Martha Virginia Furr
Martha Virginia Furr was born on 25 March 1843, the youngest daughter of Newton Furr and his wife Pleasant. Her parents were Virginians who had farmed in Loudoun County and then on Timber Ridge in Frederick County, and in the 1850s they moved out to LaSalle County, Illinois. Her brothers and sisters were Richard E., Elizabeth, wife of Smith, Isaac Newton, Squire M., Enoch, Margaret, wife of McMichael, Pleasant, wife of Donohoe, Mary, wife of Johnson, Stephanus W. and Sylvanus B.
On 29 January 1861, when she was seventeen, she married Samuel O'Brien of neighboring Kendall County. O. Hutchins, a minister, married them. Frank Herbert was born that October, then Mary Isabelle, Ida Pleasant, named for Martha's mother, and Alice Virginia, named for Martha herself.
Her father died in December 1870. When his estate was settled in the LaSalle County court on 6 February 1872, her mother took the widow's third of $2,500, and the rest was divided in eleven equal shares of about $152 among the children, Marthy O'Brien among them.
In July 1879 the O'Briens moved to Kansas and settled at Dorrance in Russell County. Martha was 36. Mable Annett was born there in 1881 and Thomas H. in November 1883. Her mother died in Illinois in February 1883, and on 13 November that year Martha, "of Darrence, County of Russell in the State of Kansas", signed a power of attorney naming her brother S. W. Furr of Grundy County, Illinois, to collect for her "my distributive share derived from the sale of Real Estate belonging to the late Newton Furr Deceased" and anything due to her from the estate of Pleasant Furr. She signed it Martha V. OBrien.
She died on 22 December 1899, aged 56, and was buried in the Dorrance cemetery. Her stone there reads MARTHA V., MAR. 25, 1843, DEC. 22, 1899, under the family monument. Her son Frank died four months after her, and Samuel lived on until 1915.
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Cite: Heirology, "Martha Virginia Furr (1843-1899)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/martha-virginia-furr-1843-1899-80dfe8.