San Francisco County

Biographies

GEORGE HAMILTON FURRY

GEORGE HAMILTON FURRY, a Deputy County Clerk assigned to the clerkship of Department 1, Superior Court of Alameda county, was born in Oneida, Knox county, Illinois, November 20, 1861, a son of James C. and Lizzie (Hamilton) Furry. Grandparents Hamilton were among the early settlers of McDouough county, Illinois, locating on a farm, where they celebrated their golden wedding in September, 1871, and died some years later, the husband at the age of eighty-five and the wife seventy-six. Three maternal uncles of Mr. Furry are now residing at or near Prairie city, Illinois, engaged as merchants and stockmen. One aunt, by birth Belle Hamilton, is residing in San Jose, California, the wife of William Fuller, a business man of that city. Grandfather James Furry, born in Durham, New York, in May, 1799, was married to Mary Palmer, born near Poughkeepsie about 1801. They were among the early settlers of Ravenna, Ohio, where James Furry carried on the business of carriage-making for many years, afterwards settling on a farm. He died in 1873, and his wife in 1874 or 1875. They had six children who grew to maturity, of whom David Newton, also a carriage-maker at Ravenna, and later a farmer in Kansas, died at the age of sixty-six, the father of ten children, of whom eight are living, in 1890, in Ohio, Kansas and Arkansas. James C., the father of George H. Furry, born in Ravenna, in 1829, also learned the trade of carriage-making in Ohio, and came to California early in the fifties, by way of New York and Cape Horn. He went into the mining regions north of Sacramento and was engaged in that pursuit some three years. Having accumulated some money he went back to Ohio, where he remained about a year, when he moved to Illinois, settling in Oneida as a boot and shoe merchant. He was there married in 1860; his only child, the subject of this sketch, was born in 1861, and the wife and mother died in 1862, at the early age of twenty-three, and his own death followed in 1864.

George H. Furry was brought up by his grandparents, at Ravenna, Ohio, to the age of thirteen, receiving the usual schooling of the period. At his grandmother’s death he became the ward of his uncle, David N. Furry, continuing to go to school about two years more. From fifteen to eighteen he learned carriage-painting in his uncle’s shop, known as Furry & Sons’, of Ravenna. He then worked for a year at his trade in Kent, Ohio, when he went to Leadville, Colorado, in 1881. He there worked two and one-half years in a wholesale mercantile house. He spent the winter of 1883-4, in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and in 1884 struck out for the Coeur d’Alene mines to make his fortune at mining. Stopping in transit at Spokane Falls he spent the summer there working at his trade of carriage-painting, more reliable than mining. He then went to Portland, where he was employed about three months on a river boat plying between that city and Astoria. Leaving Portland he arrived in San Francisco, December 29, 1884, and went up to Sacramento, where he worked at his trade seven months. In the fall of 1885 he came to Oakland and went to work at his trade for the Southern Pacific Company, remaining with that corporation until 1888. In January, 1889, he was appointed to a position in the office of County Recorder, and in January, 1890, was appointed Deputy County Clerk and assigned to his present duty as Clerk of Department One, Superior Court of Alameda County. Mr. Furry is a member of the I. O. O. F, and a Republican in politics. He was married in 1886 to Miss Rowena Ingersoll, born in San Francisco, September 9, 1862. They have two children: Leroy K., born June 27, 1887, and George H., Jr., born July 14, 1890.

Transcribed by Donna L. Becker.

Source: “The Bay of San Francisco,” Vol. 2, Pages 654-655, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.

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