Dallas County AlArchives Biographies.....Furniss, John P. September 24 1841 - living in 1893
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Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    JOHN P. FURNISS, M. D.-Among the most active and successful medical
practitioners of Selma, Ala., may be placed John P. Furniss, M. D. He is a
native of Mississippi, having been born at Columbus, that state, on the 24th day
of September, 1841. His scholastic training was received at Prof. Tutwiler's
Green Spring school, and at the university of Mississippi, from which he was
graduated in 1860. Predilection lead him to the study of medicine, and upon
leaving the university of Mississippi, he entered the New Orleans school of
medicine. His father was a learned and skillful physician, and this, perhaps,
had no little influence with the son in the selection of medicine for his
profession. The father, also named John P. Furniss, was a native of Maryland,
but, in 1835, he removed to Louisiana, and died at the age of thirty-five years.
Though educated for the profession of medicine, he practiced only gratuitously,
as planting was the vocation to which his attention was chiefly directed. When
the war between the states came on, the younger Dr. Furniss was not quite twenty
years of age and was in attendance at the New Orleans school of medicine. With
patriotism for his native state, he enlisted early in the conflict, becoming a
private in company K, of the Fourteenth Mississippi regiment. Less than a year
subsequent he was transferred to the medical department of the Confederates
States army as assistant surgeon, and at the reorganization of Gen. Joseph E.
Johnston's army, was promoted to the rank of surgeon, in 1865, of the Fourteenth
and Forty-third Confederates, Mississippi. He was but twenty-one years of age,
and with remarkable skill, courage and faithfulness he performed his duty as
surgeon to the close of hostilities. For one year after the war he remained in
Mississippi, and then (1866) located at Selma, Ala., and engaged in the practice
of his chosen profession. He soon gained an extensive clientage and has there
since remained; his practice has increased with remarkable rapidity, and his
skill and learning as a physician have won for him an enviable reputation. In
the history and progress of the medical profession in the state of his adoption
he has played an important part. He has long been a member both of the State and
Dallas county Medical societies, becoming grand senior counselor of the former.
Dr. Furniss has not been unmindful of the course of public opinion, but has kept
pace with current events and the progress of his people; he is progressive as a
citizen, but has never turned aside from the duties of his profession to seek
public or political honors. He has, however, become interested in both
manufactures and agriculture, and thus has materially aided the industrial
progress and growth of his home. He is unassuming and unostentatious, and these
traits, together with his polite bearing, and modesty of character, render him
popular with all who know him. His learning and skill as a physician well merit
that deference yielded by his professional brethren. A happy marriage,
consummated in December of 1876, with Miss E. M. Dawson, an accomplished lady
and a daughter of Hon. N. H. R. Dawson of Selma, has given issue to two
surviving sons and has rendered Dr. Furniss' domestic relations the most
pleasant. In religion he is a Presbyterian. The doctor was appointed, in 1889,
state referee of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance company of Newark, N. J.,
which position he still holds.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 871-872
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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