Individual Details
William Milton FURR Jr.
(August 11, 1845 - April 17, 1896)
In 1864 William McGuffin Furr served in the Rockbridge County Reserves, having reached draft age at 17. In 1864 the Reserve was mustered into Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. William was assigned to 7 Battalion Virginia Reserves Company C, Captain William A. Donald's Company in Montague's Infantry Battalion. Company C was mustered on April 30, 1864 for “local defense and special services”. I have not found any indication that this company ever saw military action.
William's older brother James had joined the 5th Virginia Infantry in March 1862. He was wounded and captured at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 and sent to Fort Delaware Prison. He was paroled in 1865, when the war was over.
In 1864 the Shenandoah Valley was devastated between Augusta County and Shenandoah County during the civil war. Union General William T. Sherman burned forty miles between Harrisonburg in Rockingham County to Woodstock in Shenandoah County. Sheridan scorched the “Granary of the Confederacy", the material and emotional heart of the Confederacy, although the Shenandoah Valley was largely stripped of its resources by late 1862. William's son Elmer recalled digging cannon balls out of the fields at Woodstock when they ploughed.
Five years after the end of the Civil War, on October 17, 1869, William McGuffin Furr married 17 year old Annie Barton and lived near Woodstock, in the Stonewall District, Shenandoah, County, Virginia. William worked as a carpenter out of the home of his divorced mother-in-law, Elizabeth Miller, a descendant of the Lutheran German-speaking Miller family in Woodstock.
The 1885 Atlas of Shenandoah and Page Counties shows William had a farm just yards from the Miller home. The Miller home is identified as LD Miller. However the family continued to live in this house. Today there are only farm buildings on the site of William's farm and no indication the was ever a house there.
From the front porch of the Miller home in which William and Annie lived you could look off into the distance and see the first ridges of the Alleghenies to the west.
The little community on the side road west of Woodstock the families had early on attended church services at Mt. Vernon School. Later the Furrs, and Millers, attended a church at Calvary, a little hamlet at the south end of their road. That church was shared between the German Lutheran community and a German Reformed community. In 1889 Furrs, Millers, Hiseys built a small wood frame church just south of the Furr farm. The cornerstone of Patmos Evangelical Lutheran Church was laid Sept., 15, 1889. The pastor was J.F.A. Lauenschlager.
William was confirmed in the Lutheran Church in 1870 and became a member of the church council of Patmos Lutheran Church from the time of its organization, later a trustee until his death in 1896. His obituary records that there was a host of friends and relatives at his funeral.
With the death of William of typhoid fever at age 50 in 1897, Annie was left with a 22-year-old daughter, a teenage son, and a boy 10 years old.
After Minnie married in 1901 and moved to Washington, D.C., Annie sold the 22-acre farm for $600. She took the boys to live in Columbus, Ohio. She lived with Elmer and Edith after their marriage. She later moved to Washington D. C. to live with Minnie and Cal Dellinger, but after being crippled by arthritis she lived in what David described as a beautiful Lutheran Home. She died in Washington, D. C. in 1932.
Late in his life, David, their grandson, recalled that at the time of Annie's death in 1932 David and his father Elmer forded a stream on the old narrow road going to the Lutheran church near their former home. William, Annie, Minnie, and Cal are buried there. William has a tall dignified marble gravestone. The family was too poor in 1932 to provide a marker for Annie. David had a grave stone put on her grave in the 1950s. The cemetery is just west of the Furr farm site.
William's older brother James had joined the 5th Virginia Infantry in March 1862. He was wounded and captured at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 and sent to Fort Delaware Prison. He was paroled in 1865, when the war was over.
In 1864 the Shenandoah Valley was devastated between Augusta County and Shenandoah County during the civil war. Union General William T. Sherman burned forty miles between Harrisonburg in Rockingham County to Woodstock in Shenandoah County. Sheridan scorched the “Granary of the Confederacy", the material and emotional heart of the Confederacy, although the Shenandoah Valley was largely stripped of its resources by late 1862. William's son Elmer recalled digging cannon balls out of the fields at Woodstock when they ploughed.
Five years after the end of the Civil War, on October 17, 1869, William McGuffin Furr married 17 year old Annie Barton and lived near Woodstock, in the Stonewall District, Shenandoah, County, Virginia. William worked as a carpenter out of the home of his divorced mother-in-law, Elizabeth Miller, a descendant of the Lutheran German-speaking Miller family in Woodstock.
The 1885 Atlas of Shenandoah and Page Counties shows William had a farm just yards from the Miller home. The Miller home is identified as LD Miller. However the family continued to live in this house. Today there are only farm buildings on the site of William's farm and no indication the was ever a house there.
From the front porch of the Miller home in which William and Annie lived you could look off into the distance and see the first ridges of the Alleghenies to the west.
The little community on the side road west of Woodstock the families had early on attended church services at Mt. Vernon School. Later the Furrs, and Millers, attended a church at Calvary, a little hamlet at the south end of their road. That church was shared between the German Lutheran community and a German Reformed community. In 1889 Furrs, Millers, Hiseys built a small wood frame church just south of the Furr farm. The cornerstone of Patmos Evangelical Lutheran Church was laid Sept., 15, 1889. The pastor was J.F.A. Lauenschlager.
William was confirmed in the Lutheran Church in 1870 and became a member of the church council of Patmos Lutheran Church from the time of its organization, later a trustee until his death in 1896. His obituary records that there was a host of friends and relatives at his funeral.
With the death of William of typhoid fever at age 50 in 1897, Annie was left with a 22-year-old daughter, a teenage son, and a boy 10 years old.
After Minnie married in 1901 and moved to Washington, D.C., Annie sold the 22-acre farm for $600. She took the boys to live in Columbus, Ohio. She lived with Elmer and Edith after their marriage. She later moved to Washington D. C. to live with Minnie and Cal Dellinger, but after being crippled by arthritis she lived in what David described as a beautiful Lutheran Home. She died in Washington, D. C. in 1932.
Late in his life, David, their grandson, recalled that at the time of Annie's death in 1932 David and his father Elmer forded a stream on the old narrow road going to the Lutheran church near their former home. William, Annie, Minnie, and Cal are buried there. William has a tall dignified marble gravestone. The family was too poor in 1932 to provide a marker for Annie. David had a grave stone put on her grave in the 1950s. The cemetery is just west of the Furr farm site.
Events
| Birth | August 11, 1845 | Rockbridge County, VA |  | ||
| Marriage | October 17, 1869 | Shenandoah County, VA - Annie Elizabeth BARTON | | ||
| Death | April 17, 1896 | Woodstock, Shenandoah County, VA | |||
| Alt name | William McGuffin FURR | ||||
| Burial | Patmos Lutheran Church Cemetery, Woodstock, Shenandoah County, VA | |
Families
| Spouse | Annie Elizabeth BARTON (1850 - 1932) |
| Child | Minnie Alice FURR (1871 - 1928) |
| Child | Milton Oscar FURR (1880 - 1935) |
| Child | Elmer Claude FURR (1887 - 1951) |
| Father | William Milton FURR (1817 - 1862) |
| Mother | Frances Henrietta "Fannie" SLY (1824 - 1902) |
| Sibling | James H. FURR (1842 - 1911) |
| Sibling | Emma Aguste "Emma" FURR (1846 - 1923) |
| Sibling | Annie Lutitia FURR (1850 - 1928) |
| Sibling | John Howard FURR (1852 - 1917) |
| Sibling | Stuart James FURR (1855 - 1931) |
| Sibling | Mary Rachel "Molly" FURR (1857 - 1901) |
| Sibling | Frances L. "Fannie" FURR (1858 - 1860) |
| Sibling | Frances L. FURR (1860 - 1927) |
| Sibling | Margaret Elvira "Mattie" FURR (1862 - 1942) |
Endnotes
1. Marriages 1851 - 1915 Shenandoah County, VA.
2. Marriages 1851 - 1915 Shenandoah County, VA.
3. findagrave.com.