ton district. He was for several years cashier of the state bank, and in 1850 was chosen its pi-esi- dent, which office he retained until the close of the civil war. Mr. Furman had previously been called to fill otlier places of honor and trust. In 1824 he was elected a member of the lower branch of the legislature, and afterward represented his native city in all the municipal boards. He was for many years a director of tlie South Carolina railroad, and visited England on an important mission in behalf of that corporation. He sat in the secession con- vention of 1860, and was a member of the National democratic convention that nominated Mr. Sey- mour for president in 1868.
FURMAN, Gabriel, lawyer, b. in Brooklyn,
N. Y., 2S Jan., 1800; d. there, 11 Nov., 1854. He
studied law and early showed a taste for literature,
especially in antiquarian lines. In 1827 he was
appointed a justice of the Brooklyn municipal
court, which office he held for three years. He
served as state senator in 1839-42, and in the lat-
ter year became the Whig nominee for lieutenant-
governor, but was not elected. In either politics
or law he might have attained eminence, but the
fascination of books and study, and the opium-
habit, quenched all ambition, withdrew him gradu-
ally from the activities of political and professional
life, and finally brought him to a clouded end in
the Brooklyn city hospital. He was a man of pure
character and genial nature, an acceptable lecturer,
and possessed a cultivated taste and a wide range
of information. Later historians of Long Island
and of Brooklyn have profited largely by his minute
and extensive antiquarian researches, contained in
numerous manuscript volumes. Plis only published
work was " Notes, Geographical and Historical,
relative to the Town of Brooklyn " (1824).
FURMAN, Richard, clergyman, b. in Æsopus,
N. Y., in 1755 ; d. in Charleston, S. C, in August,
1825. While lie was an infant his father removed
to Sumter district, S. C. His education, though
obtained in an irregular way, became considerable,
including a knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew languages. He was converted at an early
age, and soon began to preach, and when nineteen
years old was ordained pastor of the High Hills
Baptist church. On one occasion he was not al-
lowed by the sheriff to preach in the court-house
at Camden because he was not a member of the
established (Episcopal) church. At the beginning
of the Revolution he actively promoted measures
for removing the disabilities under which dissenters
labored. During that struggle he became so con-
spicuous as a patriot that Lord Cornwallis oifered
a reward for his apprehension, and for a while he
retired to Virginia, where Patrick Henry was a
regular attendant on his ministry. In 1787 he
became pastor of the 1st Baptist church in Charles-
ton, S. C, in which relation he continued for thirty-
seven years. He was a member of the convention
that framed the first constitution of South Carolina,
and vigorously opposed in that body the provision
which excluded ministers from certain offices. He
was unanimously elected in 1814 the first president
of the triennial convention, a representative organi-
zation of ail the Baptists of the country. For
several years he was president of the South Carolina
Baptist convention. In various ways he promoted
the establishment of schools and colleges for min-
isterial and general education among the Baptists.
Furman university, of South Carolina, was named
in his honor. In 1800 he received the degree of
D. D. from Brown university. He published sev-
eral sermons and discourses, including one com-
memorative of George Washington, delivered by
appointment of the Society of Cincinnati. — His son,
James Clement, b. in Charleston, S. C, 5 Dec,
1809 ; d. 3 March, 1891, was educated at Charles-
ton college, but not graduated, owing to a severe
illness in his senior year. He entered the Baptist
ministry in 1828, serving as pastor of churches in
Camden and Fairfield till 1834. and in Society
Hill, with an interval of fifteen months at Charles-
ton, till 1843. In that year he accepted a profess-
orship in the Furman theological institution, and
since then was connected with its faculty, teaching
mental and moral philosophy, rhetoric,"and logic.
When the institution was expanded into Furman
university at Greenville, S. C, he was made its
president, and continued to remain in that office.
He published various sermons and addresses, and
for several years was one of the editors of the
"Baptist Courier," of Greenville.
FURNESS, William Henry, clergyman. b. in Boston, Mass., 20 April. 1802; d. in Philadelphia, 30 Jan., 1896. He was graduated at Harvard, and completed his theological studies at Cambridge. In January, 1825, he was ordained pastor of the 1st Congregational Unitarian church in Philadelphia, where he remained until he retired from the ministry, in 1875. He received the degree of D. D. from Harvard in 1847, and that of Doctor of Letters from Columbia at its centennial anniversary in 1887. The theological position of Dr. Furness was peculiar, belonging as he did to the extreme humanitarian school, as distinguished from that of Canning. Peabody, and Norton. He accepted, for the most part, the miraculous facts of the New Testament, yet accounted for them by the moral and s|)iritual forces resulting from the pre-eminent character of the Saviour, who, in his view, is an exalted form of humanity. One of his constant labors as a preacher and an author was to ascertain the historical truth and develop the spiritual ideas of the records of the life of Christ. His books reveal a highly cultivated intellect, impelled by enthusiastic ardor, and enriched by a glowing fancy. " Esthetic considerations," remarks a writer of his own denomination, " weigh more with him than historical proofs, and vividness of conception than demonstration." In the anti-slavery movement Dr. Furness took an intense interest, preaching frequently on the subject. From 1845 till 1847 he edited an annual entitled " The Diadem." Besides many occasional sermons he is the author of " Remarks on the Four Gospels " (Philadelphia, 1835 ; London, 1837) ; " Jesus and His Biographers " (Philadelphia, 1838) ; " Domestic Worship," a volume of prayers (1842 ; 2d ed., Boston, 1850); "A History of Jesus" (Philadelphia and London, 1850 ; new ed., Boston, 1853) ; " Discourses " (Philadelphia, 1855) ; " Thoughts on the liife and Character of Jesus of Nazareth" (Boston, 1859) ; " The Veil partly Lifted and Jesus loecoming Visible " (Boston, 1864) ; " The Unconscious Truth of the Four Gospels " (Philadelphia, 1868); "Jesus" (1871); "The Power of Spirit Manifest in Jesus of Nazareth " (1877) ; " The Story of the Resurrection Told Once More " (1885) ; and " Verses : Translations and Hymns " (Boston, 1886). He has also translated from the German Schubert's " Mirror of Nature " (1849) ; " Gems of German Verse" (1851) ; "Julius and Other Tales" (1856; enlarged ed., 1859); and translated and edited Dr. Daniel Schenkel's " Charaeterbild Jesu," an elaborate essay written as a reply to Renan's work, under the title of " Character of Jesus Portrayed " (2 vols., Boston, 1866). His version of Schiller's " Song of the Bell " is considered the best that has been made. Mrs. Annis Lee Wister,
