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Page 14 text:
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Historical Sketch of Furman University E. M. POTEAT M EPSON said an institution is the lengthened shadow of a man. Furman University is the lengthened shadow ot a towering man, Richard Furman (1755-1825). His name is written in letters of light over all the early history of the Baptists in South Carolina. From the beginning of his public career he was an aggressive promoter of Education and of organized denominational effort with a view to larger efficiency. As early as 1791 he brought before the Charleston Association a plan by which the churches might unite in aiding young students for the ministry, and when in 1792 the plan was ratified, his name is the first in the list of signatures. He remained Chairman of the General Committee of the Charleston Association for educational work for thirty-three years. And it is significant of his influence in this interest that the white membership of the First Baptist Church in Charleston averaged about two dollars per member for thirty-six consecutive years for education . In 1811- her was elected at Philadelphia the first President of the Tri-cnnial Convention and in 1817 tin theme of his presidential address was Education. Says Prof. II. T. Cook in the volume just cited: Columbia College grew out of this speech as well as divers colleges in the states (p. 22). In the History of the First Baptist Church of Charleston. I)r. James C. Furman, the distinguished son of a distinguished father, says of this great Philadelphia address by his father: “ 11 is own views contemplated a central institution at Washington, with institutions preparatory to it founded in separate states, where lower grades of culture might be obtained. Watcrvillc and Hamilton were probably the direct outgrowth of the original plan. So were Furman Institution in South Carolina and the institution at Penfield. Ga.. now Mercer University. Furman Institution became Furman University and then gave up its Theological Department that it might become the Southern Baptist Seminary. Newton, in Massachusetts, it is believed, originated from dissatisfaction with the bad management at Washington. Indeed the whole later denominational movement in favor of education, originated from this impulse. And this great address grew out of an experience of twenty-six years during which the preacher had been educating young men. I have given this much space in the brief sketch here undertaken because a ’Cook: Education in South Carolina., | . 20. ‘Cook: Op. Cit. p. 84-85.
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Page 15 text:
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clear sight of origins is essential to full comprehension of the growth of an institution. And in what has now been said it will he seen that Furman University is the heir and depository of the finest sentiments and insights and enthusiasms of as noble a pioneer as ever breathed. Richard Furman died without seeing the fruition of his far-sighted plans. But two years after his death. 1827. the Baptist State Convention opened The Furman Academy and Theological Institution at F.dgeville. S. (’.. buildings and land having been offered conditionally by the citizens of the village. It is not necessary to detail here the checkered years from 1827 to 1852; the annals are printed year by year in the Catalogue. But it is impossible, to read the story and not see and feel that truly great men were put to the test again and again and were kept on the strain well-nigh to the limit of their powers to preserve the institution. Only a supreme purpose, with sources, like the great rivers, in the far heights, where God dwells, could have held them to their task. Furman University comes to us of the present generation freighted with the devotion and prayers and consecrated by the tears and toil of men of whom the world was not worthy. EXPANSION At the commencement in June 1907. an alumnus who had not visited the institution for a number of years said: Things do not look as they did when- I was a student here. Then he proceeded to remark. “We had only this old building, and the boys lived in boarding houses off the Campus. At the end of the Civil War. Captain Patrick taught a preparatory department in the large room under the tower; and l)r. Furman and his three or four professors taught college classes in the other rooms of the main building. They could not foresee the development of the succeeding forty years. Indeed there was almost no expansion until 1883. when bv the successful agency of R. II. Griffith, a considerable Endowment Fund was raised. In 1888 the first additional building (Judson Cottage) was put up. and a short while after this Griffith Hall, which for several years was the heme of the Fitting School boarding students. Today there are sixteen buildings on the Campus, including several small cottages, and nine of those are in constant use in the work of the University. Since 1897 six important buildings have been erected. The new Library building was opened for inspection on June 3. 1907. It represents in cost and endowment an addition of ‘88.000 to our plant. It has been much admired by all who have seen it. In interior finish and general appointments for library purposes, it is probably unsurpassed in South Carolina. Its one remaining need is books! books! books! These
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