Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/276

 BE EC HER.

BEECHER.

of the Advent, being now known as the Church of St. Jolin the EvangelLst. Mr. Beechers labors liere were brief. At the close of six years' happy and successful work in Boston he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to become pastor of the 2d Presbyterian church in that city, and president of the Lane theological seminary at Walnut Hill, near tiie city. He iiad previously received ixnd declined a call from tii' "ith Presby- terian church in Pliiladeipiiia. Public interest in the estiibhsimient of Lane seminary as a strategic lK>int from which to promulgate a devout theology throughout the oi>eniug west, and the confidence in Dr. Beecher's ability to make it a noble and benelicent success were so great that contribu- tions were made for it. and Arthm- Tappan of New York promised the interest of twenty thou- sand doUai-s if Dr. Beecher would imdertake the wtirk. He was active president for twenty j-ears. ami nominally presiilent to the close of his life. At the time he left Boston Dr. Beecher's appear- ance and habits were i)eculiar. He was eccentric in many ways, was careless in dress, short-sighted, t<Hithless and of astonishing absence of mind. If his watch was wound up it was rarely right; if he had spectacles on his nose, another pair would be on liis head, and he would be " fumbling in his lxx^kets for a third." If he borrowed a pencil he would ase it and jwcket it, then another and another, until some one would inquire how many he had. His home life, too, was eccentric. He practised gymnastic exercises with pole or lad- der : he sawed wood ; he shovelled .sand from one side of the cellar to the other ; he swung dumb- bells ; then an hour or so before evening service he would return to his study to make sundry notes ; never ready till the church bell tolled and the measenger came for him, at last hvuTying off with cravat avny and coat collar turned up, yet ma.st«r of the sitiiation, a preacher stiiTUig the minds of men, moving their hearts, pleading, warning, entreating, till the whole audience as one man responded. Afterwards on his return home he would V)e full of fire, sparkling with fun, and jH'rhaps get down the old violin and play •'College Hornpipe," with sometimes a double- Hhuffle as accompaniment, and finally go to bed. " I must," he said, " let off steam gradually, and then I can sleep like a child." During his life in Ohio there came about the conflict between two f«artips in the Presbyterian church, known as " Old School " and " New Schofd." Dr. Beecher was a representative "New School" man. His view.s were so pronounced that in 1885 he was brought before the presbytery for trial. Rev. Dr. J. L. Wilson, his prosecutor, formulated charges again.st him, which were, in substance, for heresy, slander and hypocrisy. The specifications
 * ■ AuM Lang .Syne," or "Bonny Doon," or a

under the several charges were explicit. Dr. Beecher gave a general denial, and ably defended hini.self on each point, declaring he had taught in accordance with the Word of God and the Con- fession of Faith, and that if his teachings should differ in any particular from the Confession of Faith, they included nothing at variance with the principles underlying such confession. In fact, he defended himself with the astuteness of a skilled lawyer, and this under dei)re.ssing circum- stances; in his home his wife was dying, in the seminary uiAny cares burdened liim, and in the church he had to meet and parry attacks which those wdiose prejudices had been excited made against him. After a session lasting many days, after meeting the close examination of the pres- bytery, and the arguments of Dr. Wilson, his prosecutor, he finally won his case, and an oj)inion was given by the presbytery that the charges were not sustained. In 18.50 Dr. Beecher returned to Boston, hoping to revi.se, at his leisure, his writ- ings; but the weight of seventy-five 5'ears was too heavy ; he had lost his intellectual vigor, though his physical strength endured. Only now and again did the old fire flash up and then die away. Prof. Calvin E. Stowe, his son-in law, writes: "The day he was eighty -one he was with me in Andover, and wished to attend my lec- ture in the seminary. He was not quite ready when the beU rang, and I walked on in the usual path without him. Presently he came skipping across lots, laid his hand on the five-barred fence, which he cleared at a bound, and was in the lecture room before me." Dr. Beecher finally took up his residence in Brooklyn, near his son, Henry Ward Beecher, and there spent the rem- nant of his days, losing slowly the use of his fac- ulties, but his face never lost its expression of strength and sweetness. His published writings are: "Remedy for Duelling" (1809); "Six Sermons on Temperance" (1842); "Sermons on Various Occasions," "Views in Theology," " Political Atheism," etc. He died in Brooklyn, N. Y.. Jan. 10. 1S63.
 * ' Skepticism,** " Lectures on Various Occasions,"

BEECHER, Thomas Kennicutt, clergyman, was born in Litchfield, Conn., Feb. 10, 1824; the eldest son of Lyman and Harriet (Porter) Beecher. He was graduated from Illinois college, Jacksonville, in 1843, his half brother, Edward, being at the time president of the in-stitution. He was master of a grammar school in Philadeli)hia for two years, and then princijial of the High .school at Hartford, Conn. In 1H.52 he formed and assumed tlie charge of the New England Congre- gational church at Williamsburg, Brooklyn. L. I. In 1H.54 he accejjfed a call from the Independent Congregational church of Elmira. N. Y., after- wards known as the Park church. Here his