Charles Beecher

For the paleontologist, see Charles Emerson Beecher.

Charles Beecher (October 1, 1815 – April 21, 1900) was an American minister, composer of religious hymns and a prolific author.

Charles Beecher
Charles Beecher
Born	(1815-10-01)October 1, 1815 Litchfield, Connecticut
Died	April 21, 1900(1900-04-21) (aged 84) Georgetown, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Education	Boston Latin School Lawrence Academy
Occupation(s)	Minister, composer of religious hymns and author
Spouse	Sarah Leland Coffin ​ ​ (m. 1840; died 1897)​
Children	6
Parent(s)	Lyman Beecher Roxana Foote Beecher
Relatives	Harriet Beecher Stowe (sister) Henry Ward Beecher (brother) Catharine Beecher (sister) James Chaplin Beecher (brother)

An older Charles Beecher

Early life

Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut,^[1] the fifth child of Lyman Beecher, an abolitionist Congregationalist preacher from Boston and Roxana Foote Beecher.^[2] He was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the famous author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the brother of renowned Congregationalist minister, Henry Ward Beecher.^[3] He also had another prominent and activist sister, Catharine Beecher.^[4]

He attended Boston Latin School and Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1834, and then attended Lane Theological Seminary in Ohio.^[2] He taught music classes in Cincinnati, Ohio, and received his preaching license from the Presbytery of Indianapolis, Indiana. He served as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1844 until 1851.^[2] He was also a prominent member of the Peucinian Society.^[5]

Career

In 1851, he moved east and ministered to the First Free Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey. The church, known as a stronghold of abolitionism, was expelled from the Presbyterian Synod in 1853, and re-organized as a Congregationalist church. Beecher left in 1857 for a pastorate in Georgetown, Massachusetts.^[2]

In 1863 he was relieved of his preaching duties in the Congregational Church for preaching against orthodox doctrine. Specifically, he was convicted of teaching contrary to Scriptural articles of faith in promoting the errors of the preexistence and apostasy of human souls, the offer of salvation to the unrepentant after their deaths, that Jesus was an angel combined with the divinity of the Second Person of the Trinity and a human body, that Jesus' sufferings were not vicariously atoning but only morally persuasive, and that God was not impassible but had changeable passions.^[6]

Following the Civil War, he moved to Florida to help his sister Harriet and her husband minister to newly freed slaves. He eventually was state Superintendent of Public Instruction in Florida from 1871 to 1873. He finished his ministry as acting pastor in Wysox, Pennsylvania, from 1885 to 1893.^[7][8]

Musical interests

He also published two music texts and was one of the music editors for his brother Henry's 1855 Plymouth Collection. He published several antislavery tracts, including A Sermon on the Nebraska Bill (1854) and The God of the Bible Against Slavery (1855).

Personal life

Further information: Beecher family

In 1840, Beecher married Sarah Leland Coffin (1815–1897), a daughter of Nathaniel Coffin and Mary King (née Porter) Coffin.^[9][10] Her maternal grandfather was William King, the first governor of Maine and a half-brother of U.S. Senator and Minister to the United Kingdom Rufus King.^[11] Together, they had six children, including:^[12]

• Frederick Henry Beecher (1841–1868), died at the Battle of Beecher Island during the Comanche War. The island was posthumously named after him.^[12]
• Charles McCulloch Beecher (1843–1906), who married Anna Melinda Clary Johnson (1849–1911), the aunt of Robert Livingston Johnson.^[12]
• Helen Louisa Beecher (1847–1901)^[12]
• Mary Isabella Beecher (1849–1928), who married George Warren Noyes (1842–1927).^[13]
• Esther "Essie" Lyman Beecher (1852–1867), who died young.^[12]
• Edith Harriet Beecher (1854–1867), who died young.^[12]

Beecher died in Georgetown, Massachusetts on April 21, 1900.^[2]

Published works

Beecher's major publications include:

• The Incarnation, or, Pictures of the Virgin and her Son (1849)
• The Duty of Disobedience to Wicked Laws (1851)
• David and his Throne (1855)
• Pen Pictures of the Bible (1855)
• The Life of David King of Israel (1861)
• Autobiography, Correspondence, etc. of Lyman Beecher (1863)
• Redeemer and Redeemed (1864)
• Spiritual Manifestations (1879)
• The Eden Tableau, or, Object Bible-Teaching (1880)
• Patmos; or, the Unveiling (1896)

Notes

1. "Litchfield Ledger – Charles Beecher". ledger.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
2. Times, Special to The New York (22 April 1900). "DEATH LIST OF A DAY. | The Rev. Charles Beecher". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
3. "CHURCH BREACH HEALED; Plymouth's Pastor to Speak in the Pilgrim's Sanctuary. STORRS AND BEECHER PARTED For Thirty Years the Congregations Held Aloof, Then a Period of Reconciliation Came". The New York Times. 1 March 1900. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
4. "DEATHS IN BEECHER FAMILY; Half Brother and Sister Pass Away on the Same Day. Mrs. M.F. Beecher Perkins Lived at Hartford and the Rev. Thomas K. Beecher at Elmira". The New York Times. 15 March 1900. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
5. Bowdoin College Peucinian Society (1838). Catalogue. p. 26. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
6. Journal, the Boston (26 July 1863). "The Trial of Rev. Charles Beecher.; HE IS CONVICTED OF HERESY. RESULT". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
7. Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston (28 September 2020). All the Days of My Life: An Autobiography The Red Leaves of a Human Heart. Library of Alexandria. ISBN 978-1-4656-1561-9. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
8. College, Pennsylvania State (1900). Annual Report of the Pennsylvania State College for the Year ... p. 67. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
9. Putnam, Eben (1896). Porter Leaflets: Devoted to the History Everywhere and of Whatever Family ... V. 1, No. 1-12, Mar. 1896 – June 1897. p. 51. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
10. Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell (2002). Georgetown. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-0976-1. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
11. Perley, Sidney (1893). The Dwellings of Boxford, Essex County, Mass. Essex Institute. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
12. College, Bowdoin (1911). Obituary Record of the Graduates of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine. pp. 12–14, 404. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
13. of 1897, Harvard College (1780-) Class (1912). Fourth Report. Rockwell and Churchill Press. pp. 301–302. Retrieved 19 January 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

References

• The Duty of Disobedience to Wicked Laws. A Sermon on the Fugitive Slave Law
• Biography at the Cyber Hymnal
• Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Beecher, Lyman" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.