William Henry Furness | |
|---|---|
 Reverend Doctor William Henry Furness (1886) byCecilia Beaux | |
| Born | April 20, 1802 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | January 30, 1896 |
| Resting place | Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Children | William Henry Furness Jr. Horace Howard Furness Frank Furness Annis Lee Furness Wister |
| Relatives | William Henry Furness III (grandson) |
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William Henry Furness (April 20, 1802 – January 30, 1896) was an American clergyman, theologian,Transcendentalist, abolitionist, and reformer.
Furness was born in Boston, where he attended theBoston Latin School and developed a lifelong friendship with schoolmateRalph Waldo Emerson. He graduated from theHarvard Divinity School in 1823. He preached in Watertown and Boston, Massachusetts and in Baltimore, Maryland in early 1823.[1] At the age of 22 he became the minister of theFirst Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, which had operated without a minister for 29 years. He served there from 1825 until his retirement in 1875. The congregation grew substantially during his ministry, moving to a larger building in 1828 and an even larger building in 1886, which was designed by his sonFrank Furness.[2][3]
Furness was an ardentabolitionist whose attacks on theFugitive Slave Act led to a discussion at a cabinet meeting of PresidentJames Buchanan about the possibility of indicting him for treason.[4]He was a prominent speaker at the Martyr Day vigil in Philadelphia in 1859, which marked the execution ofJohn Brown, who had attempted to spark a slave uprising in the South.[4]After abolitionist SenatorCharles Sumner was severely beaten on the floor of the Senate by CongressmanPreston Brooks of South Carolina, he stayed at the Furness home during part of his convalescence.[3]
In 1840, he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[5]
Furness was a student of the life ofJesus, about whom he published several books. He asserted that the miracles attributed to Jesus in the Christian Bible were natural events with rational explanations.[2]He rejected traditional beliefs about Jesus' miraculous birth, saying, "these stories may have been pure fictions ... [or] they were exaggerations of certain simple and very natural incidents, magnified by wonder."[6] He was a hymnwriter and published numerous popular hymns.[7]
Furness promoted outreach to the Jewish community in Philadelphia. His sonFrank Furness was the architect for the new building forCongregation Rodeph Shalom.[3]
He married Annis P. Jenks of Salem, Massachusetts in 1825. They had four children:William Henry Furness, Jr., a portrait painter;Horace Howard Furness, a Shakespeare scholar;Frank Furness, one of Philadelphia's most prominent architects; andAnnis Lee Furness Wister, an author and translator.[2][3]
He died on January 30, 1896, and was interred atLaurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.[8]
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Geffen, Elizabeth M."William Henry Furness Philadelphia Antislavery Preacher".The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. University of Pennsylvania. RetrievedNovember 23, 2021.
