BIO: Judge Austin O. FURST, Centre County, Pennsylvania

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the 
Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical 
Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 51-54

JUDGE AUSTIN O. FURST.  Every profession has its prominent men; some made such 
by long membership, and others by their proficiency in their calling.  The 
subject of this sketch is made conspicuous among the jurists of Centre county 
both by the length of time he has devoted to the pursuit, and by the eminent 
success he has made of it.  He is one of those men who may be said to have 
chosen well in the selection of a profession.  Possessed of a keen sense of 
discrimination, mature judgment and a natural taste for the various branches of 
legal business, he has by years of study and practice placed himself among the 
foremost members of the learned Bar of the great State of Pennsylvania.
   Judge Furst has descended from honored forefathers who came to America from 
Holland after the Reformation, his paternal ancestors being followers of Martin 
Luther.  John George Furst, the grandfather of Judge Furst, purchased from the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania a large tract of land in the eastern portion of 
Nittany Valley, which he laid out into farms for his four sons-George, John 
Samuel and Thomas-and daughter-Catherine.  These sons and daughter were reared 
in the Valley referred to, married there, and settled on that tract of land.  
George, however, afterward located in the vicinity of Freeport, Ill., where he 
passed the rest of his days.  Two of the sons, Samuel and Thomas, were noted 
hunters of this section of the country, in which they were reared.  The five 
children above named were strongly attached to the Church of their forefathers.  
John George Furst died in Clinton county (formerly Centre) in 1821, and his 
wife, Agnes, in 1813.
   John Furst, the second son of John George Furst, and the father of Judge 
Furst, was born in the Susquehanna Valley, August 18, 1785, and was given one of 
the farms referred to, on which he resided until his death, which occurred April 
14, 1859, when he was nearly seventy-four years old.  He was a man of ordinary 
education, but possessed good common sense; a man of practical ideas which made 
him a useful citizen, and he was a lifelong agriculturist.  He was interested, 
and took an active part, in the local affairs of the county; was a Jacksonian 
Democrat, and in his religious views was a Lutheran.  His wife, Barbara  
(Shuman), was a daughter of John and Catherine Shuman of Millerstown, Perry 
county, this State.  John Shuman died March 7, 1807, aged forty-five years, his 
wife, Catherine, passing away in 1826, at the age of sixty years.  In religious 
faith the Shumans were Methodists.  To the marriage of John Furst and Barbara 
Shuman were born eleven children, Judge Furst being next to the youngest.  The 
mother, who was a woman of great force of character, lived to the advanced age 
of eight-seven years, being remarkable well-preserved both physically and 
mentally.  Her death occurred September 9, 1878.  One of her sons, John S., was 
a very successful merchant, and one of the most influential men of Clinton 
county, an ardent Republican, and an elder of the Presbyterian Church.
   Judge Austin O. Furst, the subject proper of this sketch, is a native of the 
State, born on his father's farm in Lamar township, Clinton county, in the east 
end of Nittany Valley.  In the schools of the neighborhood he acquired his early 
education, after which he went to the academy in Salona, conducted by Prof. 
McGuire and Prof. Carrier, respectively.  Later he entered Dickinson Seminary, 
at Williamsport, from which he was graduated in 1853, with the honors of the 
class.  In the fall of that year he entered the junior class of Dickinson 
College, Carlisle, Penn., but after a brief period sickness caused him to leave.  
Returning home, he is 1858 began the study of law in the office of his brother, 
Cline G. Furst, Esq., at Lock Haven, Penn., and he was admitted to the Bar of 
Clinton County at the September term, 1860.  A short time afterward he located 
at Bellefonte, and at the January term of Court in 1861, he was on motion made 
by the late Hon. H.N. McAllister, admitted to the Bar of Centre County, and has 
ever since followed the profession of law.
   Prior to the session of the State Legislature of 1882-83, Centre county was a 
part of the Twenty-fifth Judicial District.  At that session Centre and 
Huntingdon counties were united, and constituted the Forty-ninth Judicial 
District.  Judge Mayer continued as president-judge of the Twenty-fifth 
District, composed of the counties of Clinton, Elk, and Cameron, and Judge 
Orvis, who was the additional law judge of the old Twenty-fifth, became 
president-judge of the Forty-ninth.  In the fall of 1883 he resigned and Judge 
Hoy was appointed by Gov. Pattison.  He continued as president-judge of the 
Forty-ninth District until the first Monday of January 1885.  At the general 
election of 1884 Austin O. Furst was elected president-judge, entered upon the 
duties of the office on the first Monday January, 1885, and continued in service 
for period of ten years, his term of office expiring on the first Monday of 
January, 1895, since which time he has engaged in the practice of his 
profession.  He has an office in Bellefonte, one in Huntingdon, and one in 
Philadelphia, the last being in connection with his son, William S. Furst, as 
senior counsel.
   Prior to the Judge's elevation to the Bench he was engaged in many important 
suits both in equity and law, as well as in the criminal courts and was often 
pitted against the foremost lawyers of this section of the State, and has been 
constantly associated in cases with them.  The district was a very large and 
important one, comprising a population of 80,000 people, and during his judicial 
term a great many corporation cases were tried in court, besides an unusual 
number of homicide cases.  The most interesting of the latter class was that of 
Alfred Andrews, a young Englishman, who was tried at Bellefonte at the January 
session, 1890, which case lasted for six days, and which was closely listened to 
by a crowded court-room daily.  It resulted in a verdict of murder in the first 
degree.  The Judge's pathetic and touching address to the prisoner before 
pronouncing sentence was highly commended and considered by the profession as an 
expression of high order of thought and language.  Addressing the prisoner, the 
Judge said:
   It is seldom, and hitherto unknown in this county, that one so young as you 
has committed a crime so revolting in its details.  Lying in wait for your 
victim, and with the frenzy of lust in your heart, without a moment's warning, 
you made your assault, and to cover your shame, you added to your attempt at 
rape the foul crime of murder.  No wonder that this community stood aghast at 
your crime.  It is not surprising that the officers of the law were vigilant in 
seeking you out and bringing you here to answer for that crime.  It is sad, 
indeed, to think of the deed you have committed.  Without pity or mercy you made 
a criminal assault upon Clara Price, and failing in your brutal attempt, you 
took her life to suppress the evidence of your guilt.  She was a beautiful young 
lady, just ripening into womanhood-pure and virtuous-and happy in the bright 
prospects of life before her.  Alone and unprotected in a lonely place, you made 
your assault upon her.  She sacrificed her young life to save her virtue.  Her 
noble efforts to protect her honor and purity ought to be written in granite 
above her grave.  The law, in mercy, hitherto; has extended to your every means 
to prove your defense; it has thrown around you the presumption of innocence.  
It has given you a jury of your own selection; it has required the Commonwealth 
to prove you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  You have had the benefit of able 
counsel and the process of the law to compel the attendance of your witnesses; 
the county has furnished means for your defense; you have had a patient, fair 
and impartial trial before a jury of your peers-the jury has found you guilty of 
murder in the first degree; no other verdict could have justly been rendered 
under the evidence.  The truth of the verdict has been made manifest by your own 
confession since the language of the law has been changed.  It now demands that 
satisfaction shall be done.  You have forfeited your life to the law, and 
justice requires that forfeit shall be paid.  While you cannot restore the 
innocent life you have taken, the law requires that society shall be protected 
from the assassin and murderer, and that your ignominious death upon the 
scaffold shall be a warning and a terror to the evildoer.  You need not expect 
or hope for a change in the verdict, by an appeal to any earthy tribunal.  No 
constituted authority in the land can read the record of your trial without 
pronouncing your guilt.  There is no appeal left you, you, but to your God.  To 
Him and Him alone, may your appeal for mercy be made.  That mercy, which you 
denied your helpless victim, may yet through sincere repentance and faith in 
Christ be accorded to you.  We earnestly commend you to a merciful God, who, in 
his infinite love granted pardon to the thief upon the cross, and who is able to 
save the penitent, however wicked he may have been.  We have no desire to review 
the facts in connection with your crime.  The confession you have made relieves 
the court from further delay in your case.  It now remains only to pronounce the 
death sentence according to law.  The sentence of the law is that you, Alfred 
Andrews, the prisoner at the bar, be taken hence to the jail of Centre county, 
whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, designed by law, and 
that you there be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and may God have mercy 
upon your soul.
   The following quotations from the press, and from his fellow-townsmen, who 
have known Judge Furst for years, are evidence of his rank as a lawyer and 
judge, of his high Christian character as a man, and faithful performance of his 
duty as a citizen, and of his scholarly attainments:  "We congratulate the 
Republicans on their excellent nomination.  Mr. Furst is a gentleman whose 
learning and legal ability, integrity and faultless Christian life have placed 
him above the reach of slander.  Should he be elected to the high office to 
which he aspires, he will discharge his duty fearlessly and well, and as becomes 
an upright judge and arbiter.  He is a clear and forcible writer, using his 
brilliant rhetoric and his admirable gift of humor only when they are aids to 
the enforcement of his argument.  He is entitled to be called, without any 
exaggeration, an accomplished orator" "Judge Furst is firm, honest, positive and 
independent."
   Judge Furst is an ardent Republican.  Of him the Democratic press says:  "He 
has always been an uncompromising Republican, but always a fair fighter."  He 
has been a member of the Presbyterian Church since the age of twenty-five years, 
and a ruling elder of the Church at Bellefonte since 1863.  He has been for 
years president of the Dickinson Alumni Association, which includes in its 
membership some of the brightest and cleverest lawyers, ministers, and 
professional men of the State.  He possesses a keen mother wit, which serves him 
well in that capacity, and his well-put sallies provoke unlimited merriment at 
these famous gatherings.  He is one of the incorporators of the Law School of 
Dickinson College at Carlisle.  He was a member of the school board of 
Bellefonte nine years.  He is a home man, and his beautiful residence is an 
ideal one.  His taste for agriculture is pronounced, as is his liking for the 
sport of Izaak Walton.
   The Judge has been twice married, first to Miss Frances M. daughter of 
William C. Sanderson, of Clinton county, a lady of rare beauty, both in 
character and in Christian virtue, and by this union there are two sons:  
William S., born June 12, 1868, and John S., born April 19, 1871.  William S. 
graduated with honor in his class at Princeton in 1890; then spent the summer 
abroad, and in the fall entered the Law Department of the University of 
Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, and in three years was graduated and admitted to 
the Bar in Philadelphia; at once he began practice in that city, and has since 
been located there.  John S. also went to Princeton, but preferring a business 
life he entered the Williamsport National Bank, of which he is now assistant 
cashier.  The Judge's second wife was Miss Caroline W., daughter of Moses and 
Jane (Watson) Chamberlain, of Milton, and they have three children:  Jane W. 
Watson, born October 9, 1879, James C., born December 1, 1882, and Walter B., 
born May 2, 1887.