Lee, Robert Greene

Originally located in Edgefield, Furman provided both a “literary” and a theological curriculum. Few students enrolled, however, and the school teetered on insolvency during its first twenty-five years.

The historical significance of the South Carolina Baptist State Convention in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention and other state conventions should not be ignored. Major architects of Baptist life in America—Oliver Hart, Richard Furman, Basil Manly, and William Bullein Johnson, among others—did their creative work in South Carolina.