FHL microfilm: 2341032. Jennie A Curriex]
Ancestry.com. Year: 1940; Census Place: Tonopah, Nye, Nevada; Roll: m-t0627-02279; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 12-9. [Jennie Curieux]
Ancestry.com. Year: 1950; Census Place: Tonopah, Nye, Nevada; Roll: 3484; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 12-12. [Jennie Adelle Curieaux]
“Curieux – Gregovich Wedding.” The Eureka Sentinel (Eureka, Nevada), 15 July 1905, p.3. [photo]
“First Woman Candidate for A County Nomination.” Tonopah Daily Bonanza (Tonopah, Nevada), 28 July 1916, p.4.
Geuder, Patricia A., editor. “Jennie A. Curieux, 1881-1961,” from Pioneer Women of Nevada, Alpha Chi State of Delta Kappa Gamma Society, International, and the Nevada Division of the American Association of University Women: Carson City, Nevada, 1976, pgs.219-220.
“Jennie A. Curieux Passes,” Tonopah Times Bonanza (Tonopah, Nevada), 19 Dec 1961.
“Jennie Curiex [sic] Passes in Nye.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada), 25 Dec 1961, p.28.
“Mother and Child are Badly Burned.” Tonopah Daily Bonanza (Tonopah, Nevada), 7 Nov 1911, p.1.
“Mrs. Curieux to Run Again.” Tonopah Daily Bonanza (Tonopah, Nevada), 26 July 1920, p.1.
“Native Eureka Daughters Seek County Office.” The Eureka Sentinel (Eureka, Nevada), 29 July 1922, p.4.
“Native Eureka Daughter Elected in Nye County.” White Pine News Weekly Mining Review (East Ely, Nevada), 19 Nov 1916, p.5.
“Nye County Presents Woman Candidate,” The Nevada Newsletter (undated), Vertical File Miscellaneous “C”, Nevada State Library and Archives, Carson City, Nevada.
“Sorority Group Meets in Tonopah.” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 25 Oct 1950, p.12.
“Teachers Register in National Group.” Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada), 16 Dec 1939, p.16. [National Educational Association and Nevada State Educational Association]
“To the Voters of Nye County.” Tonopah Daily Bonanza (Tonopah, Nevada), 6 Nov 1916, p.4.
“Woman Candidate for Recorder in Nye.” Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, Nevada). 29 July 1916, p.5.