USA > South Carolina > Charleston County > Charleston > Two centuries of the First Baptist Church of South Carolina, 1683-1883. With supplement > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD FURMAN, SR.
T HE Rev. Richard Furman, Sr., D.D., was born in the state of New York, at Esopus, a town on the Hudson, October 9, 1755. His father, Mr. Wood Furman, a native of Long Island, and engaged in mercantile business in the city of New York, married Rachel Broadhead, of Esopus. With his wife and their children, he removed to South Carolina while the subject of this notice was an infant, having obtained possession of a large tract of valuable land (some two thousand acres) on the waters of the Wateree river, in what .is now Sumter county, in the vicinity of States- burg, and of that elevated and healthful region known as the High Hills of Santee. For some years, however, Mr. Furman lived on the coast, first in St. Thomas Parish and then on Daniel's Island, between Cooper and Wando rivers. This beautiful island was once the residence of Gov- ernor Daniel, whose name it bore, and in its occupancy by Mr. Furman another ruler among men was rising, whose benignant influence for good would be felt over the whole state from the
126
TWO CENTURIES.
ocean to the mountains. As his child's eye peered across the waste of waters to the line on the horizon where roofs and masts marked the presence of the city, little did the boy think of the influence which he was destined there to exert, through long years, over the minds and hearts and lives of men.
Schools and other means of public instruction were not at hand. His education was wholly do- mestic, excepting perhaps for a few weeks. While yet a child and unable to hold the family Bible in his lap, he would place it on a stool before him and beg his relatives to teach him to read. When he had acquired the power to read, he employed it with delight in perusing the sacred volume. His admiration was particularly engaged by the character of Elijah, whose history he read with unsated delight. He early contracted a fondness for poetry, history and travels. His memory being uncommonly good, he learned without ef- fort poetry that pleased him, merely by reading it for his gratification. Most of the Iliad, and select parts of others, memorized in this way, when he was about eleven years old, he could recite cor- rectly in middle life. Nearly all of Gay's Fables he acquired in the same manner. Most of Pope's " Messiah " he acquired in part of a day, while
1
127
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
left in charge of the house by his parents who were absent on a visit. He perused with interest and pleasure the " Spectator," with the entertain- ing and popular parts of Milton, Pope, Swift, Par- nell, Young and Thomson. As he advanced in years he was instructed by his father in several branches of mathematics, one of which was theo- retical and practical trigonometry as applied to surveying, and was assisted by him in acquiring the general principles of some other sciences. In the brief attendance at school, already alluded to, he made a beginning in the study of Latin grammar ; his subsequent progress was made by his own exertion. It is probable that in the study of " Newton's Principia " he was literally learning Latin and mathematics simultaneously. When he acquired what knowledge he had of Greek and Hebrew is not known, but it is certain that in later life he constantly employed this knowledge in his study of the word of God.
In the family of an eminent merchant in Charles- ton (Mr. Stocker), where he occasionally visited, he enjoyed the conversation of an English lady of refined education, who took considerable pains to cultivate his taste. There also he had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Hezekiah Smith, then collecting funds for Rhode Island College.
128
TWO CENTURIES.
In the fifteenth year of young Furman's life, May, 1770, his father and family removed to the lands on the Wateree. Here, as in the former places of his residence, deer and various other game abounded, affording fine opportunity for the use of the gun, in which he acquired great dex- terity. The employment suited his natural activ- ity, and, while it sometimes brought his courage to the test, served to render his constitution more vigorous and more able to endure fatigue. In . subsequent years he regretted that it had occupied too much of his valuable time, but still retained an attachment to it as an occasional recreation particularly conducive to health and energy of character. With growth uncommonly rapid, he had attained, before his sixteenth year, the appear- ance and stature of a man, with corresponding maturity of mind.
In the interior of South Carolina, society was yet in its unformed elements ; literary institutions did not exist; books were scarce and most places were destitute of a settled ministry. Notwith- standing these and other privations, many who had been habituated to a better state of things were induced to seek in new settlements health and rural plenty, with the prospect of independ- ence and a more improved condition of society.
1
129
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
And there was among the people generally a mass of strong, unlettered sense, which liberty and the stimulus it offers to exertion strengthened, and a habit of frequent intercourse diffused, producing, in no mean degree, a just estimate of men and things. The High Hills of Santee, from their central situation, the quantity of fertile land in their vicinity, their proximity to a navigable river, and the healthiness which characterized them, at- tracted numerous emigrants. These were mostly from Virginia, and were generally industrious and enterprising, though illiterate, and they brought with them the habits then prevalent in parts of that State which were not favored with religious institutions. They were addicted to rustic sports and social gaiety, commonly assembling at each others' houses and closing the labors of the week with dancing. Besides these, another class, pos- sessing more refined habits, with greater advan- tages from education, began, before the Revolu- tion, to remove from the lower country into this region. Mr. Wood Furman was already known in the neighborhood, having, upon his former com- ing into it, pursued the business of a surveyor. This business, after some suspension, he now re- sumed, and, by his commanding person, his supe- rior understanding and information, his integrity,
9
130
.
TWO CENTURIES.
conciliatory manners and decision of character, deservedly obtained great influence in the com- munity.
Upon the arrival of Mr. Furman's family at their new residence, they found a remarkable re- ligious excitement in operation near them. This was produced principally by the earnest evangel- ical labors of the Rev. Joseph Reese. He had the honor of commencing in this community that change of principles and conduct in the commu- nity which was more fully accomplished by the instrumentality of another. The subject of this sketch had had very serious religious impres- sions ; but, under the preaching of Mr. Reese, his convictions were deepened. The guilt of sin, his own condemnation under Divine law, whose spir- ituality, holiness and universal application he pro- foundly recognized, his utter helplessness and ruin, filled him with apprehensions which pre- pared him for the discovery of the free grace and mercy of God as revealed in the gospel. Evan- gelical principles soon took possession of his vig- orous mind and susceptible heart, and in his life their influence was conspicuous. Attending a " sacramental season," he was urged by Mr. Reese to appear as a candidate for baptism. Desirous of submitting to the ordinance, he was deterred
-
1
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
131
by doubt and diffidence. In great anxiety of mind, he retired to the woods, and, prostrating himself before God, obtained such manifestations of Divine love as induced him to return imme- diately and present himself as a candidate, at the same time saying that he had no experience to relate, but came a sinner willing to accept the free grace of the Gospel. Mr. Reese then put a question to him, which he answered, and then others, till he spoke with freedom and with great effect on the hearers. One of these was his · mother, who secretly entertained the same desire, and now felt herself constrained by duty to ac- company him into the baptismal water. He was then in his sixteenth year. He joined a Baptist church from a conviction of duty and in opposi- tion to previous attachment and belief. Having received what is called infant baptism, he relin- quished it with great reluctance from a conviction, founded on a careful reading of the Scriptures, that immersion only is baptism, and believers the proper subjects.
Much of his time was now spent in retirement, in reading the Scriptures and other doctrinal books and in delightful intercourse with God in prayer. But he was not content with a solitary devotion. His experience of the consolations of
,
-4
-- --
132
TWO CENTURIES.
the gospel led him ardently to desire that others should have the same blessing. He undertook the work of instructing his father's servants in the principles of Christianity, and endeavored to excite their serious concern for their eternal wel- fare. The most distinguished member of the in- fant church on the High Hills was Dr. Joseph Howard, a man equally eminent for skill in med- ical practice and for piety, benevolence and liber- ality. He was chiefly instrumental . in building the house of worship, the site for which he gave. On Sundays, when there was no public worship in the neighborhood, this "beloved physician " made religious visitors welcome at his own house for the purposes of prayer, religious conversation and the reading of select portions of the Scrip- tures and other devotional books. In these days we should call this Sunday-school or Bible-class labor. In these exercises young Furman united, and late in life declared that he had on no occa- sion enjoyed more satisfaction in social worship.
It was not long before he began to appear in a more public character. His earnest words moved the souls of his hearers to their depths, and his own anxiety for the salvation of souls was kept in glow by this very exercise. People in all the country round were anxious to hear the boy-evan-
-
- --
--
133
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
gelist. His father had designed him for the study of the law, and probably entertained the same sen- timent which a distinguished jurist many years af- terwards expressed, who, upon hearing an argu- ment made by Dr. Furman, remarked: "That is a first-rate lawyer spoiled." Besides, his father may have felt that the impulse on his son's mind was referable to his youth, and would after a time de- cline. He sometimes discussed the subject with him, particularly when his boy was asking convey- ance to some remote point. Under these views he generally abstained from attending when his son was to speak in public in the neighborhood. On one occasion, however, he did attend, and from that time forth he never uttered a word of objection. The truth is, boy as young Furman was in years, he was anything but a boy in body, in intellect and in spiritual attainments. The learned Judge Richardson, himself a fine example of forensic eloquence, once remarked to a son of Dr. Furman : "I often heard your father preach in my early years, and he certainly surpassed any one I have ever heard in the appositeness and fin- ish of his introductions." The church, satisfied of his intelligence, piety and zeal, licensed him to preach at a much earlier age than would be proper in ordinary cases. Five months before
--
1
134
TWO CENTURIES.
he had completed his nineteenth year, on the 16th . of May, 1774, he was ordained as pastor of the Hills Church.
Both before and after his ordination he made frequent excursions for preaching through large portions of the State, included principally in the middle region and extending from Congaree and the Santee on the one side to the Peedee on the other. He also visited some places in the upper country, and others, including Charleston and Georgetown, in the lower. Some journeys, one of which extended into Virginia, were made in company with a minister older than himself, but a bosom friend, Rev. Timothy Dargan, the grand- father of the beloved Dr. J. O. B. Dargan and the late Chancellor Dargan. Accustomed as we are to the changes which a hundred years have brought about, it is hard to realize the difficulties which had to be encountered in these early evangelistic labors. Creeks and rivers without bridges, wide spaces traversed only by bridle-paths, places of accommodation at remote distances, the absence of houses of worship, and other impediments made the work hard. But our young evangelist entered on the work, prepared to "endure hard- ness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
In situations where there was a desire to hear
--
135
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
the gospel, appointments were sometimes made for him by his friends at private houses without his knowledge. On one such occasion he apolo- gized to the master of the house, who was a stranger to him, for the liberty which had been taken. "Sir," replied the gentleman, "you are as welcome as the flowers in spring." Near the commencement of the Revolution an appointment had been made for him to preach in the Court- house in Camden, where the gospel had rarely, if ever, been dispensed. A large audience assem- bled to hear the word of life, but were kept wait- ing out of doors. The sheriff, in whose custody was the key, refused to open the building or to give up the key, alleging as his reason that Mr. Fur- man was not a minister of the established Church. A number of the most respectable persons pres- ent were inclined to obtain an entrance by force, but the youthful messenger of peace begged them to desist, telling the congregation, if they would retire to a spot at a little distance where they could be accommodated better than where they stood, he would address them in the open air. He then preached on the vital doctrines of the gospel, with a solemnity, pungency and pathos calculated to make a deep impression; and such was the effect; the discourse was long and affectionately remem-
-
136
TWO CENTURIES.
bered. The principal citizen of the place, by whose instigation, it was believed, the Sheriff acted, was seen after the sermon coming from his house and showing the preacher marked attention. This he continued to do ever after, and the use of the Court-house was not again refused.
When the question of resistance to the en- croachments of Great Britain was agitated, Mr. Furman took an early and decided stand in favor of liberty and the measures of Congress. A body of Tories, between Broad and Saluda rivers, a portion of country lying within the circle of his ministerial visitations, having formed a plan of co- operation with the invaders, he addressed them in a long letter, setting forth the views of the pa- triots and the justice of their cause, and entreat- ing and conjuring the disaffected not to be con- cerned in shedding the blood of their countrymen. He was then in his twentieth year. He continued to advocate the cause of civil and religious liberty on every suitable occasion throughout the exten- sive sphere of his ministration; being the only minister of note in many miles in different direc- tions. At the commencement of the Revolution, a large part of the Christian population of the State were subject to disabilities growing out of the legal establishment of the Church of England.
-
1
137
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
A temporary form of government, adopted while reconciliation to the Mother Country was contem- plated, had continued the legal support of this church-and offices of honor and profit, with their attendant influence, were generally, if not exclu- sively retained by its adherents.
The Dissenters, having their full share of the public burdens, and being excluded from an equal participation of rights and privileges, felt the necessity of general cooperation to obtain redress. A meeting for this purpose, in consequence of invitations to ministers and churches of different denominations, was held at the High Hills, in the early part of 1776, and no doubt contributed to produce that constitutional change which took place about two years after. This meeting was rendered further remarkable by the consequent baptism of two of the ministers in attendance- the Rev. Messrs. Joseph Cook and Lewis Rich- ards-who had come from England under the patronage of the Countess of Huntingdon. The former settled at Euhaw, S. C .; the latter in Balti- more.
Soon after the Declaration of Independence Mr. Furman took the oath of allegiance admin- istered by General Richard Richardson at the head of his brigade. When the State was threat-
138
TWO CENTURIES.
ened with invasion, he marched down to Charles- ton with a volunteer company commanded by his brother, Captain Josiah Furman, ready to engage in military duty when it should be requisite. He was advised by Governor Rutledge to return, as being likely to serve his country more effectually by remaining in the interior, and there exerting his influence in support of the Revolution. He returned, and was so successful in his efforts as to render himself an object of attention to Lord Cornwallis, who offered a large reward for him, and intimated a design to make an example of so notorious a rebel.
After the capture of Charleston, when the Americans could no longer retain general posses- sion of the State, and many of its citizens, to avoid molestation from the dominant party or submission to the authority of Great Britain, were retiring northward, Mr. Furman, with his wife and two children, removed to Virginia, and, except two or more short visits to the Hills, con- tinued in that State and North Carolina to the close of hostilities. At one place of his stated preaching in Virginia he had, among his regular hearers, the illustrious Patrick Henry and his family, from whom individually he received marks of respectful attachment. From Governor Henry
139
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
himself he received the compliment of an English work on rhetoric, Ward's "Oratory," the volumes of which hold their place in the library of one of his descendants.
In the fall of 1782 Mr. Furman found himself at home again in the bosom of his beloved church. His studies, though interrupted by the war, were not suspended. And now, returned to his home and the quiet of a state of peace, he applied him- self, with characteristic energy, to different forms of knowledge that promised great practical utility. He rendered a gratuitous service to his poorer neighbors in surveying their lands, and thus se- curing them against chicanery. The destitution of medical aid often experienced in the country, when physicians were few and liable to be called off to great distances, incited him to acquire as much knowledge as possible of the healing art. Anatomy and various branches of medical science he diligently pursued, and in the intelligent con- verse of his esteemed friend, Dr. Howard, he gathered an amount of information which, with his quick observation and solid judgment, he was able to turn to good account when, in his own family and others, occasions arose for treating the sick in the absence of a physician. To meet such exigencies he kept constantly a considerable sup-
140
TWO CENTURIES.
ply of medicines suited to the more common dis- orders, and administered them without charge, when a physician could not be procured. We may mention here, though it anticipates what be- longs to a later period, that when the yellow fever appeared in Charleston after his removal to the city, he was satisfied that the professional treatment of the disease was at fault. Depend- ence was then placed upon mercury, given inter- nally and rubbed in at the joints on the principle of expelling one morbid condition by another more manageable, the misfortune being that in the great number of cases the patient died before the work of expulsion could be done, while in the few remaining cases fearful salivation, teeth drop- ping out, sometimes with exfoliation of bones of the jaw and general debility and suffering like that of rheumatism, were the result. Mr. Fur- man's view of the disease and its treatment was wholly different. His whole family was treated successfully without the loss of a single member. Public attention could not but be called to this difference of result, and the subject of our sketch felt himself placed in the (to him) trying position of seeming to be wanting in proper respect and courtesy to a profession whose rights he pro- foundly respected. But so it was, the high and
141
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
the low, rich and poor, sought his help, which, under the circumstances, he could not refuse. The doctors, however, did not take it amiss. They, in common with the whole community, had too great a regard for the exalted purity of his character and the benevolence of his motives, to utter a word of censure. Some of them, making the best of the case, said : "Dr. Furman's success was owing to his prayers." Several gentlemen, not physicians, among them Mr. James Harper, Captain Thomas L. Gantt and Tristram Tupper, Esq., became familiar with the mode of practice, and attended hundreds of the sick with success. Of about fifty patients whom Dr. Furman at- tended the year before that in which he died, all but two recovered. In the case of those two there was a confessed neglect in administering · the medicine.
But we return from this long digression to say Mr. Furman took every favorable opportunity to encourage and excite a taste for learning. In conjunction with General Sumter and other gen- tlemen of the neighborhood, he had a principal share in establishing a literary society, also a lit- erary institution located in Statesburg, and called Claremont Academy.
On his ministering brethren he strove to impress
142
TWO CENTURIES.
a sense of the vast importance of sound learning. In many cases where his arguments took effect, they were seconded with a donation of books. Several instances might be mentioned of the good effected by him in persuading men of piety and ability already in the ministry, but destitute of education, to apply themselves to study, notwith- standing the prejudices against it too generally cherished. One only, which fully illustrates the value of such conduct, will be specified in the case of the Rev. Silas Mercer, of Georgia,-a man of strong mental powers, of argumentative habits, of undoubted piety and inextinguishable zeal; but who, at his first visit to the subject of this memoir at the High Hills, was prejudiced against learn- ing, as thinking it unfriendly to religion. In the interview, however, he was fully convinced of its utility, and became not only an indefatigable stu- dent, but a zealous promoter of learning during the remainder of his life. Silas Mercer was the father of Jesse Mercer, and the patronymic is now indissolubly joined with higher education. Little did the young pastor at the Hills foresee the wide- spread and long-continued influence, in a great State like Georgia and beyond it, of those seed- thoughts which he was planting in the mind of Silas Mercer.
!
143
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
In 1778 his church became a member of the "Charleston Association." In the Circular Ad- dress of 1786, which has internal evidence of its authorship, Mr. Furman uses this language, which may be taken as a fair showing of his mind and spirit : " It is our ardent desire that the members of our churches be well established in the evi- dence, as well as the necessity and importance of Christianity, and that the reasonableness and con- sistency of its particular doctrines be well under- stood. We recommend, therefore, that a thirst for divine knowledge, together with a laudable desire to excel in every grace and virtue, be enter- tained in all your breasts. Pay particular attention to the education of your children with this view ; and where it has pleased God to call any of his young servants to the work of the ministry, let the church be careful to introduce them into the line of study and improvement, and make suitable exertions to furnish them with the necessary means for this end."
These counsels are remarkable as the utterances of a young man, largely self-educated, and appeal- ing to brethren among whom he had, by his supe- rior endowments and attainments, risen into the ascendant.
From the vices of jealousy and self-seeking his
-.
144
TWO CENTURIES.
character was singularly free. And while the purity and elevation of his motives command our admiration, the broadness of his views indicates his intellectual grasp. In a manuscript of "Ex- tracts from private correspondence of various ministers," in the handwriting of the elder Manly, Mr. Manly writes: "1791, Dr. Furman wrote some- thing of which Mr. H. [Rev. H. Holcombe, after- ward Dr. Holcombe, of Philadelphia, and the grand- father of the learned and eloquent H. H. Tucker, D.D., of Georgia] says: 'For its seasonableness to the wants of the Baptist interest and its other excellencies it ranks my favorite preacher with my favorite authors.'" Elsewhere Mr. Holcombe ex- presses his purpose "to do nothing in publishing or in any other important respects without consult- ing Mr. F., owing to the benefits he had received from his supervision and counsel." In 1793 he says: "The Circular Letter of the Association the year before, read over again and again at Eu- haw." Euhaw was Mr. Holcombe's church. He afterwards avers that he never received a line from Dr. Furman or had a conversation with him with- out experiencing a sensible benefit. In harmony with this estimate of his character was the deliber- ate but emphatic declaration made not many years ago by Rev. B. Manly, Sr., when, having resigned
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.