Portrait courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Furman University.

[RWCollins]: D.D. he was an eminent Baptist minister in SC, and was warmly interested in education, especially ministerial education. he was an ardent patriot during the American Revolution, and a reward of Lb 1000 was offered for his capture by Cornwallis. He was a friend of General marion and General Sumter. he was the first president of the SC Baptist State Convention. At his death in 1825, he had been pastor for over 35 years of the First Baptist Church of Charleston, SC. Twice married. Richard and second wife Dorothea are buried in graveyard of the Charleston Baptist church.

[From "A Family of Educators", McDonald Furman, published in Education, March 1897]:
Richard Furman, D.D., son of Wood, was the most distinguished of the name. Hew was an eminent Baptist clergyman and deserves mention here on account of his warm interest in education, especially ministerial educaation. Mr. Colyer Meriwether in his "History of Higher Education in South Carolin," justly speaks of Dr. Richard Furman as "one of the great leaders of the Baptist denomination in the Unites States and a man of broad views and far-reaching purposes." He was the first president of the Baptist Triennial Convention, which met in Philadelphia in 1814, and was also originator and first president of the South Carolina Baptist State Cinvention. He died in 1825, at which time he had been for over thrity-five years the Baptist pastor in the city of Charleston.

Eminent Baptist minister and educator in SC. Pastored 35 years at First Baptist Church of Charleston. Was president of two Baptist conventions and founder of the Furman Academy and Theological Institution, which later split into Furman University in Greenville, SC, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, under his son, James Clement. (A published biography exists of James Clement Furman.)

Two wives:
1. 1774 Elizabeth Brodhead of Esophus, NY (two children, Wood and Mrs. Thomas Baker).
2. 1789 Dorothea Burn (13 children)

1800 US census, South Carolina, Charleston Co., unknown township (ancestry.com)
Rev. "Rick" Furman
males: 2(<10), 2(10-15), 1(26-44)
females: 1(<10), 2(26-44)
other free: 0
slaves: 7

From http://singletonfamily.org/cards/getperson.php?personID=I1551&tree=Singletons&PHPSESSID=411d06837240482c4d2cb27d563faf30:
SOURCE:Ancestral File-LDS
NOTES: Furman Unversity in Greenville,SC was named for this Richard Furman.
NOTE: Temple ordinances b,e,sp, compleat date not shown.
NOTES2: Per South Carolina D.A.R. Records filmed by LDS Genl.
Clergyman, stirred so many to enter service that Cornwallis offered a
reward of 1000 pounds for his capture, saying "He feared the prayers of
the Godly youth more that he did the armies of Marion and Sumpter".

All legitimate Furmans are descended from Richard, as his only brother
had only illegitimate issue and it is thought that none bore the Furman
name.

The 1803 Directory of Charleston SC listed Richard as Rev of Baptist
Church and residing at 10 Church Street. On 11 May 1996, when I visited
Charleston and went to the address the house was gone. House number 8
and 12 were there and could very well have dated from that time. These
and other on this section on street were large and prosperous looking.

http://singletonfamily.org/cards/getperson.php?personID=I1551&tree=Singletons&PHPSESSID=411d06837240482c4d2cb27d563faf30:
middle name listed as Brodhead; christened 17 Oct 1755, Marbletown, Ulster Co., NY

Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots, Vol.2, p. Serial: 6924; Volume: 14 (ancestry.com):
Richard D D FURMAN
Cemetery: First Bapt Ch Cem
Location: Charleston SC 15

From 2004 email from Margie mcDonald: Chart of Furman family descendants, once in possession of Margie McDonald , and more recently in possession of Richard C. Furman, Lady's Island, SC <...>, was drawn by Thomas DeS. Furman <200 Carrick Creek Road, Pickens, SC 29671-8374 (864)878-4345> (another Furman in Pickens is William B. Furman <127 High Hills Lane, Pickens, SC 29671-9517 (864)878-3600>.

Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution (ancestry.com):
Richard Furman; he joined his brother, Capt. Josiah Furman and served as a chaplain.

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"The Family of Richard Furman", posted by Dolores Furman, 28 Sep 2008 in her tree:

The family of Richard Furman
Added by DoloreFurman on 26 Sep 2008

I found this paper in the possessions of Delbert Furman, born 1900, written at the top it says it was written by Mrs Loulie O Latimer Pettygrew of Travellers Rest, South Carolina. (I have found out that she was born 8 Mar 1912 and died 15 Jan 1998 and she was a Greenville, South Carolina historian and author and she was a co-founder of the South Carolina Baptist Historical Society.)

There are two kinds of famous men: men of the hour and men of the future. According to Dr. Duke K McCall, "the man of the hour looms large against today's horizon." He is honored respected followed while yet alive. "The man of the future looms large after today has become tomorrow. He stands on the western horizon. It is only as the sun moves forward into the future that his shadow grows."

Richard Furman of Charleston was a rare man of fame for he was both a man of the hour and a man of the future. The contemporaries of Richard Furman recognized his greatness. They honored him as a minister, a Revolutionary patriot, a community and regional leader, a physician, and an educator. But only time could reveal his stature as a denominational statesman. He himself could not measure the contribution he was to make as the architect of one of the largest and most influential Protestant denominations. It took the twentieth century to say of him, "More than any other man, he created the basic organizational concepts that are unique in Southern Baptist life."

Most of the facets of Richard Furman's life are well known. Every serious student of Baptist life and policy is acquainted with him. But none of the numerous treatments of his ideas has dealt with this family life. Indeed few details have been known. But of the products of his home, the thirteen of seventeen children who survied infancy, much is known. More than a thousand of their letters are extant. They are written in flawless grammar, with almost perfect spelling. They reflect careful training, fine taste, and far above average ambition. Richard Furman's most eloquent arguments in behalf of education were his own children. "Tell Susan," he wrote in 1814 from Richmond, "I hope she goes on well with her grammar; and Henry and Thomas that they attend well to their books..."

In brief, the facts of the Richard Furman family are as follows. Richard Furman was married in 1774 to Elizabeth Haynsworth. This was the same year that he was ordained a minister and assumed the pastorate of the High Hills of the Santee Baptist Church near Sumter. High Hills was the home of Richard's parents who had emigrated to South Carolina from New York. The first years of Richard's married lie were disrupted by the American Revolution; several of them being spent in exile. By the time that everything had settled down again, he had buried two of his four children. Soon afterward, in 1787, his father and his wife also died. Later in the same year he accepted the pastorate of the First Baptist Church, Charleston, which he was to serve for the thirty-six remaining years of his life. In 1789 Dr Furman married Dorothea Maria Burn who became the mother of his other thirteen children.

In order to visualize this extraordinary family, let us choose a day during the time that the largest number were still living and bring them together for a family portrait. An appropriate occasion would have been the birthday of the father, October 9th, and the year must be 1817. On this day there would have been present fourteen children, plus the parents.

The residence of the Richard Furmans in 1817 was at number 100 State Stree, Charleston, South Carolina. It was about three blocks from the First Baptist Church and about a mile from the Battery. What was it like? No descriiption has been passed down, but it must have been a typical Charleston house: end to street, fronting on a garden, two or three stories high, single room depth to allow full ventilation. The garden, if it were typical, was a well-ordered profusion of cleanders, yucca, azaleas, crepe myrtle and magnolias.

Charleston in 1817 had a population of almost 24,000, only half of which was white. Yet it was a center of high society and wealth. With a population a little over a ninth of New York, the value of her exports equaled half of New York's.

One of the chief topics of conversation in any well-informed South Carolina home in 1817 was the future of the canal. Would the state ever get back the three-quarters of a million dollars it had invested to join the Santee with the headwaters of the Cooper? Summer had brought such a drought that engines had been used to keep water in the canal. Andrew Pickens, Jr filled the governor's chair and he, like many other South Carolinians, realized that not only a canal, but an adequate road system as needed to give the state the commerce it needed. Such were the topics of interest among South Carolinians in 1817.

South Carolina had a big stake in national government in the year 1817. President James Monroe had chosen John C Calhoun as Secretary of War, and Calhoun at the moment was busily reorganizing West Point. This was what was known as the "Era of Good Feeling," during which Florida was annexed, the Missouri Compromise agreed upon and the Monroe Doctrine ennunciated.

Across the Atlantic, England was feeling the tension between the new industrial England and the old agricultural England. The social structure heaved in discontent while all decent Englishmen were revolted by the scandals of the personal life of George IV and his feud with Queen Caroline. It was a year and a half before the birth of Victoria. France was trying to redefine her direction following the Napoleonic wars, and Napoleon himself was rounding out the second of his seven years on St Helena.

Such were the conditions in the community, state, nation and abroad on the 9th of October, 1817. On this day Richard Furman passed his sixty-second milestone.

Nowhere was Richard Furman as happy as he was at home, surrounded by his family. No fact about him is better documented. His work required him to travel much and his numerous letters to his wife and children were filled with tenderness and longing. Typical is this statement: "I render thanks to our gracious God for his goodness in preserving you and all our dear family in life and health amidst the ravages of sickness and death which have been among our friends and fellow citizens since my departure from you." In response to his devotion, his children loved, respected, and heeded him. References to him in their letters that covered a full century reflect almost a reverence fo him. This they transmitted to their children and to their children's children. One of the children writing to an absent member of the family a few days after Dr Furman's deathe, explained, "O my brother, in the midst of all our grief should we not feel the debt of gratitude we owe to our heavenly father for granting us such an earthly parent."

Beside her honored husband stood his wife, known always to him as "Dolly," and to her children and step-children as "Mama." If her expression is a bit sad on this day, Dolly buried her mother, a woman of unusual ability and strength, of character, only a few days before this gathering. Dolly was nineteen years younger than her husband. "Although she was married to Dr Furman for thirty years, bore and reared eleven children, losing two more in infancy, there is almost no family tradition that describes her. One member of the family wrote that she had brown eyes. There are only two of her own letters extant. They reveal, however, that she was educated, alert, well informed, completely involved in the lives of her husband and children. In a day when women were not expected to have any business ability, Mrs Furman took care of shipments of cotton from her husband's plantation at High Hills and returned the wagons loaded with salt and bagging. She was not what might be described as a "church worker," but she kept up carefully with church developments and the problems and sorrows of her husband's parishioners. She was deeply religious. In one of her two letters left to us, she wrote, "How necessary, my dear Maria, to seek preparation for the hour of death while we have health, and while there is time given us to repent..."

She survived our family gathering of 1817 by only a year and a half, dying of comsumption in March, 1819. The son in her arms was William Brantly. He was described as a "a fine person and disposition, the favorite of the whole family," but he died shortly before his mother, being less than two years of age at the time.

The oldest chid of Richard Furman was Rachel, the daughter of his first wife and namesake of Dr Furman's mother. Rachel referred to herself as "Rachel Junior." She was born in 1777 and was only three years younger than her stepmother. Although Richard Furman had four daughters, Rachel was the only one who married. Her husband was Captain Thomas Baker, a member of the Corps of Engineers during the War of 1812. Judging by references to Captain Baker in the family correspondence, he must have been an exacting business man with an eye like a gimlet to take care of his rights. Rachel and Thomas were married in 1796 and lived at High Hills on a 3,000 acre plantation joining the Wateree. There they reared six or seven children. The only surviving letters by Rachel were written before she was fifteen. Although the contents are childish, the form is as precise as any English teacher would write. Were it possible to represent the situation fully here, Rachel would have not come to her father's sixty-second birthday party alone. She would have been accompanied by her husband and at least some of her children.

The second oldest child in the family was Wood, namesake of Richard Furman's versatile father. He was born in 1779. There is no evidence that Dr Furman had a favorite child, but this, his eldest son, was special to him. Although it was among his younger sons that Dr Furman's intellectual ambitions were most nearly to be realized, he did not live to know it. He gave to each the best educational advantages that he could and expected all of them to make good. And all of them did; Dr Furman did not produce a single failure.

Wood Furman was mentally precocious. But precocity was so common in the family that it was accepted as the normal. At the age of twenty-one, Wood penned the following in a letter: "My dear Aunt, you no doubt consider me negligent in having omitted for so long a time to write to you. Waving the right which in a correspondence of ceremony might be claimed from having written the last letter, I shall only attempt to acquit myself from the charge of intended neglect, by mentioning that a number of engagements prevented me from writing at times when I intended it; and that at others, having several things to do at once and hesitating between them, I generally failed of accomplishing any. A want of something interesting to write has kept me back, but not a want of affectionate regard. That I trust will never cease nor diminish during life."

Wood finished his local schooling at fourteen or fifteen, but being too young to enter college, he occupied his time in teaching school. It was Dr Furman's wish that he should attend Rhode Island College, now Brown University. This was in the days when negotiations for entrance consisted of correspondence between parent and college president. The president, the distinguished Dr Johathan Maxey, wrote to Dr Furman as follows: "The account you give me of your son is truly pleasing. His literary acquirements will be adequate to a standing in the Junior Class. It is not very common for students to enter so far forward...Your son has read more Greek than is usual here."

Upon graduation from college, Wood returned to Charleston where he married and began his career as a teacher of the classics. He followed his profession very acceptably at Charleston, Woodville, Pineville, Sumter, Winnsboro and in East Tennessee. At one time he taught in the classical department of the Furman Institute near Winnsboro. Although religion was the chief pursuit of his father, Wood struggled with religious doubts until only a few years before he died. He was twice married and the father of five children.

It is in the field of writing that Wood Furman is best remembered. He evidently wrote many newpaper and magazine articles because he had an avid interest in the events of his times. But most of his writings have been lost. Had he done nothing else than write the History of the Charleston Baptist Association in 1811, Baptists would have been forever indebted to him. This volume of 238 pages summarizes the transactions of the oldest district association among Baptists in the South. Most of its sources have long been lost, and without it, fully twenty years of the organization's work would have remained unknown to this day.

In 1913, Dr HT Cook of the Furman University faculty, edited a sketch of the life of Richard Furman. When it was printed, it was attributed to Wood Furman. In his preface, Dr Cook pointed out his reasons for believing that Wood wrote the sketch which had been kept in the Furman family for so many years. It is possible that Dr Cook was correct; that Wood could have written it, there is no doubt. There is evidence that another child of Richard Furman wrote it. Of this, more later.

The eldest child of Richard Furman and Dolly was Richard B Furman who was born in 1790. Apparently he was not called Richard, Junior. This son was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and became a physician. His home was on Daniel's Island in the Cooper River, within sight of the city of Charleston. The Naval Base is now located on or near the site of his plantation. It is probable that the land on which Richard B lived was the same that was owned by his grandfather soon after his removal from New York to South Carolina in the 1750's. Richard married once and had two children. He was the only child of Richard Furman who survived infancy who left posterity no letters. Yet there are references to his letters in the correspondence. There is no doubt that he was interested in literary pursuits. In the back of the minutes of the Charleston Association for 1817 there is an advertisement to the effect that the volumes of Church-Discipline, Catechism and Confession of Faith written by Dr Richard Furman and printed by the association were ready for distribution. It continued, "Dr Furman, Senior, having, on account of his numerous engagements, declined accepting the appointment made him by the editors of the American Missions Magazine as their agent for distribution of the work in South Carolina, his son, Richard B Furman, MD, has agreed to be the agent, rather than see the useful design of circulating the magazine among us frustrated or impeded."

Two years younger than Richard B, was Samuel Furman and five years younger was Josiah Brodhead. They both became Baptist preachers and it is very likely that, because of their common profession and interests and the closeness of their ages, they were especially close to each other throughout life. Samuel was the more scholarly and in 1830 he joined Dr Jesse Hartwell at High Hills as co-ordinate professor in the Furman Theological Institution. Funds were scarce, students few, and nothing but devotion to learning kept the two men at their task. But the fact that they succeeded is attested by the handful of graduates who emerged to furnish leadership among the Baptists in South Carolina and Georgia during the next generation. Dr Richard Fuller said that Samuel was so modest it was difficult to get him to speak and yet he had heard "from him an appeal to intellectual minds such as he had not heard from other lips."

Samuel Furman married Eliza Scrimzeour of Scottish aristocracy. In 1835 Samuel and Eliza and most of their nine children went to Scotland to establish her claim to her father's fortunes and title. They were unable to obtain the title of Earl of Scrimzeour for the oldest son, but they did receive a large estate which they converted into money. The family then returned to South Carolina where Samuel took up his life as a country preacher.

Josiah B did not have as colorful a life as Samuel, but he was a person of solid worth and was much loved by the churches to which he ministered, in Darlington County. He started out to be a merchant, but after some severe reverses he decided to be a minister. He married a woman of rare mental ability and religious fervor, Henrietta Dargan, of the Dargan family that produced five successive generations of educators, preachers and community leaders. Henrietta belonged to the nineteenth century, but she would have been at home in the twentieth. The Furman family did not usually preserve the letters of in laws, but Henrietta was one of two exceptions. She and Josiah had no children. When he died prematurely at the age of forty-seven, she grieved so inconsolably that she followed him within three years.

James C Furman preached Josiah's funeral. In the sermon, which has been preserved, he attributed to Josiah a fine mind, quick perception, accurate judgment, a lively imagination. He revealed that Josiah was proficient in the arts, acquained with some of the exact sciences, conversant with the facts of general and particularly of ecclesiastical history, and was familiar enough to make use of Greek, Hebrew, Latin and French.

It should be noted here that between Samuel and Josiah, Richard and Dolly had a son who lived only two years. Nothing is known about him except his name, John Gano. He was a namesake of a friend of Dr Furman who did mission work in South Carolina while it was still a colony and later established the First Baptist Church of New York City. Dr Furman admired him so much that he bestowed the name later on another son.

Following Josiah in the lineup was Charles Manning Furman. Although the Professions claimed most of the Furmans, none of them were naive about business matters and most of them handled their finances exceptionally well. Charles, however, was exclusively a business man. His career as a banker built a very large fortune. It is claimed that once, during the Civil War, he hid the funds of his bank in his carriage and drove around the state eluding enemy troops. Before taking up banking, Charles studied law. He was always public-spirited and served as a member of the General Assembly, treasurer of the State, Comptroller-general, and master in equity. He served on the city council of Charleston, and according to a newspaper editorial, "was a member of all the principal boards, both of city and state." He was a collector of fine paintins and of coins and was a Grand Master in Masonry.

The personal life of Charles Furman was sad. He was married less than two years to Jessica Perpall, when she died of consumption. She left a son, William. Some of William's letters survive and, judging from them, he was a most promising child. But he died of cholera at the age of nine and a half years. Charles never remarried, but made his home with his unmarried sisters.

Even a sketchy story of this branch of the family would be incomplete without mention of Anastasia Island in Florida. This island was willed to Jessica Perpall Furman by her grandmother and it would have been hers had claim been made before squatters took it over. Thereafter, no amount of litigation succeeded in reclaiming it. Family tradition says that for generations members of the family entertained themselves by imagining the wealth they would have enjoyed had they obtained their inheritance. It is on Anastasia Island that a large portion of the city of St Augustine is now located.

Maria Dorothea Furman, the first daughter of Richard and Dolly Furman might well be described as a typical nineteenth century spinster. Although sacrificially devoted to her entire family, she was stern, prim, forbidding, exacting. Her disposition was morose, given to long spells of dejection. At the age of thirty, she wrote to a friend: "Happy, happy youth...through many painful vicissitudes have we passed, and over the destruction of many a hope have we mourned since that joyful period... Then all was pleasing expectation, but how soon experience crushed our anticipations, and proved life to be a scene of temptation, trial, and calamity. We can say with truth that we have found mutability written upon everything below the skies..." Such was the tone of the spirit of Maria Furman.

When her brother James C was eighteen, he apparently was interested in a young lady by the name of Dulcinea. Maria made Miss Dulcinea's acquaintance and then wrote her brother the following acid evaluation: "You must pardon me when I tell you that your Dulcinea did not equal my expectations. Though apparently quite amiable, she is neither as pretty or intelligent as I had imagined." Then she added the disquieting information: "Cousin Caleb appears to be an assiduous beau of the young lady in question and I rather think his attentions are not displeasing." Sister Maria penned these words when she was only twenty-eight. She lived to be seventy-one; during her three-score and eleven years she gave the family many a stern reprimand.

And yet, in fairness to her, it should be remembered that she became the mother of the household following the death of the parents. It was she who baked the "mince pies, pound cakes, dressed wild ducks, and spareribs" at Christmas and created the atmophere that drew the family around one certain fireside as long as she lived. It is likely that in later life Maria was stout. Although she knew nothing about calorie-counting, there are many sentences in her letters about her fondness of food and her efforts to curb her appetite.

Correspondence between several members of the family at the time of Maria's death raises some questions about her ever making a public profession of her religious convictions. And yet Maria was the church-worker that her mother was not. She was an organizer and, as early as the 1820's when women's organizations were almost non-existent, she set up the Female Domestic Mission Society. This kept the women and girls in the Baptist Church gathering funds for foreign mission. Later she directed the Education and Mission Society in sewing garments for students in the Furman Theological Institue.

Maria Furman spent her lat days in the care of her brother, James Clement Furman and died and was buried in Greenville, South Carolina.

This paper now approaches the seven younger members of the Richard Furman Family, all teenagers and under in the year 1817. By some strange act of fate or genetics, the younger children were brighter and more interesting than the older children. They were far more talented. The evidence is abundant if the explanation is difficult to find. Had all seven lived as long as two of them lived, the fact of their superiority would probably have been common knowledge instead of a finding of research long after they had all died.

Henry Hart Furman was two years younger than Maria. Like his brother Charles, he was a business man, a cotton-buyer. He apparently lived most of his life in the family homestead with the widowed Charles and the unmarried sisters until his removal to Louisiana in 1837. He was evidently very successful in business and would probably have done as well as Charles had he not died at the age of forty. He did not marry.

No description of Henry appears in any family letters, but what he wrote himself reveals much about his character and personality. He was a person of integrity, deep and unpretentious religious faith, forthright approach to people and situations. He was a person of action, yet he was cautious and discreet. His letters sketch out his business dealings and personal plans with remarkable detail. Like all of his writing brothers and sisters, his letters were done in perfect form, but they had one literary quality no other member of the family possessed--simplicity. He engaged in none of the rhetorical circumlocutions and involved letter-writing conventionalities that often obscured the meaning of his relatives. To be plain, Henry wrote plainly, and forcefully. what a pity it was that he did not live out a long life.

The next two Furman children, Sarah Susannah and John Gano II, were by all the standards of measurement used by this study, the most brilliant, the most attractive, the most promising of all the offspring of Richard Furman. Their early deaths were by far the greatest tragedies the family ever experienced. Henry lived at least into his forties, but Susan, as she was called, died at thirty-one and John at twenty-four. Fourtunately, both parents were dead when these calamities befell.

Susan was the most prolific writer of all the Furmans, including her father. She also possessed the worst handwriting. She wrote about everything: family activities, events and people in Charleston, politics, the weather, scenery, domestic trivia, church meetings, and on and on. When Susan was twenty-one, Lafayette visited Charleston. Susan wrote: "Lafayette's visit, occasioned as you may suppose, considerable excitement here. I had felt somewhat inclined to be cynical upon the subject for I thought too much adulation had been paid him in most of the places he had visited, and that it probably would be the case here. But when I saw him receiving the voluntary homage of the people, who regarded him as their friend and benefactor, I could not help partaking of the enthusiasm of the moment."

Susan wrote also on more abstract themes: ideas, beliefs, movements. By modern standards, she was fanatically religious, filling page after page with comments on scripture passages and doctrinal interpretations. But this is not to say that she was dull. She must have possessed a scintillating personality for her writings have a happy, uplifting spirit.

All of this delineation of the writing of Susan leads to a matter alluded to earlier, the question of the authorship of the Richard Furman biography edited by Dr Cook. Apparently Dr Cook never gave serious consideration to the possibility that Susan wrote it, probably because she was a woman. He also lacked some recently uncovered evidence. Dr Cook lists as his reasons for attributing the work to Wood Furman as follows:

1-Because of the intimate knowledge of the subject it reveals, only one of the children of Richard Furman could have written it.

2-"A number of the family were set aside as too young and in other satisfactory ways, one after another was eliminated..."

3-It was the work of one "who had been in the school room"

4-In the opinion of the investigator it was in the handwriting of Wood Furman

None of the above reasons eliminates Susan as the author. Acturally, they do not eliminate Samuel, Josiah, Charles, Henry, Maria or Susan. The original manuscripts used by Dr Cook are part of the collection from which this paper was written. It is most probable that they are in the handwriting of Wood Furman; they are in a writing very similar to his. But that does not add to the evidence that he was the author. He could have copied the original and probably did. Dr Cook claimed that it could not have been written later than 1829 because Dr William Staughton is mentioned as being alive. This would mean that Susan could have been only twnety-five at the time, too young according to Dr Cook. But Susan's writings at twenty measure up to the calibre of the biography.

If the biography was completed by 1826, as Dr Cook claims, why was it that Henry in 1829 wrote to James C "I recently received a letter from Mr Brantly in which he requested one of us to furnish a biographical sketch of Papa for insertion in a publication he has in contemplation, or if this be not done furnish him with the materials for such a publication. I have not yet written him, and would be glad to know from Sister Maria, Susan, etc. if and whether they cannot furnish something of this nature...I have not yet written to Brother Wood, but presume he would not obeject that Mr Brantly shoud undertake this work, and that he would furnish him with what he has at command..."

And if Wood Furman completed this biography by 1826, why was it that a few days after Susan's death in 1835 that James C wrote to Charles M "The circumstance that she looked forward with great anxiety and pleasure to the prospect of obtaining my aid, this summer, and thus, of finishing the Biography of our Father, if possible adds, if anything can add, to the pain and distress which her sudden death has inflicted. She had brought this work nearly to a close, and expected, with the aid she looked for from me, to finish it soon; but the Lord has otherwise appointed. He has taken her to himself...I understand that Richard has in his possession the fair copy of the Biography so far as it has gone. The thought has occurred to me, of getting it from him, and with the aid of such memoranda as Susan may have left, finish it and prepare it for the press, connecting with it a memoir of Susan also. It is due to the memory both of our father and sister that this should be done by some one. Whatever is done, should be prepared carefully."

These letters, together with the shaky evidence offered by Dr Cook to back his claim of Wood Furman as author, plus the obvious qualifications of Susan as her father's biographer, offer strong evidence that Susan and not Wood was the author. These seem to be the facts: the work was begun before 1829. This allows to the reference to Dr Staughton being alive. The omission of reference to the Furman Academy is unimportant evidence. The work was not revised and completed at the time it was written. If Susan wrote it, she clearly did not consider the work complete, even as late as 1835. If Wood wrote it, he hadn't produced it for the family to see or James C and Henry would have known about it.

The manuscript does appear to be in Wood Furman's handwriting. Definitely it is not Susan's. Wood Furman could have copied it, adding material of his own. The fact that the Staughton reference was unrevised shows that the work was not finished. In Wood Furman's lifetime the biography was not offered for publiation. The fact that it was not signed could indicate that more than one worked on it. Evidence at the present is far from conclusive that Wood Furman wrote it, that there is just as much if not more evidence that Susan wrote it.

Two years younger than Susan was John Gano II, born in 1806. He and Susan were especially devoted to each other; the correspondence between them is voluminous. When John was sixteen, he enrolled at West Point from which he graduated with, according to one account a "brilliant record." This is likely because if his corrspondence is any indication, John was probably the brightest child born to Richard Furman. This statement is made with the allowance that John did not reach his full possibilities for he died at twent-four.

From the time that he left home at sixteen, John returned only occasionally, between terms. After graduation, he served almost four more years in the army, first at Fort Jefferson at St Louis and at Fort Dearborn near Chicago. He had almost completed his term in the army and expected to return to Charleston to practice law when he fell ill of fever and died. He had been engaged to Miss Elizabeth Brisbane of Charleston for three years and they expected to be married as soon as he returned. Apparently, Miss Brisbane never married, remaining true to her dead lover for the remainder of her life. She became a devoted friend of Anne Furman who referred to her as "my darling Miss Liz."

John Gano Furman was the most creative of his clan. Had he lived, he might have become a successful lawyer, but very likely he would have made a plae as a writer, perhaps even a poet. His literary legacy to the family was a collection of speeches and compositions of unusual maturity which he composed while in West Point; a notebook, illutrated with excellent pen sketches, describing life at West Point during the 1820's; and a collection of about two dozen poems on various themes. Following is a short rhyme titled "To My Old Coat"

Farewell, my friend-mine aged friend
It sorely grieves my heart
But oh no human art can mend
The rent that bids us part.
A stranger, hungry, thirsty, cold
Thou'st not deserted me;
And now in services grown old,
I'll still be true to thee.
When first we met, I liked to see
Thy Beauteous, glossy black
But age now sheds its frost o'er thee
Thou'rt gray upon my back.
In spite of all my anxious care
To keep thee whole and spry
Thou hast at last grown so threadbare
I fain would lay thee by.
My old but honorable friend,
I'll lay thee on my shelf
That thou, when age these limbs shall bend
May'st mind me of myself.

There are a few more poems, but I will not type all of them.

Only one year younger than John Gano was Thomas Fuller. Very little record of his life remains, but it is not likely that any member of the family served his fellow man more lovingly or unselfishly than Thomas. He was a country doctor in Fairfield District. To this day the legends of his ministries to the countryside are still told. He attended and probably finished South Carolina College in Columbia and married Nancy Armstrong of Fairfield District. She like her husband, was much loved and respected. They had no children but kept a large and hospitable home that stood until recent times.

James Clement Furman, 1809-1891, became the best known child of Richard Furman. He was only sixteen when his father died. It was therefore impossible for the father to realize that it was to be this child, of all his seventeen, upon whom his mantle was to fall. James lacked his father's versatility and his denominational stature, but he became the guardian of his father's dream of education. The father was founder of Furman University; James Clement became its saviour.

James started out to be a preacher. Indeed, he was always sought after for his preaching and more than 750 of his sermons survive. After training under his brother Samual and Jesse Hartwell in the Furman Theological Institute, James was ordained and became pastor of the Welsh Neck Baptist Church at Society Hill. But in 1844 he gave up the ministry and joined his life to the destiny of Furman. First he served as agent, collecting funds, then as professor. For seven years he was chairman of the faculty and for twenty more he was president. In all, he gave fifty-five active years to the school that bore his father's name. They were hard, struggling years, during which the fate of the institution was often in doubt. But the devotion of James C Furman never faltered. What the school is today and what it will be in the future must inevitably be attributed in large measure to the contributions of James C Furman.

James was twice married, to sisters, Harriet Davis and Mary Glenn Davis, daughters of Johnathan Davis. Mr Davis was a preacher, a hearty supporter of education and especially of Furman Institution. Harriet, the first wife, was the other in-law beside Henrietta Dargan, whose letters the family saved. She was truly an unusual woman, intelligent, imaginative and devout. James C Furman, was the father of eleven children, seven of whom survived infancy.

The last child of Richard Furman, next to the infant already mentioned, was Anne Eliza. She lived from 1812 until 1897 and was the last member of the family to die. (In the margin, of this paper, it is written by hand, that she was a cripple, from a fall). Family tradition says that she was a hunchback. She never married, but with her older sister Maria, as long as she lived, kept the home to which each roving member could always return. She died in the home of an especially beloved niece, Dora Furman Hutson, eldest daughter of James C, but she is buried in Greenville.

In the Furman family most of the professions and the arts were represented, and the best of human virtures. Each member brought to the family circle some distinct contribution. Anne's offering was an over-flowing tenderness that demonstrated itself in thousands of loving actions. To each brother and sister, to each in-law she gave of herself. But to the children of at least three generations she poured out her devotion. Her letters covered more than seventy years and the messages were the same from decade to decade.

Late in the 1840's she wrote the following to James C regarding clothes for his children. Their mother was ill of consumption from which she soon afterward died. "I have been very much worried at the children's being kept so long without their clothes...We have still another little dress to make for Henry. I hope they will fit the dear little fellow. They have been made pretty much by guess. There are three dresses for the baby..."

On June 2, 1861 she wrote, in part, to a nephew, Charles Furman, eldest son of James C, who was serving in the Confederate Army: "It is with sarcely the expectation that this letter will reach you, my dear Charlie, that I take up my pen. But such is my anxiety respecting you that I can no longer forbear writing...My heart sinks when I think of the dangers to which you must be exposed..."

Twenty-six year later, in 1887, she wrote to a niece: "The first days of the week were very wet, and as is frequently the case in damp weather, my head troubled me a good deal. I was anxious to help Constance (a great niece) with her needle work...We got two suits finished for Allie (a great-nephew) and Sissie's pink dress nearly completed. She was to wear it last evening to a party..."

Ten years later she was still wrapped up in her loved ones. four days before her death she dictated the following: "...I have so much to be grateful for that I do not feel like complaining of my infirmities. Among my most cherished blessings I esteem the tender love of yourself and of my other nephews and nieces. That my heavenly Father may bestow upon you his choicest blessings both temporal and spiritual is my earnest desire. Tennyson sys, "God gave us love and something to love."

More than 144 years have passed since this imaginary family gathering, which well might have been. Long gone are these two generations and gone also is the third. But death does not destroy the kind of values that a family such as this possessed. They are passed in the bloodstream from age to age, and flow out into the community and nation. They are the elements of culture, wisdom and religion that make a people a civilization.
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• Married: 5 or 15 MAY 1789 in Charleston, SC

1. Samuel FURMAN b: 27 Mar 1792 in Charleston, South Carolina
2. 13 children FURMAN
3. Charles Manning FURMAN b: 17 Oct 1797 in Charleston, SC
4. Josiah Brodhead FURMAN b: 3 Sep 1795 in Charleston, SC
5. Anne Eliza FURMAN b: 20 Mar 1812 in Charleston, SC
6. James Clement FURMAN b: 5 Dec 1809 in Charleston, SC
7. Richard Burleigh FURMAN b: 2 Apr 1790 in Charleston, SC
8. Maria Dorothea FURMAN b: 20 Sep 1799 in Charleston, SC
9. Thomas Fuller FURMAN b: 4 Oct 1807 in Charleston, SC
10. Sarah Susannah FURMAN b: abt 1804 or 1810
11. Henry Hart FURMAN b: 19 Sep 1801
12. John Gano FURMAN b: abt 1805 in prob South Carolina
13. William D. FURMAN b: 1817

• Married: 28 Nov 1774 in Charleston, SC

1. 5 children FURMAN
2. Rachel Brodhead FURMAN b: 16 Mar 1777
3. Wood FURMAN b: 12 Jul 1779
4. Maria FURMAN