Catawba Man, Cabarrus Church Clean Up Plot, Monument for Furr Descendants Located in State
A Catawba County man and a Cabarrus church are working together to preserve a piece of history for people all over the state.
M.B. Furr of Newton is a genealogist and traces the Furr side of his family back to the area of Cabarrus County near Miami Church Road and Barrier-Georgeville Road. Every Furr in the state could trace his ancestry back to those Furrs who came here from Germany in the 1700s, he said.
A plot of land near that intersection contains the graves of 50 to 75 of [sic] members of that Furr family. A monument in memory of the Furrs was placed there in 1954.
The monument has "Furr" inscribed on one side and "In memory of Heinrich Furrer (Ger.) (Henry Furr, died 1769) and his wife Russena who settled here about 175_ and are the ancestors of the Furrs of the Carolinas," inscribed on the other. (The last digit of the second date is obscured, but appears to be a 3 or an 8.)
In tracing his family's history, M.B. Furr became interested in this plot of land, and noticed that the monument had been knocked down and trash had been dumped at the side of the road. "Most of us would like to have a graveyard kept clean," he said, "and not a dumping ground."
Furr found that Lloyd M. Helms owned the parcel of land. Helms told Furr he would give him the parcel if he would cover the cost of surveying it before the exchange.
Furr approached nearby Friendship United Methodist Church about taking over ownership of the land and maintaining it. The church agreed, Furr said, hoping to make a park out of the land.
Furr had a one-acre plot of land that runs along Miami Church Road and Dutch Buffalo Creek surveyed in August for $350.00. "I'll be doing this for the whole community," he said, "Three hundred dollars is cheap. You're going to change the attitude of the whole community."
He then passed the land along to Friendship Methodist. The church cleaned and re-erected the monument in November.
The Methodist Men of the church have accepted responsibility for the upkeep of the area and plan to clean it up in the spring.
Source:Heinrich Furrers Started Bi[g] Cabarrus Furr Clan
MT. PLEASANT -- If all the descendant's of Henry and Russena Furr were to hold a family reunion today, there would be literally thousands of folks attending.
This couple was the first of this name in the Carolinas, and a six-foot tall monument near this Cabarrus County community marks the general area where they lived and prospered.
The monument was erected in 1954 beside a dusty road nearly five miles from the Mt. Pleasant "square," amid plowed farming ground and within a dozen yards of a gentle flowing creek.
The monument reads: "In memory of Heinrich Furrer (German) (Henry Furr, died 1769) and his wife Russena, who settled near here about 1758 and are the ancestors of the Furrs of the Carolinas. Erected 1954."
A check of records reveals much about this couple, but also leaves much to be known, as is often true when trying to obtain the history of those long passed away.
The record shows that "Henry Furr I and his sons were farmers . . . and that most of them owned slaves, operated large estates" and were financially secure.
The will of "Henry Furrer" is filed in Charlotte and was made while "sick and weak in body" on Sept. 22, 1769.
It states: "Wife, Rosena. Sons: John (the eldest, where I live, but he must pay my children their part as they become of age) and Paul (the second son) who gets the tract between mine and Paul Barringer's."
The will was dated Sept. 22, 1769, and he apparently died that same year. Thus ended the life of "the first or one of the first name to come to this (Cabarrus) County."
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