Marion County, West Virginia    Biography of Russell L. FURBEE

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Submitted by Patty Tyler, <PTyler107@aol.com>, March 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 125


    Russell L. Furbee, who was in the Navy during the World war, is a member 
of a prominent Marion County family, and has already gained recognition as a 
lawyer practicing at Fairmont.
    His home is at Mannington, where he was born January 15, 1898, son of 
Howard R. and Sarah Jane (Atha) Furbee. His mother was born at Mannington, 
November 12,1867. The grandfather of the Fairmont lawyer was Senator James F. 
Furbee, a native of Marion County, who was elected as a republican and served 
one term in the West Virginia State Senate. Senator Furbee was born at 
Mannington, February 28,1866, and in early life was a lumberman, later an oil 
operator, and in 1904 was elected sheriff of Marion County. Just before the 
close of his four year term in that office he was chosen to the House of 
Delegates by being elected as a republican, and was reelected. At the close 
of his second term he retired from public affairs to devote all his time to 
his oil business, and so continued until his death on December 23, 1919. He 
was an active member of the Elks, Knights of Pythias, Moose, Modern Woodmen, 
and Woodmen of the World.
    Russell L. Furbee acquired a public school education at Fairmont and 
Mannington, graduating from the Mannington High School in 1914. For seven 
years he was a student in the University of West Virginia, and completed both 
the classical and law courses, receiving his A. B. degree in 1918 and his law 
degree in 1921. Mr. Furbee was an able student and took a prominent part in 
student affairs, being a member of the fraternities, literary societies, and 
doing his part in athletics. In April, 1918, he left the university to enlist 
in the navy, and was in training at Norfolk, Virginia, for four months. He 
was then transferred to the Naval Aviation Ground School at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, Boston, where he remained until December 21, 1918, 
being honorably discharged with the rating of chief quartermaster.
    In June, 1921, Mr. Furbee was admitted to the bar in Marion County, and 
soon afterward opened his office at Fairmont. He is a member of the Marion 
County, Monongahela Valley and West Virginia State Bar associations. He is a 
Mason and Elk and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.