Springfield-Greene
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CALVIN FURROW. The varied, interesting and often exciting experiences of Calvin Furrow, would make a fair-sized volume should they be told in detail by some of our writers of Western adventure stories. Out of all these experiences he received much good, such as an accurate knowledge of the world, courage to fight life's battles, and coolness as well as decision, which a man had to possess in order to survive if he lived in the wild West forty or fifty years ago; but unfortunately space forbids us giving more than a brief resume of his unusual life record within the pages of the present volume.
Mr. Furrow was born in Polk county, Iowa, August 15, 1848. He is a son of John and Lydia (Johnson) Furrow. In those pioneer days in Iowa educational advantages were limited and young Furrow was not permitted, under the circumstances to obtain the text-book learning that he otherwise would have been glad to have embraced. He grew to manhood on the farm and spent his early youth engaged in farming and handling live stock, later taking up farming in Kansas; but not long thereafter went on to Fort Sill, Indian Territory (as the eastern part of Oklahoma was then known), and from there went on to New Mexico, finally located in Ft. Worth, Texas, in which vicinity he worked as a cowboy until 1871, then returned to Iowa and for ten years was in the employ of the Wabash railroad. We next find him in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he engaged in mining for awhile, but his principal work there was as a cowboy. He remained in that picturesque country for a period of over twenty-five years. Leaving the Black Hills country in 1906 he came to Greene county, Missouri, and has since been successfully engaged in farming, making his home in Boone township. He owns eighty acres in Greene county and one hundred and twenty acres in Wright county, all well improved and valuable land, and he is regarded as one of the best farmers in this section of the county and is well fixed in the way of worldly goods.
Mr. Furrow was married in December, 1868, to Martha E. Kensler, a native of Fulton county, Indiana, and a daughter of John and Louisa Kensler. She was born on June 22, 1851. She was a member of the Christian church at Ash Grove. Mrs. Furrow died September 20, 1914.
To Mr. and Mrs. Furrow one child was born, Louisa Furrow, who was born in the central part of Iowa on March 24, 1879. She received a good education, and in the year 1901 was married to Marion Arment, and they now reside in Sand Hills, Nebraska.
Politically, Mr. Furrow is a Democrat, but he has never sought political honors, although not lacking in proper patriotism. Fraternally, he belongs to the Masonic Order, including the Blue Lodge, and the Ash Grove Lodge No. 124, Royal Arch Masons, and is active in this order.
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