John C. Furman

John C. Furman (c. 1856 – October 13, 1898) was an American financier who was a prominent member of New York society during the Gilded Age.[1]

John C. Furman
Bornc. 1856
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 13, 1898(1898-10-13) (aged 41–42)
Adirondacks, New York, U.S.
Parent(s)John McKnight Furman
Elizabeth Vail Furman
RelativesMonte Waterbury (nephew)
Lawrence Waterbury (nephew)

Early life

Furman was born in New York City in c. 1856.[1] He was the son of John McKnight Furman,[2] and Elizabeth (née Vail) Furman.[3] His sisters were Catherine Anthony Furman, the wife of James M. Waterbury[4] (the parents of Monte and Lawrence Waterbury and in-laws to Gouverneur Morris), and Alice Furman, the wife of Frank Lazarus (in-laws of Charles P. Howland[5]).[6] After his mother died, his father remarried Miss Virginia Dimond Holmes, and through this marriage, became the elder half-brother to Silas Holmes Furman (who married Marcia Shackford),[7] Maria Holmes Furman,[8] the wife of W. Bond Emerson,[1] and Reginald Furman, an Exeter and Harvard graduate who became a doctor after studying medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.[9]

Career

Upon the creation of the Cordage Trust in 1887[10] (which was formed from the Waterbury families interest in the Waterbury Rope Company[11]),[12] by his brother-in-law James who was head of the Trust, Furman was made an officer and obtained a small fortune. In 1893,[13] however, the Trust failed,[14][15] and Furman lost "not only his fortune, but all his available means and was obliged to sacrifice all his property," from which he never recovered.[1][16] According to his obituary in The New York Times:[1]

"Although it has been understood that many people lost largely in Cordage securities through their investments on Mr. Furman's advice, it was always felt that he himself had been deceived as to the value of the property, and much sympathy has always been expressed for him in his misfortunes and his resultant illness, which is now followed by his death."[1]

Society life

In 1892, Furman who was long prominent in New York society, was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[17][18] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[19] Before his bankruptcy, he was a member of the Knickerbocker Club, the Metropolitan Club, the Country Club, the New York Yacht Club and the Metropolitan Club in Washington, D.C.[1]

Personal life

Furman leased a large house in Pelham, New York[18] near the Country Club at Westchester, which he decorated luxuriously and entertained lavishly.[1]

After two years of illness, and traveling between Fort Monroe, Virginia and New York in an attempt to improve his health in milder climates, Furman died in the Adirondacks on October 13, 1898.[1]

References
  1. "DEATH LIST OF A DAY | John C. Furman" (PDF). The New York Times. October 14, 1898. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  2. Hall, Henry (1895). America's Successful Men of Affairs: The City of New York. New York Tribune. pp. 700-701. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  3. The Genealogy of the Cleveland and Cleaveland Families: An Attempt to Trace in Both the Male and Female Lines, the Posterity of Moses Cleveland ... [and] of Alexand Cleveland ... with Numerous Biographical Sketches ; and Containing Ancestries of Many of the Husbands and Wives, Also a Bibliography Account of Edward Winn of Woburn, and of Other Winn Families. Case, Lookwood & Brainard. 1899. p. 1942. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  4. "JAMES M. WATERBURY | Former Leading Sportsman Dies of Apoplexy, Aged 79" (PDF). The New York Times. July 13, 1931. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  5. Kaplan, Diane E.; Brown Jr., William E. "Guide to the Charles Prentice Howland Family Papers". library.yale.edu. Yale University Library. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  6. "Society at Home and Abroad" (PDF). The New York Times. January 30, 1910. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  7. "Mrs. William Shackford" (PDF). The New York Times. October 3, 1897. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  8. Social Register, New York. Social Register Association. 1897. p. 142. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  9. Record of the Class of 1894 | Secretary's Report No. V | for the Fifteenth Anniversary. Cambridge, MA: Harvard College. 1936. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  10. Congress, United States (1892). Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 6781. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  11. Dewing, Arthur Stone (1913). A History of the National Cordage Company, with a supplement containing copies of important documents. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  12. "OVERTURES FOR SETTLEMENT. Cordage Trust Sufferers Make an Informal Offer to Creditors" (PDF). The New York Times. June 2, 1893. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  13. "RECEIVERS APPOINTED FOR CORDAGE TRUST Most of Working Capital Lent to Selling Company. LOW HEMP A BAD BLOW Total Liabilities Are $10,800,000 —Agreement with the Selling Company Was Always a Millstone" (PDF). The New York Times. January 28, 1905. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  14. "MR. ALLEN CHARGES FRAUD | HE SAYS CORDAGE TRUST OFFICERS DECEIVED HIM. | To Ask the Grand Jury to Indict Presi- dent Waterbury and Others — He Says They Misled Him Into Buying Stock and Then Failed to Keep Their Promises — His Failure and Loss of $250,000. Due to Them Will Go Before the Grand Jury Monday" (PDF). The New York Times. August 5, 1893. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  15. "General Investment News". The Commercial and Financial Chronicle. National News Service: 753. May 6, 1893. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  16. "A Cordage Trust Order" (PDF). The New York Times. June 2, 1893. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  17. McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  18. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 216. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  19. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
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