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JUDGE HENRY M. FURMAN
Vol. 5, p. 1804

Judge Henry M. Furman, who died at his home in Oklahoma City in
April 1916, was one of the able lawyers and jurists who helped to
mold and formulate the early jurisprudence of the state. From
statehood until he had to retire on account of ill health he was one
of the judges of the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals.

His valuable services to the Oklahoma judiciary had their best
appreciation and description in the words of Judge Thomas H. DOYLE,
presiding judge of the Criminal Court of Appeals, who was associated
with Judge Furman as a member of that court from its organization.
Judge Doyle has said:

"Judge Henry M. Furman, full of years and full of honor has passed
from life's labors to his eternal rest. He was an extraordinary man
and a lawyer and jurist of rare endowments. His professional learning
and ability was not the fruit of any advantages in legal education,
but was founded on his large experience and inexhaustible diligence.
In intellectual power he was a giant, and a logician of the highest
order, and he was a consummate master of the rhetorical art. No judge
ever more clearly realized the wide scope exalted dignity and
consequent responsibility of the judicial office, and no judge could
be more scrupulous in inflexible fairness and impartiality. The force
of his noble character and powerful mind is demonstrated by the
results of his judicial labors. The value of his services and the
high character of his contributions to the development of our
criminal jurisprudence will grow in appreciation as years go by.

Many of his opinions are now published as leading cases, and they
have given the progressive criminal jurisprudence of Oklahoma an
international reputation. I do not think it would be an extravagant
statement to say that among the names of the great judges who adorn
the annals of American jurisprudence will be found the name of Henry
M. Furman.

Personally Judge Furman was a kindly, genial, warm hearted man,
whose devotion to high ideals, capacity for friendship, high minded
patriotism and loyalty to duty and honor could be fully appreciated
only by those who knew him intimately. The benevolence of his heart
was in full accord with his master mind. I can safely say without
disparagement to others that no man in public life in Oklahoma was
held in higher esteem by the people of the state than Judge Henry M.
Furman."

Judge Furman was a resident of Oklahoma twenty years. He was born in
the Village of Society Hill, South Carolina, June 20, 1850, a son of
Dr. Richard Furman a Baptist minister, who father was the founder of
Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina. He acquired his
primary education in Greenville and Sumter, South Carolina, spend
several years working on a farm and in 1871 came west, spending a
year or so in the office of Judge J. L. WHITAKER at New Orleans, and
in 1872 going to Texas, where he taught school. In 187? He was
admitted to the bar at Brenham. After a brief practice at Comanche,
Texas, he located in Bell County and in 1876 was elected county
attorney. This office he resigned the following year and entered upon
the practice of his profession at Fort Worth. There he met Miss
Frances Virginia HUTCHESON, who, in May 1879 became his wife, and who
with their children, Henry Marshall Furman Jr., and Miss Florence
Furman, survive him. Their married life was an uninterrupted period
of mutual love and comfort. In 1890 he moved to Denver, Colorado, and
there engaged in the practice of law. In 189? He moved back to Fort
Worth. In 1895 he moved to Ardmore, and in 1904 moved from there to
Ada, Indian Territory.

He was the founder of Masonic Home now located at Darlington,
Oklahoma. At the democratic primary preceding the first state
election he received the second highest number of votes for the
office of United States senator, but in deference to a resolution
passed at a previous meeting of the State Democratic Committee that
the senators should be elected one from each of the former
territories, he waived his right to the nomination. First appointed
in 1908, he was twice elected as judge of the Criminal Court of
Appeals of Oklahoma which position he held at the time of his death,
being presiding judge the first four years of his service.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Donald E. Conley, 26 July 1999

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916)