My parents, Will Frame Furnas and Estella Mary Furnas, came to Barber Co.,
  to a farm southeast of Sharon, owned by my grandparents, Job S. Prater, in
  1914. I was ten years old at the time. My sister, Gladys, two years younger;
  Emily, four years old; and the only brother, Howard, age two. We attended
  Enon country school, located one mile north of the farm. We walked over or
  under seven barbed wire fences to reach the school. By the time I was ready
  for the eighth grade, I attended in Sharon, working for my room and board
  in the home of Dr. E.S. Haworth. Besides cooking the meals, cleaning their
  eight room house, I was expected to 'baby sit' their two children, Kenneth
  and Mildred, seven and eight years of age. Mrs. Haworth taught in the high
  school, so was not home very much. Dr. Haworth had a unique plan which
  worked well in those times. He doctored the entire family for a fee of $25
  per year. Needles to say, he was a very busy doctor.
     My father was a very good mechanic, so besides farming, he spent many
  harvests as combine operator, following the harvest as they went north. One
  year, when weather caused failures in ordinary feed crops, he planted 'broom
  corn,' which proved to start another business on the farm. After the crop
  was harvested, he lacked a market for it. So he went to Wichita and bought a
  machine to make brooms! He spent many hours during the winter months in his
  shop making Warehouse Brooms, regular kitchen brooms, toy brooms, and dainty
  whisk brooms, one of which I am still using 50 years later! He always picked
  good straw and discarded the knotty pieces, hence their long life.
     He planted sweet potatoes and peanuts in our sandy soil, so often took a
  truck loaded with his wares to sell, when other farm work did not occupy his
  time. His brooms were his specialty!
     My mother was often called upon when sickness came to the neighborhood, as
  a pracitcal nurse. She also took a special examination one year, when teachers
  were scarce, and taught the third grade in the Sharon school.
     We had moved from the farm by then, as my father was working for Lloyd Davis
  in the International Harvester business as a mechanic.
     We attended the Christian Church, where I was baptized at the age of twelve
  years. My Sunday School teacher was Lloyd Davis! Little did I know then, he was
  to be my husband!
     I finished high school in Oxford, Kansas, as my parents decided to return
  there to live.
     My great-grandfather Furnas was a doctor in Stevens Co. during the early
  history of Kansas, practicing at Lafayette, a town which was organized in
  late 1886 by a group of Friends, also known as Quakers, earnest hard-working
  people.
     Dr. Robert Furnas, like all early day physicians, rode horseback, or drove
  a buggy many long weary miles in answer to calls that came at all hours, in
  all kinds of weather.
     Mrs. Furnas, a very active church worker and strong prohibitionist, produced
  plays and encouraged young people to take part. She, being well educated, good
  personality, and always dressed in Quaker garments, was highly respected. Their
  home is still remembered as the one with the 'buffalo bone fence' around it.
     My father spent many summers with his grandfather, Doctor Furnas, and was
  there during one of the dreaded early day 'prairie fires.' After fighting for
  two days and nights, with little or no food, in his weakened condition, he
  fell face downward into the fire, as he tried to jump across it. But Dr. Furnas
  brought him through it without a scar on his face and only a few on his hands!
     After father and mother were married, they lived on their claim in a dugout
  near Moscow, Kansas. When I was only two years old, an experience with a
  rattlesnake, which mother found under the cupboard, left an impression on me
  which I still recall!
     Father died May 19, 1954, and Mother lives here in Medicine Lodge near us
  in a home we built for her. At 91 years of age she continues living alone and
  does her own cooking. She is very alert, keeping up with present day news and
  happenings.
                 
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 183 
     Submitted by: Edith Furnas Davis