OSCAR FRANKLIN FURROW, whose fine farm containing 170 acres, is situated in the northeastern part of Lost Creek Township, was born on the old McNeal farm in Elizabeth Township, Miami County, Ohio, August 6, 1854, and is a son of Captain John Kennedy and Margaret (Nickles) Furrow. The Furrow family is of Scotch-Irish extraction and was founded in Ohio by Tyson Furrow, the grandfather, who settled in the deep woods which in his day covered the country near what is now Miami City. His children bore the following names: Margaret, Elizabeth, Martha, Mary, Samuel, Elijah and John Kennedy.

John Kennedy Furrow was the eldest of the above family and he was born in the old log cabin standing on the Furrow place near Miami City, in August, 1831. His young strength was given in helping his father clear off the farm and he remained after the father's death and his own marriage, to care for his widowed mother and sisters. When the Civil War broke out, John K. Furrow was one of the earnest, thoughtful men who, from a sense of duty, put aside every personal consideration, and in 1861 hastened to enroll for the defense of the Union. He enlisted in Company A, Forty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, contracting for three years and after serving through that period, reenlisted, with the rank of captain, to which he had been promoted in the Eighth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and in this he served until almost the close of the war, when he was relieved on account of disability, having twice suffered the unspeakable hardships of incarceration in Libby Prison. He is one of the prominent members of the Grand Army Post at St. Paris. For twenty years after the close of his military service, he conducted a grocery business in that village and then retired to Conover, where both he and wife live, in great comfort. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a leading Republican in his section. Captain Furrow was married in 1853 to Miss Margaret Nickles and they have had the following children: Oscar Franklin; Laura, who is the wife of C. K. Heisey; Effie, who is the wife of Dr. C. F. Johnson; Edgar O., who is a physician at Troy; Albert D.; John; and Jonathan, who died young. Oscar Franklin Furrow, or Frank, as he is familiarly called by his many friends, spent his boyhood in Elizabeth Township, being seven years old when his father went into the army. After his long and honorable service terminated, Captain Furrow moved his family to St. Paris, and there Frank Furrow became a bright student and subsequently graduated from the High School. After that he became a clerk in his father's grocery store and remained until he reached his majority and then started out for himself. He served an apprenticeship of five years to the watchmaking trade and followed it for twenty years, during this period traveling over a large part of the South and Indiana. When he returned he purchased a jewelry store at St. Paris and conducted it for ten years, when failing health made it necessary for him to enter into an occupation which would keep him more or less in the open air. This life he found in farming, in the far West, and he spent nine years in Washington and six years in Oregon before coming back to Ohio. In December, 1900, he bought his present farm in Lost Creek Township, from Michael Wilgus. The place was in fair condition, the buildings all standing, but he has done considerable improving, nevertheless, and has a very fine place. He devotes his land to the growing of corn, wheat, oats and hay and raises enough stock for his own use. On November 8, l879, Mr. Furrow was married (first) to Miss Louisa M. Hill, a daughter of George Hill. She died May 7, 1888, leaving three children: Eva M., who is the wife of Ora Super and has one child, Mary E.; Rex F.; and John K., deceased. Mr. Furrow was married (second) March 10, 1889, to Miss Mary E. Sills, a daughter of Samuel Sills of Champaign County, Ohio. For twenty-eight years Mr. Furrow has been identified with the Masonic fraternity and belongs to the Commandery at Troy. He is a stanch Republican but has never accepted any office other than that of township trustee.