Furman University - Bonhomie Yearbook (Greenville, SC)

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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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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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will Ik puiciiascd by tin- I.unity, alter consultation with library committees throughout the country as rapidly as the funds will allow. Several classes of Alumni have already sent m contributions tor the purchase of books. Yheic is no more direct way in which the Alumni can help the institution just now than in gathering class contributions for the purchase of books. In December. 1907. the South Carolina Baptist State Convention at Orangeburg projected a campaign for the erection of a new building to be known as the “James ('. Furman Hall of Science''. At the end of the year 1908. subscriptions were in hand amounting to $. 0,000 for this purpose. $25,000 of which was subscribed by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Also in 1908 a commodious dormitory was built for the Fitting School. On December 31. 1909. largely through the efforts of Rev. K. F. Easterling. Financial Agent, all the conditions in reference to the James C. Furman Hall of Science were met. The work of erecting the new building was begun in the year 1910. and it was formally opened with appropriate exercises on January 18. 1912. It contains a Museum of Natural History with a well arranged display of many specimens, a laboratory for Physics, another for Chemistry, another for Biology, another for Psychology, besides private laboratories for the Professors, and several recitation rooms, stock rooms, etc., beside a finely equipped general lecture room with gas. water, electricity, projection lantern equipment, etc., and seating capacity on highly inclined floor for one hundred and fifty. FOLK LINKS OF EXPANSION There are four lines of expansion which lie before us, calling us to increased devotion to the largest single enterprise conducted in common by the Baptists of South Carolina. These arc, viz.. 1st. Endowment; 2nd. Loan Fund; 3rd. Course of Study; 1th. New Buildings. Of course expansion in these lines will be ac- companied by a steady, but we hope not too rapid increase in the number of students. The present endowment amounts to $225,000 and it is urgently necessary for us to press on with the endowment of the institution as rapidly as possible to the $500,000 mark. With the increase of the student body which this material expansion will certainly secure.'it will be increasingly necessary to provide aid for worthy young men who have brains and pluck but no money. At present our available loan fund for others than ministerial students, amounts to $1,000 and only the interest of some of this money can be distributed. The ideal plan for the aiding of young men is to lend them without interest sufficient money to put them through college.