Individual Details

Death

Carl Thomas Furr, 1235 Mill street, driver of a car in which he and three companions were on their way to work on the Long Tom project, was killed at 6:50 a. m. Tuesday, when the car was struck by a Southern Pacific freight train at Prairie road crossing, two miles this side of Junction City. The train was Extra 3908-E, northbound. Furr was driving his Model A Ford, a closed two-seater, accompanied by A. D. Lindley, 131 South 17th street, Springfield; A. D. Walden, 177 Seventh Avenue east, Eugene, and J. H. Pool, route 2, Eugene. All were employes of McNutt Brothers on the Long Tom project. They left Eugene about 6:10 a. m, driving north. It was so foggy they could scarcely see the road. Arriving at the crossing, where Prairie road crosses the S. P. tracks, visibility was practically zero. Furr drove the car too far to the right, his companions reported, failing to see the edge of planking at the crossing. The car struck the rails and skidded sideways, facing down the tracks. Lindley got out of the Ford, to see what could be done, and suddenly saw the headlights of the freight train bearing down upon them. He yelled at the three men in the car to get out, jump, the train was coming. Walden and Pool jumped out but Furr did not. Looking back, they missed him, but there was no time to get to him. The train struck the rear of the car, demolishing it, carrying the wreckage and Furr’s body three times the length of the car. The engineer said that he had blown his whistle loudly and long, because of the fog, knowing the crossing was ahead. Lindley said he heard no whistle, only the headlights dimly through the fog. At 8 a. m. when the coroner arrived at the scene, the fog was still densely thick, Deputy Coroner Arthur Larsen reported. Walden found himself on the off side of a barbed-wire fence, after the accident, and had no memory of how he got over it. They concluded he must have jumped it in the excitement. Pool was found to have a broken arm, nor could he say how it had happened, unless a flying piece of wreckage had struck him. Furr, 48, was a carpenter, and a veteran of World War 1. He came to Eugene five years ago. He was born August 6, 1899, in Arkansas and was married to Ouida Blackwell in 1919 in the state of Texas. She died in 1938. Surviving him are two daughters, Mrs. C. W. Hickson, 217 High street, and Miss Louse Furr, 1235 Mill street, both of Eugene; one brother, Walter Furr, in California; his mother, Mrs. Martilia Furr of Childress, Tex., and two sisters, Mrs. Iva Gambol of Tell, Tex. and Mrs. Mabel Morgan, Childress, Tex. Funeral services will be announced later, upon receipt of word from relatives, through the Poole-Larsen mortuary.
The Eugene Guard, Eugene, Oregon, October 17, 1944