Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/278

 BEEKMAN.

BEHRENDS.

Beekimiii was made a member of Lord C!orn- bury's council. In 1709 Lord Lovelace, then j^overnor, died sudtlenly, and Ingoldsby, the lieutenant-governor, became acting governor. As soon as jK)ssible Ingoldsljy's commission was revokeil. and Dr. Beekman was apiwinted to fill the office until the new governor, Robert Hunter, arrived in New York, June, 1710, wlien Dr. Beek- man be<'ame president of liis council, retaining tlio office until his death. Oct. 10. 1723.

BEEKMAN, James William, author, was born in New York, N. Y.. Nov. 22, 1815. He be- longed to the historic family of Beekman, his first .cVmerican ancestor, Wilhelmus Beekman, being among the first settlers of the New Netherlands. After graduating from Columbia college in 1834 he studied law but never practised, liis indepen- dent fortune permitting him to enjoy perfect leisure and to indulge liis taste for travel. While abroad he studied the various European systems of government, and after his return served two terms as state senator, being elected for his first term in 1850. Early in 1861, at the great Union meeting held in New York, he was commissioned, with Thurlow Weed and Erastus Corning, to visit the President and insist upon the relief of Gen- eral Anderson and his garrison at Fort Sumter. He occupied various positions of trust, was one of the early members of the New York historical society, before which he read a number of valuiible papers, and also delivered an address before the St. Nicholas society on " The Founders of New York," which was afterwards published in 1870. See "Memoir of James William Beek- man," by Eki ward F. Delancey (1877). He died in New York. June 15, 1877.

BEERS, Ethel inda Eliot, author, was born at (ioslien, Orange Co., N. Y., Jan. 13, 1827, a direct descendant from John Eliot. She was a fretiuent contributor to the magazines and news- pai)ers when quite young, and she adopted the pen name "Ethel Lynn." She was married to Wil- liam H. Beers and thereafter wrote her name Ethel Lynn Beers. The best known of her poems is "All Quiet Along the Potomac," which was first published in Harper' h Weekly under date of Nov. 30, 1861, and which experienced the not usual honor of a di.sputed authorsliip — several poetical aspirants claiming the poem as their own. As none of the claimants had equally meritorious verses to show, by which to substantiate their claims, Mrs. Beers was readily accorded its authorship. Among her other published poems were: "Which Sliall it Be?" "Weighing the Baby," and other children's verses, which were widely read and copied. A comi)lete collection of her poems, entitled " All Quiet Along the Potomac and Other Poems." was i)ublished in 1879. She died at Orange, N. J., Oct. 10, 1879.

BEERS, Henry Augustin, educator, was born in Hutralt). N. Y.. July 2, 1847. He was edu- cated at the Hartford. Conn., high .school, and at Yale college, where he was graduated in 1869. He then spent two years in the study of law in New York city, and was admitted to the bar in 1870. In 1871 he was appointed a tutor at Yale; in 1875, assistant professor of English, and full profe.ssor in 1880; also profes.sor of Enghsh literature in the Sheffield scientific school. Yale conferred on him the degree of A.M. in 1887. He was a frequent contributor to the magazines, and published: " A Century of American Literature " (1878); " Odds and Ends," a volume of verse (1878); "Life of N. P. Willis" (1885); "Selections from Willis's Prose Writings" (1885); "The Thankless Muse" (verse, 1885); " An Outline Sketch of English Literature" (1886); "From Chaucer to Tenny- son" and "A Suburban Pastoral" (1894); and " The Ways of Yale in the (Consulship of Plaiicus" (1895); " History of Englisli Romanticism " (1899).

BEGOLE, Josiah W., governor of Michigan, was born in Livingston county, N. Y., Jan. 20, 1815. His ancestors were French refugees to Maryland, and both his maternal and paternal grandfathers migrated to New York state be- cause of their aversion to slavery. He received an academic education, and in 1835 went to Michi- gan, then an unsettled territory, took up land where Flint city was afterwards built, married, and soon transformed his tract into a well -cultivated and valuable homestead. Having been instructed in anti-slavery principles, he became identified \\nth the Republican party, and acted prominently in the pubUc life of the state from the time of its admission to the Union. He held various local offices, was treasurer of his county from 1856 to 1862, and was elected to the state senate in 1870, holding prominent positions on committees He was a member of the National repubUcan conven- tion held at Pliiladelphia in 1872, and in that year was elected a representative to the 43d Congress. He was elected governor of the state in 1882, served his full term with universal acceptance, and refused re-nomination in 1885. In 1884 he became first vice-president of the Michigan equal suffrage association established in that year. He died at Flint, Mich.. June 5, 1896.

BEHRENDS, Adolphus Frederick, clergy- man, was born at Nymwegen, Holland, Dec. 18, 1839. Uis family removed to America while he was very young. He was graduated at Denison university, Ohio, in 1862. and at the Rochester (Baptist) theological seminary, N. Y., in 1865. In the latter year he took charge of a Baptist church at Yonkers, N. Y., and in 1 873 was made pastor of the First Baptist church at Cleveland, Oliio. In 1876 he became pastor of the Union Congrega- tional church at Providence, R. I., and in 1883 he