Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/242

216 BEDLE, Joseph D., jurist, b. in Monmouth county, N. J., 3 Jan., 1831 ; d. in New York city, 21 Oct., 1894. lie practised law in Matteawan, and subsequently in Freehold, N. J., and in 1865 was apponited a judge of the superior court. In 1874 he was elected governor of the state of New Jersey, making an excellent record. After completing his term he resumed practice.

BEDON, Pedro, South American clergyman, b. in Quito, Ecuador; d. there in 1621. He entered the novitiate of the Dominican order at the age of fourteen, completed his studies in Lima, and was then appointed professor of philosophy in the college of that city. In early life he had cultivated painting, and when afterward he had recovered from a dangerous malady, he resolved to devote his leisure to painting pictures of the Blessed Virgin. Several of his works are in the convents of Quito and Santa Fe, and are said to justify the title his countrymen gave him of the Fra Angelico of Ecuador. He founded the convent of La Peña in Quito, and then went to Rio-Bomba, where he founded another convent, but returned to Quito on learning that he had been elected prior of La Pena. In 1619 he was chosen provincial of his order, which office he held until his death.

BEE, Thomas, patriot, b. in South Carolina in 1740; d. in Pendleton, S. C, 18 Feb., 1812. He practised law in his native province, and became a member of the assembly and of the privy council. He was active in the popular cause at the outbreak of the revolution, was a member of the council of safety, and a large part of his property was lost through the war. He became lieutenant-governor of South Carolina, and was a member of the Continental congress in 1780-'2, and afterward judge of the U. S. court for the district of South Carolina, being appointed by Washington. Judge Bee was president of the Charleston literary society, and also of the board of trustees of the college of Charleston. He published "Reports of the District Courts of South Carolina " (1810).—His grandson, Bernard Elliott, soldier, b. in Charleston, S. C, 8 Aug., 1824 ; killed in the battle of Bull Run, 21 July, 1861. He was graduated at West Point in 1845, and served as a lieutenant in the military occupation of Texas and in the war with Mexico, being wounded at Cerro Gordo, and receiving the brevet of captain for gallantry at Chapultepec. Pie served as captain on frontier duty in Minnesota, on the Utah expedition, and in Dakota until 3 March, 1861, when he resigned and entered the confederate service. He held the rank of brigadier-general, and commanded a brigade of South Carolina troops at Bull Run. To inspire his men to follow Gen. Joseph T. Jackson, who was leading, he pointed to him and exclaimed: "Look! there is Jackson, who is standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer."

BEEBE, Bezaleel, soldier, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 28 April, 1741 ; d. there, 29 May, 1824. In 1758, having joined the army, he was stationed for some time at Fort St. George. Afterward, as one of Rogers's celebrated rangers, he was engaged in the bloody fight where Putnam was captured, and he was also at the capture of Montreal in 1760. At the close of the French war he retired to his farm, but in 1775 was commissioned lieutenant, and sent to Boston soon after the battle of Lexington. In July, 1775, he accompanied an expedition to man the forts on Lake Champlain. He was made captain in 1776, attached to Hinman's regiment, and saw active service in New York and New Jersey. He was taken prisoner at the capture of Fort Washington, and was confined in New York nearly a year, during which time, when on parole, he often met and consulted with his fellow-prisoner, Ethan Allen. After being exchanged, he was made major 13 Aug., 1777, became lieutenant-colonel in 1780, colonel early in 1781, and soon afterward was appointed to the command of all the Connecticut troops raised for sea-coast defence, with the duties and pay of a brigadier-general. After the war he was frequently a member of the legislature. His son, Ebenezer (major U. S. army), died in service during the war of 1812.

BEECHER, Lyman, clergyman, b. in New Haven, Conn., 2 Oct., 1775; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 10 Jan., 1863. His ancestor in the fifth ascent emigrated to New England, and settled at New Haven in 1638. His father, David Beecher, was a blacksmith. His mother died shortly after his birth, and he was committed to the care of his uncle Lot Benton, by whom he was adopted as a son, and with whom his early life was spent between blacksmithing and farming. But it was soon found that he preferred study. He was fitted for college by the Rev. Thomas W. Bray, and at the age of eighteen entered Yale, where, besides the usual classical course, he studied theology under President Dwight and was graduated in 1797. After this he continued his studies until September, 1798, when he was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Association, entered upon his clerical duties by supplying the pulpit in the Presbyterian church at East Hampton, Long Island, and was ordained in 1799. Here he married his first wife, Roxana Foote. His salary was $300 a year, after five years increased to $400, with a dilapidated parsonage. To eke out his scanty income, his wife opened a private school, in which the husband also gave instruction. Mr. Beecher soon became one of the foremost preachers of his day. A sermon that he delivered in 1804, on the death of Alexander Hamilton, excited great attention. Finding his salary wholly inadequate to support his increasing family, he resigned the charge, and in 1810 was installed pastor of the Congregational church in Litchfield, Conn. Here he remained for sixteen years, during which he took rank as the foremost clergyman of his denomination. In his autobiography he says this pastorate was &ldquo;the most laborious part of his life.&rdquo; The vice of intemperance had become common in New England, even the formal meetings of the clergy being not unfrequently accompanied by gross excesses, and Mr. Beecher resolved to take a stand against it. About 1814 he delivered and published six sermons on intemperance, which contain eloquent passages hardly exceeded by anything in the English language. They were sent broadcast through the United States, ran rapidly through many editions in England, and were translated into several languages on the continent, and have had a large sale even after the lapse of fifty years. His eloquence, zeal, and courage as a preacher, and his leading the way in the organization of the Bible, missionary, and educational societies, gave him a high reputation throughout New England. During his residence in Litchfield arose the Unitarian controversy, in which he took a prominent part. Litchfield was at this time the seat of a famous law school and several other institutions of learning, and Mr. Beecher (now a doctor of divinity) and his wife undertook to supervise the training of several young women, who were received into their family. But here too he found his salary ($800 a year) inadequate. The rapid and extensive defection of the Congregational churches in Boston and vicinity, under the lead of Dr. Channing and others in