Baldwin County GaArchives History .....History of Baldwin County - Furman Biography 1925
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 7, 2004, 11:37 am

p. 330-333

DEATH OF HON. F. C. FURMAN

    Farrish Furman is dead!

    In the vigor of manhood, when with matured judgment, he had entered upon a
career of great usefulness in the development of the agriculturial resources of
the country, and when the enjoyment of the renown and distinction, so pleasing
to his ambition, spread out pleasantly before him, he is called at the early age
of thirty-eight, from the busy scenes of an active and enthusiastic life, to a
bed of sickness, pain and death. How inexpressibly sad this seems to his host of
friends who had never associated his bouyant, energetic, aggressive life with
the grave; but sharing his enthusiasm, looked forward to long years of earnest
work, crowned with the blessings and benefactions of his countrymen. He was a
man of strong convictions and lived for a purpose, and the world is better, we
doubt not, because he lived in it. His mission is accomplished! His progressive
ideas and good intentions are not all lost. They will bear fruit in the hands of
others.

    From the best sources at our command we give the following brief sketch of
his life:

    Farrish Carter Furman was born in 1846, at Scottsboro, Baldwin county,
Georgia, and died September 14, 1883, at the old homestead, and in the room in
which he was born. He was the son of Dr. John H. Furman, of South Carolina, and
the grand-son of the celebrated Dr. Richard Furman, a Baptist divine, after whom
Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, is named. His mother was the
daughter of Col. Farrish Carter, a prominent citizen of this state, and after
whom Cartersville, Ga., is named. She was also the niece of that distinguished
and honored son of Georgia, Gov. Charles J. McDonald.

    Judge Furman was educated at Oglethorpe University, the Citadel at
Charleston, and finished his education by graduating at the South Carolina
University, in 1868. He commenced the study of law soon after he left college,
and in 1870, was admitted to the bar in Macon, Ga., having studied law in the
office of Nisbet and Jackson. In December, 1870, he formed a co-partnership with
Judge D. B. Sanford, and began the practice of law in this city. The
partnership, thus begun, continued until the death of Judge Furman.

    Mr. Furman was too young to be an active participant in the first years of
the war; but his dauntless spirit and brave young heart carried him, young as h(
was, into the strife, and the last year of the war he was a gallant private in
Elliott's South Carolina Brigade

    He married the eldest daughter of Dr. Joseph LeConte, now of the University
of California, a lady widely known and greatly beloved for her abounding
Christian charity, who with two children, both daughters, survive him.

    In politics, he was a Democrat. He was elected Senator for the 20th district
in 1876, for four years but his senatorial term was cut short by the calling of
a Constitutional Convention—a measure he supported with all the ardor of his
nature, hoping the convention would restore the Capital to Milledgeville.

    He was elected to the Constitutional Convention in 1877, and made a useful
member. During the capital campaign which followed, the location of the capital
being left to the vote of the people, he took an active part, making speeches in
many counties in favor of returning the seat of government to the "halls of our
fathers."

    He was a good speaker, but not always a discreet politician. He was a man of
sleepless and untiring energy—a firm friend and an earnest worker.

    For the past five or six years, while continuing the practice of law, he
devoted most of his time to farming, bringing to that occupation a determination
to succeed and a practical and scientific knowledge rarely found among the
cultivators of the soil. He took sixty acres of land that produced eight bales
of cotton the first year he cultivated it, and by intensive farming and the
application of a compost that he called a perfect cotton food, he raised the
yield steadily until it reached eighty bales from the sixty acres. He expected
to make from the same ground this year one hundred bales, and much interest has
been manifested in his growing crop.

    With his usual liberality, he published to the world his formula, for the
benefit of the farmers. Many of the most successful farmers in this, and other
States, have adopted his system, and give it their unqualified endorsement. The
publication of his speeches, on his system, had made him one of the best known
men in the State.

    He had been absent from home a good deal this year, having accepted
invitations to deliver addresses, and was also engaged in organizing a company
to manufacture his fertilizer. He returned from Atlanta about three weeks ago,
where he had been to attend the Agricultural Convention, and lingered to perfect
the organization of his company. He came home, sick of malarial fever, probably
contracted during a recent visit to Alabama. He was attended by Dr. W. H. Hall
and his father, who is a physician, was with him. On Friday morning he grew
worse rapidly, and it was known that his illness was unto death. He was baptized
by Rev. J. M. Stoney, Rector of St. Stephens Episcopal Church in this city, and
received the communion. We learn that he expressed himself as willing to die. At
8:30 o'clock P. M. Friday, he breathed his last.

    His funeral took place from the Episcopal church, at 5 P. M., Saturday, Rev.
J. M. Stoney, officiating, and was largely attended. The pall-bearers were
Messrs. Grieve, E. C. Ramsey, T. W. Turk, Jno. G. Thomas, C. W. Ennis, Walter
Paine, Geo. D. Case, and J. W. Wilcox.

    He was laid to rest in the old cemetery, among the people he loved and who
loved him. We have seldom heard so many expressions of sorrow and regret from
all classes of our people, as on this sad occasion. Among the mourners were many
colored people who remembered many acts of kindness at his hands.

    Judge Furman was an honest man. Open as day, he had no concealments; spoke
what he thought on all occasions, without regard to consequences, but was not a
man to bear malice. He was warm hearted, impulsive, and sanguine of success in
whatever he undertook. Among his plans for the future was the development of the
water power which he owns on the Oconee river. In his death the whole country,
and this community especially, suffers a deplorable loss.

    Judge Furman was a member of the Royal Arcanum and the American Legion of
Honor, membership in the former society carrying a life insurance of three
thousand dollars and the latter of. five thousand dollars. We are glad to notice
this thoughtfulness on the part of a devoted husband and father. While our
friend possessed fine business sense and made money with ease, he spent it with
a liberal hand. His life insurance enables his family to inherit an unincumbered
estate.

    The Press of the State, speak in tender and regretful language of the death
of Farrish Furman.



Additional Comments:
From: 

Part V

HISTORY of BALDWIN COUNTY GEORGIA

BY MRS. ANNA MARIA GREEN COOK

ILLUSTRATED

ANDERSON. S. C.
Keys-Hearn Printing Co.
-1925—


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