William Henry Furness
{{short description|American clergyman, theologian and abolitionist}}
{{Infobox person
| name =William Henry Furness
| image =Cecilia Beaux, Rev. Dr. William Henry Furness, 1886.jpg
| image_size =200px
| caption =Reverend Doctor William Henry Furness (1886) by Cecilia Beaux
| birth_name =
| birth_date = April 20, 1802
| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = January 30, 1896
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| resting_place = Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| nationality =American
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| children = William Henry Furness Jr.
Horace Howard Furness
Frank Furness
Annis Lee Furness Wister
| parents =
| relatives = William Henry Furness III (grandson)
| signature = File:Signature of William Henry Furness (1802–1896).png
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William Henry Furness (April 20, 1802 – January 30, 1896) was an American clergyman, theologian, Transcendentalist, abolitionist, and reformer.
Biography
Furness was born in Boston, where he attended the Boston Latin School and developed a lifelong friendship with schoolmate Ralph Waldo Emerson. He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1823. He preached in Watertown and Boston, Massachusetts and in Baltimore, Maryland in early 1823.{{sfn|Geffen|p=260}} At the age of 22 he became the minister of the First 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 son Frank Furness.
Furness was an ardent abolitionist whose attacks on the Fugitive Slave Act led to a discussion at a cabinet meeting of President James Buchanan about the possibility of indicting him for treason.{{cite web|url=http://www.civilwarphilly.net/johnbrown/tourstops.pdf|title=John Brown's Philadelphia|author=V. Chapman-Smith|publisher=Civil War History Consortium|accessdate=August 4, 2016|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044953/http://www.civilwarphilly.net/johnbrown/tourstops.pdf|url-status=dead}}
He was a prominent speaker at the Martyr Day vigil in Philadelphia in 1859, which marked the execution of John Brown, who had attempted to spark a slave uprising in the South.
After abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner was severely beaten on the floor of the Senate by Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina, he stayed at the Furness home during part of his convalescence.
In 1840, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=1840;year-max=1840;smode=advanced;startDoc=21|access-date=2021-04-09|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}
Furness was a student of the life of Jesus, about whom he published several books. He asserted that the miracles attributed to Jesus in the Christian Bible were natural events with rational explanations.
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."Furness, William Henry (1853), A History of Jesus, Boston: Crosby, Nichols and Company, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZukS02TIVAwC&pg=PA19 p. 19] He was a hymnwriter and published numerous popular hymns.{{cite book |last1=Julian |first1=John |title=A Dictionary of Hymnology |date=1907 |publisher=Dover Publications, Inc. |location=New York |pages=402–403 |url=https://archive.org/details/imslp-dictionary-of-hymnology-julian-john/PMLP213617-Julian-DictionaryOfHymnology_A-O/page/n419/mode/2up?q=furness |access-date=24 November 2021}}
Furness promoted outreach to the Jewish community in Philadelphia. His son Frank Furness was the architect for the new building for Congregation Rodeph Shalom.
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; and Annis Lee Furness Wister, an author and translator.{{cite web|url=http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/william-henry-furness|title=William Henry Furness|date=September 29, 2012|publisher=Harvard Square Library|accessdate=August 4, 2016}}{{cite web |url= http://www.phillyhistory.org/blog/index.php/2012/04/reverend-william-henry-furness-a-philadelphia-unitarian/|title=Reverend William Henry Furness: A Philadelphia Unitarian|author=Steven Ujifusa|author-link=Steven Ujifusa|date=April 19, 2012|publisher=City of Philadelphia|accessdate=August 4, 2016 }}
File:William Henry Furness grave.jpg]]
He died on January 30, 1896, and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Richard W. |title=William Henry Furness |url=http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/f/u/r/n/furness_wh.htm |website=www.hymntime.com |access-date=24 November 2021}}
Selected works
- Notes on the Four Gospels (1836)
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=-skQAAAAYAAJ The Unconscious Truth of the Gospels]
- Jesus and His Biographers (1838)
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=0EsrAAAAYAAJ Domestic Worship], James Kay, Jun. & Brother, Philadelphia (1840)
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZKPNQEACAAJ Schiller's Song of the Bell, a New Translation by W.H. Furness] (1851)
- [https://archive.org/details/historyofjesu00furn The History of Jesus] (1853)
- Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth (1859)
- The Blessings of Abolition (1860)
- The Veil Partly Lifted (1864)
- The Voice in Speaking, J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia (1875)
- The Power of Spirit Manifest in Jesus of Nazareth, J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia (1877)
- [https://archive.org/details/jesusheartofchri00furn Jesus, the Heart of Christianity] (1882)
- [https://archive.org/details/storyofresurrect00furn The Story of the Resurrection of Christ Told Once More] (1885)
- Verses, Translations and Hymns (1886)
- [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015078952341&view=1up&seq=16&skin=2021 The Life of Seth Conkling], Philadelphia (1892)
File:Views in Philadelphia and its vicinity - engraved from original drawings (1827) (14765859372).jpg|2nd building: First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia
File:Undergroundrailr00lcstil 0712 Furness.jpg|Rev. William H. Furness, from William Still, The Underground Railroad (1872).
File:First Unitarian Church in 1886.jpg|3rd building: First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia (1885–86).
Citations
{{Reflist}}
Sources
{{cite magazine |last=Geffen |first=Elizabeth M. |date= |title=William Henry Furness Philadelphia Antislavery Preacher |url=https://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/download/41386/41107 |magazine=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography |location= |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=November 23, 2021}}
External links
- {{Gutenberg author | id=35394}}
- {{Internet Archive author |name=William Henry Furness}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furness, William Henry}}
Category:19th-century American male writers
Category:19th-century American theologians
Category:Activists from Philadelphia
Category:American abolitionists
Category:American Christian hymnwriters
Category:Boston Latin School alumni
Category:Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)