TRADEGY, MISFORTUNE, AND SADNESS

A Chapter of Accidents. Mr. Henry Furr, of Hughesville, Loudoun county, recently had his leg broken by the kick of a horse. Mr. Furr has certainly had a remarkable series of misfortunes. A few years ago all three of his children died of diphtheria. Last winter his residence and his meat house, with most of his furniture, his wearing apparel, and his meat were consumed by fire. Then someone raided his poultry house and robbed him of his poultry. Then rheumatism attacked him and he had to go upon crutches. He was just recovering from this when he met with this last accident. Mrs. Furr has become entirely blind. As Mr. Furr is comparatively a young man, his friends hope there are better days in store for him.

Alexandria Gazette, Alexandria, DC, October 25, 1895

The little two months infant son of Mr. and Mrs. C. N. Furr who reside a short distance east of town was scalded to death Saturday afternoon, the particulars of which are as follows: Mrs. Furr had gone over to her husband's store which is only a short distance from their home, leaving her little four year old daughter with the baby. The little girl picked up the baby and started over to the store and as she was carrying it in front of her, could not see ahead so stumbled over a kettle of boiling water which was sitting in the yard over a fire and the infant dropped into the kettle. The little girl screamed for her mother and reached her hands into the boiling water and tried to pull the babe out. Mrs. Furr reached the scene in a moment and lifted the child out and summoned medical aid but it was so terribly scalded that it died within a short time. The little girl's hands and arms were fearfully scalded in her attempt to rescue her little baby brother. The funeral of the little one took place yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock, Rev. W. A. Stuckey conducting services at the residence. The interment was made in Wilson's Chapel Cemetery.

McKinney Daily Courier, McKinney, Texas, Monday, August 8, 1904

The home of Mr. W. M. M. Furr of Stanly county is one in which death has often entered. Mr. Furr is only about 40 years old, yet he has buried his wife and eleven children. He was in town a few days ago and placed an order with Messrs. Baker and Foard for twelve tombstones.

The Lancaster Ledger, Lancaster, South Carolina, September 3, 1904

Between 1887 and 1901, William Martin Moses Furr (1861-1929) and his first wife Malinda Lavinia Love (1867-1904) lost 12 children, one age 6 and the rest under the age of 1. Malinda died on May 1, 1904. She and the 12 children are buried in Loves Grove United Methodist Church Cemetery. One child from this marriage, Martha Furr Doby (1898-1960), lived to be 62. William had three children by his second wife, Dora Morgan (1885-1944), who lived to be 46, 58, and 83.

E. Furr Killed By Brother.

Row in Prominent Stanly Family Results in Awful Tragedy.

Albemarle Dispatch, June 18, 1915

An awful tragedy occurred about three miles west of Big Lick, this county, this morning about 8 o'clock when W. F. Furr shot and killed his brother, Ephraim Furr. It seems that there had been some trouble between the brothers for some time over their father's estate. The stepmother was living on the land of W. M. Furr and proceedings had been taken by W. M. Furr to get possession of the land. It is said that Ephraim Furr had been some trouble between the mother. This morning when W. M. Furr and his son, L. M. Furr, went to the field near the house where the widow lived, they found that the widow had gone to Albemarle, but that Ephraim was there about the house. Ephraim Furr ordered W. M. Furr and his son off the premises, asserting, it is said, that unless they got off he would kill them. They did not go. Ephraim went to the house and secured his shotgun and returned and again ordered his brother away. The son remonstrated with his uncle, and tried to prevent, trouble, but Ephraim fired on his brother, a number of the shots taking effect in the limbs and other parts of his body. Ephraim then got down behind the road bank and took out the empty shell and undertook to reload, but when he rose W. M. Furr shot him with a pistol, almost instantly killing him. W. M. Furr then came immediately to Albemarle to give himself up to the officers and have his wounds dressed. P. J. Huneycutt, coroner, immediately summoned a jury and the jury has returned a verdict of justifiable homicide and W. M. Furr has been released, or will be as soon as the report is signed. W. M. Furr Is about 50 years old and his brother was perhaps two or three years his senior. Members of a large and prominent family, both men were well and favorably known throughout the county. Their brother, R. N. Furr, is county treasurer of Stanly county, and another brother, C. C. Furr, of Oakboro, is one of the leading merchants of the county. The tragedy has caused a severe shock to the people of the entire county, as these men had connection and friends throughout the county. The deceased has a family of eight or ten children, some of whom are grown.

The Monroe Dispatch, Monroe, North Carolina, June 22, 1915

Anthony David Furr (1939-1981) was twice divorced and died as an alcoholic transient. He is buried next to his grandmother in California. “A 41-year-old Tucson man was found dead last night after he apparently fell about 10 feet from a ledge to a grass terrace leading to the street near the Broadway underpass, police said. Anthony D. Furr, 41, of the 4100 block of North Romero Road, was found by transients about 6 p.m. on the first of three terraces below a ledge northeast of the underpass at Broadway east of Fourth Avenue. Police said a preliminary investigation showed the incident to have been accidental. “There were several transients around, but no one would say how he came to fall,’’ said police spokesman Mike Walsh. An autopsy was scheduled to be performed today.”

Tucson Citizen, Tucson, Arizona, July 8, 1981

The Moore County home of Jimmy and Sayde Furr was destroyed Saturday by an early morning fire that claimed the lives of five of their seven children. The parents tried to rescue the children, who were sleeping in upstairs bedrooms, but Vass Fire Chief Hugh McLean said they were fortunate to escape themselves. The Furr children killed were Paul, 8; Jonathan, 11; Jennifer, 12; Beth, 15; and Jodie, 19. The Furrs` two other children, Penny, 18, and Anthony, 20, were spending the night elsewhere.

The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 27, 1986

Don and Treon Smith of Quinlan visit the site of a fire that killed Ms. Smith's aunt and uncle, Kenneth and Gertrude Furr. The Furrs were found just inside a bedroom window. 'To be so close and not be able to get out, it's just terrible,' Mrs. Smith said. It was a good place for Mr. Furr, 78, to raise goats and guinea fowl while Mrs. Furr, 81, canned preserves and ran a one-room beauty parlor behind their home. Late Friday, fire swept through their white ranch-style house, ending the couple's lives the same way they had lived: hand in hand. "They were found holding hands at the bedroom window," their daughter-in-law and next-door neighbor, Judy Furr, said Saturday. "They loved each other dearly."The Furrs' home is on the edge of Wylie's fire district, but it is quite a distance from any fire station. Mr. Furr's son Kenneth M. Furr and a host of neighbors from the rural, close-knit neighborhood tried to save the couple while fire trucks from several departments were en route. But the smoke was too thick, Kenneth Furr said. Another of Mr. Furr's sons, Danny Furr, lives in Dallas and said he found out about the fire from television reports. A Collin County sheriff's deputy and a Lavon police officer attempted to rescue the couple. The deputy was able to make his way to the bedroom where the bodies were found, but heavy smoke drove him out of the house, Collin County Fire Marshal Steven Deffibaugh said. "He probably came within a couple of feet of them," Mr. Deffibaugh said. He said the fire appears to have started near the home's heating and air conditioning unit and that the couple likely died from smoke inhalation. Autopsies were pending Saturday. According to relatives and friends, Mr. and Mrs. Furr met in the 1960s while out dancing in Dallas. They wed in 1966, a second marriage for both. In the 1950s, Mrs. Furr earned diplomas from three cosmetology schools in the United States and in Europe. More than 20 years ago, she and Mr. Furr, a farmer and trucker, decided that a slower life in this Collin County hamlet 31 miles from Dallas would ease their health problems. Family members expanded part of a 100-year-old bois d'arc home next door to Kenneth and Judy Furr's house for the elder Furr couple. Gertrude Furr, or "Trudy," thought moving outside of Garland, where they had lived, would reduce her clientele. But the older ladies whose hair she coiffed found her and regularly made the trip to Trudy's Salon to get their hair done, her daughter-in-law said. "She always said, 'I'll be doing this until the day I die,' " Judy Furr said. She added that her mother-in-law saw customers just hours before the fire. Kenneth M. Furr said his mother enjoyed decorating and cooking. "She cooked green pepper chili, okra gumbo, coconut pudding," he said. "If you came to her house hungry, you didn't leave hungry. While surveying the fire damage at the Furr home Saturday, neighbor Connie Tipado, whose husband and son also tried to rescue the couple, said they were like the grandparents of County Road 485. Mrs. Furr picked figs for Ms. Tipado and gave her canned produce to send to her son while he worked on his doctorate overseas. She said she enjoyed Mr. Furr's stories about his days in the Navy. "My husband and I are the only African-Americans on the street, and they treated us so wonderfully. They welcomed us with open arms when my husband and I moved out here," she said. "I love them a lot." Among the ashes Saturday was a scorched piano that Mr. Tipado sometimes played for Mrs. Furr, along with figurines and antiques Mrs. Furr liked to collect. Canned and jarred items mixed with ash spilled from the burned refrigerator. A trucker cap lying on the ground outside the house with other debris from the fire read "Furrs Sheep and Goats." The fire also reduced to ruin a console television, couch and hair-dryer chair in Mrs. Furr's one-room salon. Attached to a mirror in the salon was a yellowed piece of paper that read, "Hands that help are holier than lips that pray." "That sums up the kind of woman she was," said Chris Ballew of Quinlan, Judy Furr's cousin. The couple lived and breathed each other, relatives and neighbors said. They sat quietly together in white rocking chairs on their porch. Mr. Furr drove a red and white pickup, but the couple took the immaculate Lincoln they kept in the garage when they got dressed up to go into town on the weekends. Last summer Mr. Furr spent four months in the hospital recovering from a bypass and pneumonia. His wife, herself frail from a stroke and cornea transplant, didn't miss one day visiting him. "You never saw one without the other," Judy Furr said. "If it had to happen like this, I'm glad they went together."

The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, February 6, 2005