Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Beecher, Lyman
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 “the most laborious part of his life.” 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 sympathy with him, had excited much anxiety throughout New England; and in 1826 Mr. Beecher received a call to become pastor of the Hanover street church in Boston. At the urgent request of his clerical brethren, he took the charge for the purpose of upholding the doctrines of Puritanism, and remained in this church six years and a half. His sermons at this time were largely controversial; he flung himself into the thickest of the fray, and was sustained by an immense following. About this time the religious public had become impressed with the growing importance of the great west; a theological seminary had been founded at Walnut Hills, near Cincinnati, O., and named Lane Seminary, after one of its principal benefactors, and a large amount of money was pledged to the institution on condition that Dr. Beecher accept the presidency, which he did in 1832. He retained the place for twenty years, and his name was continued in the seminary catalogue, as president, until his death. He was also, during the first ten years of his presidency, pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in Cincinnati. Soon after his removal thither he startled the religious public in the east by a tract calling attention to the danger of Roman Catholic supremacy in the west. The French revolution of 1830, the agitation in England for reform and against colonial slavery, and the punishment by American courts of citizens who had dared to attack the slave-trade carried on under the American flag, had begun to direct the attention of American philanthropists to the evils of American slavery, and an abolition convention met in Philadelphia in 1833. Its president, Arthur Tappan, through whose liberal donations Dr. Beecher had been secured to Lane seminary, forwarded to the students a copy of the address issued by the convention, and the whole subject was soon under discussion. Many of the students were from the south; an effort was made to stop the discussions and the meetings; slaveholders went over from Kentucky and incited mob violence; and for several weeks Dr. Beecher lived in a turmoil, not knowing how soon the rabble might destroy the seminary and the houses of the professors. The board of trustees interfered during the absence of Dr. Beecher, and allayed the excitement of the mob by forbidding all further discussion of slavery in the seminary, whereupon the students withdrew en masse. A very few were persuaded to return and remain, while the seceders laid the foundation of Oberlin College. For seventeen years after this, Dr. Beecher and his able co-worker, Prof. Stowe, remained and tried to revive the prosperity of the seminary, but at last abandoned it. The great project of their lives was defeated, and they returned to the eastern states. In 1835 Dr. Beecher, who had been called “a moderate Calvinist,” was arraigned on charges of hypocrisy and heresy by some of the stronger Calvinists. The trial took place in his own church; and he defended himself, while burdened with the cares of his seminary, his church, and his wife at home on her death-bed. The trial resulted in acquittal, and, on an appeal to the general synod, he was again acquitted; but the controversy engendered by the action went on until the Presbyterian church was rent in twain. In the theological controversies that led to the excision of a portion of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church in 1837-'8, Dr. Beecher took an active part, adhering to the new school branch. In 1852 he resigned the presidency of Lane Seminary, and returned to Boston, purposing to devote himself mainly to the revisal and publication of his works. But his intellectual powers began to decline, while his physical strength was unabated. About his eightieth year he suffered a stroke of paralysis, and thenceforth his mental powers only gleamed out occasionally with some indications of their former splendor. The last ten years of his life were passed in Brooklyn, N. Y., in the home of his son, Henry Ward Beecher. Dr. Beecher was a man of great intellectual power, though not a profound scholar. His sermons were usually extemporaneous, as far as form was concerned, but were carefully thought out, often while he was engaged in active physical exercise; but his writings were elaborated with the utmost care. He stood unequalled among living divines for dialectic keenness, pungent appeal, lambent wit, vigor of thought, and concentrated power of expression. He possessed intense personal magnetism, and an indomitable will, and was thoroughly devoted to his chosen work. The sincerity and spirituality of his preaching were generally acknowledged, and were attended by tangible results. He was bold to the point of audacity, and it was this feature of his character, probably more than any positive errors, that made him a subject of anxiety to the more conservative class of the theologians of his own denomination. His great boldness in denouncing laxity in regard to the standard of the Christian orthodoxy made a deep impress on the public mind. The degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Yale in 1809, and that of D. D. by Middlebury College in 1818. When he became president of Lane Seminary, he took also the chair of sacred theology. He was the author of a great number of printed sermons and addresses. His published works are: “Remedy for Duelling” (New York, 1809); “Plea for the West,” “Six Sermons on Temperance,” “Sermons on Various Occasions,” (1842), “Views in Theology,” “Skepticism,” “Lectures on Various Occasions,” “Political Atheism.” He made a collection of those of his works which he deemed the most valuable (3 vols., Boston, 1852). He was three times married — in 1799, 1817, and 1836 — and had thirteen children. Most of his children have attained literary or theological distinction. All his sons became Congregational clergymen, viz., William Henry, Edward, George, Henry Ward, Charles, Thomas Kinnicut, and James Chaplin. The daughters are Catherine Esther, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Beecher Perkins, and Isabella Beecher Hooker. He was proverbially absent-minded, and after having been wrought up by the excitement of preaching was accustomed to relax his mind by playing “Auld Lang Syne” on the violin, or dancing the “double shuffle” in his parlor. His autobiography and correspondence was edited by the Rev. Charles Beecher (New York, 1863). See also “Life and Services of Lyman Beecher,” by the Rev. D. H. Allen (Cincinnati, 1863). — His eldest child, Catherine Esther, educator, b. in East Hampton, Long Island, 6 Sept., 1800; d. in Elmira, N. Y., 12 May, 1878. The death of her mother when Catherine was about sixteen years of age brought upon her domestic responsibilities that lasted until her father's second marriage, two years later. Her education was received in the seminary at Litchfield. She was betrothed to Prof. Fisher, of Yale, who was lost with the “Albion” off the coast of Ireland, while on a voyage to Europe, and she never married. Her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, says the shock was so great that it nearly destroyed her religious faith, and her only consolation was in a life of earnest activity. In 1823 she opened a school for young ladies in Hartford, Conn., with such success that, under her supervision, with the assistance of her sister, Harriet (afterward Mrs. Stowe), it numbered 160 pupils. It was maintained for ten years. Comprehending the deficiencies of existing text-books, she prepared, primarily for use in her own school, some elementary books in arithmetic, a work on theology, and a third on mental and moral philosophy. The last was never published, although printed and used as a college text-book. The gist of her theories on the subject of teaching was that the physical and moral training of her pupils was quite as important as the development of their intellectual powers. She also claimed that a housekeeper is responsible for the health of all the inmates of her family, especially of children and servants who have not the needful knowledge and discretion. She was constantly making experiments, and practising them upon the girls, weighing all their food before they ate it, holding that Graham flour and the Graham diet were better for them than richer food. Ten of her pupils invited her to dine with them at a restaurant. She accepted the invitation, and the excellent dinner changed her views. Thereafter they were served with more palatable food. In 1832 Miss Beecher went to Cincinnati with her father, who had accepted the presidency of Lane Theological Seminary, and in that city she opened a female seminary, which, on account of failing health, was discontinued after two years. She then devoted herself to the development of an extended plan for the physical, social, intellectual, and moral education of women, to be promoted through a national board; and for nearly forty years she labored perseveringly in this work, organizing societies for training teachers; establishing plans for supplying the territories with good educators; writing, pleading, and travelling with persistent energy and earnestness. Her object, as described by herself, was, “to unite American women in an effort to provide a Christian education for 2,000,000 children in our country” who were destitute of schools. She made her field of labor especially in the west and south, and sought the aid of educated women throughout the land. She was for many years engaged with ex-Governor Slade, of Vermont, in a scheme for introducing woman teachers into the west. The name given to the organization was “The National Board of Popular Education”; and it was claimed that hundreds of the best teachers the west received went there under the patronage of this system. To a certain extent the plans succeeded, and were found beneficial; but the careers of the teachers were mostly short, for they soon married. She had a mind full of original vigor, but without much imagination; it was perhaps the want of this that made some of her schemes impracticable. She had a great deal of racy humor and mother-wit, with patience, magnanimity, and unbounded good-nature. Her conversation was full of fresh comments on persons and things, without the least bitterness or malice. It was her rule to make her own common sense the standard of judgment, and she doubted the value of anything not commended by that. She continued in her old age the accomplishments of her youth, singing, and playing the piano and the guitar; but her performances were those of a past generation, as she had no belief in modern or classic music. She believed that what she could not comprehend could not exist. It was so also in art. The work of the masters and mediæval art had no meaning for her. She spoke of a house where rare specimens of art were collected as “full of Virgins and Son,” with “a picture of Christ all rubbed out,” “a Psyche with the top of her head knocked in,” and “Venus without arms.” She occasionally wrote verses, and was sometimes an attendant at women's conventions and congresses. For many years she suffered from lameness and weakness of nerve and body, and all her work was carried on under great bodily difficulties. In early life she was Calvinistic in belief, but in her later years became a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church. Miss Beecher's published works include “Letters on the Difficulties of Religion” (Hartford, 1830); “The Moral Instructor” (Cincinnati, 1838); “Treatise on Domestic Economy” (Boston, 1842); “Housekeeper's Receipt-Book” (New York, 1845); “Duty of American Women to their Country” (1845); “True Remedy for the Wrongs of Women, with a History of an Enterprise having that for its Object” (Boston, 1851); “Letters to the People on Health and Happiness” (New York, 1855); “Physiology and Calisthenics” (1856); “Common Sense applied to Religion” (1857), a book containing many striking departures from the Calvinistic theology; “An Appeal to the People, as the Authorized Interpreters of the Bible” (1860); “Religious Training of Children in the School, the Family, and the Church” (1864); “Woman's Profession as Mother and Educator, with Views in Opposition to Woman Suffrage” (Philadelphia, 1871); “Housekeeper and Healthkeeper” (New York, 1873); and with her sister, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The American Woman's Home” (New York, 1869); “Principles of Domestic Science as applied to the Duties and Pleasures of Home” (1870); and also a “Domestic Receipt-Book,” of which numerous editions have been sold. Apart from the books relating to her special educational purpose, she wrote memoirs of her brother, George Beecher (1844); and “Truth Stranger than Fiction” (Boston, 1850), an account of an infelicitous domestic affair in which some of her friends were involved. She left an autobiography nearly completed. — His eldest son, William Henry, clergyman, b. in East Hampton, L. I., 15 Jan., 1802; d. in Chicago, Ill., 23 June, 1889. His education was obtained at home, and then he studied theology under his father and at Andover. In 1833 he received the honorary degree of A. M. from Yale. For many years he was a home missionary on the Western Reserve, and held charges in Putnam, Toledo, and Chillicothe, Ohio, and in Reading, and North Brookfield, Mass. — Another son, Edward, clergyman, b. in East Hampton, L. I., 27 Aug., 1803; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 28 July, 1895. He was graduated at Yale in 1822, studied theology at Andover and New Haven, became tutor in Yale in 1825, and then removed to Boston to take charge of the Park street congregation. Here he remained from 1826 till 1830, when he was elected president of Illinois College, Jacksonville. In 1844 he returned to Boston, as pastor of Salem street church, and in 1855 he became pastor of the Congregational church at Galesburg, Ill., where he remained until 1870. For some years he was professor of exegesis in the Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1872 he retired from the ministry and removed to Brooklyn, N. Y. The title of D. D. was conferred on him by Marietta College in 1841. He was a constant contributor to periodicals, was senior editor of “The Congregationalist” for the first six years of its existence, and after 1870 was a regular contributor to the “Christian Union.” His two works on the “Ages” gave rise to much discussion, and have modified doctrinal statements as to the origin of human depravity. The central idea presented is, that man's present life upon earth is the outgrowth of a former life as well as the prelude to a future one; that during the ages a conflict has been going on between good and evil, which will not be terminated in this life, but that sooner or later all the long strifes of ages will become harmonized into an everlasting concord. He has published “Address on the Kingdom of God” (Boston, 1827); “Six Sermons on the Nature, Importance, and Means of Eminent Holiness throughout the Church” (New York, 1835); “History of Alton Riots” (Cincinnati, 1837); “Statement of Anti-Slavery Principles and Address to People of Illinois” (1837); “Baptism, its Import and Modes” (New York, 1850); “Conflict of Ages” (Boston, 1853); “Papal Conspiracy exposed” (New York, 1855); “Concord of Ages” (1860); “History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine of Future Retribution” (1878). — Another son, George, clergyman, b. in East Hampton, L. I., 6 May, 1809; d. in Chillicothe, Ohio, 1 July, 1843, was graduated at Yale in 1828, after which he studied theology. Subsequent to his ordination in the Presbyterian church he filled pulpits at Rochester, N. Y., and afterward at Chillicothe, Ohio. His death was caused by an accidental discharge of a gun while shooting birds in his own garden. See the “Memoirs of George Beecher,” by his sister Catherine (New York, 1844). — Another son,
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His sermons, reported by stenographers, for several years formed a weekly publication called the “Plymouth Pulpit.” He early became prominent as a platform orator and lecturer, and as such had a long and successful career. His lectures came to be in such demand, even at the rate of $500 a night, that he was obliged to decline further engagements, as they interfered with his ministerial duties, and for a long time he refused all applications for public addresses except for some special occasion. In January, 1859, he delivered an oration at the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the birthday of Robert Burns, which is considered one of his most eloquent efforts. He became a member of the Republican party on its formation, and delivered many political sermons from his pulpit, also addressing political meetings, especially in 1856, when he took an active part in the canvass, not only with his pen but by speaking at meetings thoughout the northern states. During the presidential canvass of 1884, Mr. Beecher supported the Democratic candidate, and by his action estranged many of his political admirers. In the long conflict with slavery he was an early and an earnest worker. In 1863 he visited Europe, and addressed large audiences in the principal cities of Great Britain on the questions involved in the civil war then raging in the United States, with a special view to disabuse the British public in regard to the issues of the great struggle. His speeches exerted a wide influence in changing popular sentiment, which previously had been strongly in favor of the southern Confederacy, and were published in London as “Speeches on the American Rebellion” (1864). In April, 1865, at the request of the government, he delivered an oration at Fort Sumter on the anniversary of its fall. In 1878 he was elected chaplain of the 13th regiment, N. G. S. N. Y., and appeared on parade in the customary uniform. In 1871 one of his parishioners, Henry W. Sage, founded a lectureship of preaching, called “The Lyman Beecher Lectureship,” in Yale college divinity school, and the first three annual courses were delivered by Mr. Beecher. In the summer of 1874, Theodore Tilton, formerly Mr. Beecher's associate, afterward his successor, in the editorship of the “Independent,” charged him with criminality with Mrs. Tilton. A committee of Plymouth congregation reported the charges to be without foundation; but meanwhile Mr. Tilton instituted a civil suit against Mr. Beecher, laying his damages at $100,000. The trial lasted six months, and at its close the jury, after being locked up for more than a week, failed to agree on a verdict. They stood three for the plaintiff and nine for the defendant. Mr. Beecher was of stout build, florid, and of strong physical constitution. He was fond of domestic and rural life; a student of nature; a lover of animals, flowers, and gems; an enthusiast in music, and a judge and patron of art. He owned a handsome residence at Peekskill on the Hudson, which he occupied during a part of every summer. In 1886 he made a lecturing tour in England, his first visit to that country after the war. During his theological course in 1836, for nearly a year Mr. Beecher edited the “Cincinnati Journal,” a religious weekly. While pastor at Indianapolis he edited an agricultural journal, “The Farmer and Gardener,” his contributions to which were afterward published under the title “Plain and Pleasant Talk about Fruits, Flowers, and Farming” (New York, 1859). He was one of the founders and for nearly twenty years an editorial contributor of the New York “Independent,” and from 1861 till 1863 was its editor. His contributions to this were signed with an asterisk, and many of them were afterward collected and published as “Star Papers; or, Experiences of Art and Nature” (New York, 1855), and as “New Star Papers; or, Views and Experiences of Religious Subjects” (1858). The latter has been republished in England under the title of “Summer in the Soul.” On the establishment of the “Christian Union” in 1870, he became its editor-in-chief. To a series of papers in the “New York Ledger” he gave the title “Thoughts as they Occur,” by “One who keeps his eyes and ears open,” and they were afterward published under the title of “Eyes and Ears” (Boston, 1864). In addition to the foregoing, Mr. Beecher published “Lectures to Young Men on Various Important Subjects” (Indianapolis, 1844, revised ed., New York, 1850); “Freedom and War: Discourses suggested by the Times” (Boston, 1863); “Aids to Prayer” (New York, 1864); “Norwood; or, Village Life in New England” (1867); “Overture of Angels” (1869), being an introductory installment of “Life of Jesus the Christ; Earlier Scenes” (1871); “Lecture-Room Talks: A Series of Familiar Discourses on Themes of Christian Experience” (1870); “Yale Lectures on Preaching” (3 vols., 1872-'4); “A Summer Parish: Sermons and Morning Services of Prayer” (1874); “Evolution and Religion” (1885). Also, numerous addresses and separate sermons, such as “Army of the Republic” (1878); “The Strike and its Lessons” (1878); “Doctrinal Beliefs and Unbeliefs” (1882); “Commemorative Discourse on Wendell Phillips”(1884); “A Circuit of the Continent,” being an account of his trip through the west and south (1884); and “Letter to the Soldiers and Sailors” (1866, reprinted with introduction, 1884). He edited “Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes” (New York, 1855), and “Revival Hymns” (Boston, 1858). Numerous compilations of his utterances have been prepared, among which are: “Life Thoughts” (New York, 1859), by Edna Dean Proctor; “Notes from Plymouth Pulpit” (1859), by Augusta Moore; both of the foregoing have been reprinted in England; “Pulpit Pungencies” (1866); “Royal Truths” (Boston, 1866), reprinted from a series of extracts prepared in England without his knowledge; “Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit” (New York, 1867); “Sermons by Henry Ward Beecher: Selected from Published and Unpublished Discourses,” edited by Lyman Abbott (2 vols., 1868); “Morning and Evening Devotional Exercises,” edited by Lyman Abbott (1870); “Comforting Thoughts” (1884), by Irene Ovington. Mr. Beecher had completed the second and concluding volume of his “Life of Christ,” which is to be published this year (1887), with a re-publication of the first volume. His biography has been written by Lyman Abbott (New York, 1883). A new life, to be written by his son, William C. Beecher, will include an unfinished autobiography. Mr. Beecher was buried in Greenwood cemetery, and a movement was immediately begun for a monument, to be paid for by popular subscription. — Eunice White, wife of Henry Ward, b. in West Sutton, Worcester co., Mass., 26 Aug., 1812; d. in Stamford, Conn., 8 March, 1897. When Mr. Beecher settled in his pastorate in Lawrenceburgh, Ind., he returned to the east to claim his bride, after an engagement extending over seven years. Mrs. Beecher was a contributor, chiefly on domestic subjects, to various periodicals, and some of her articles have been published in book form. During a long and tedious illness in her earlier married life, she wrote a series of reminiscences of her first years as a minister's wife, afterward published with the title “From Dawn to Daylight: A Simple Story of a Western Home” (1859)", under the pen-name of “A Minister's Wife.” She also published “Motherly Talks with Young Housekeepers” (New York, 1875); “Letters from Florida” (1878); “All Around the House; or, How to Make Homes Happy” (1878); and “Home” (1883). — Another son of Lyman, Charles, clergyman, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 7 Oct., 1815, studied at the Boston Latin School and Lawrence Academy in Groton, Mass., and graduated at Bowdoin in 1834. After a theological course in Lane Seminary, Ohio, he was ordained pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in Fort Wayne in 1844. He was dismissed in 1851, and became pastor of the First Congregational church in Newark, N. J., where he remained three years. In 1857 he took charge of the First Congregational church in Georgetown, Mass. From 1870 till 1877 he resided in Florida, where for two years he was state superintendent of public instruction, and later, acting pastor at Wysox, Pa. Mr. Beecher is an excellent musician, and he selected the music for the “Plymouth Collection.” He has published “The Incarnation, or Pictures of the Virgin and her Son” (New York, 1849); “David and his Throne” (1855); “Pen Pictures of the Bible” (1855); “Autobiography and Correspondence of Lyman Beecher” (1863); “Redeemer and Redeemed” (Boston, 1864); “Spiritual Manifestations” (1879); and “Eden Tableau” (1880). — Another son, Thomas Kinnicut, clergyman, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 10 Feb., 1824, was graduated in 1843 at Illinois college, of which his brother Edward was then president, was principal of the Northeast grammar-school in Philadelphia in 1846-'8, and then became principal of the Hartford (Conn.) High School. Removing to Williamsburg, now a part of Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1852, he gathered and became pastor of the New England Congregational church, and in 1854 he removed to Elmira, N. Y., to take charge of the Independent Congregational church, afterward the Park church. He is known as an influential speaker and writer, and is distinguished for philanthropy. He wholly ignores sectarian feeling, and seeks to promote a fraternal spirit among the various Christian denominations. Since his residence in Elmira he has devoted himself wholly to the duties of a teacher of righteousness and religion in that city and immediate vicinity. For many years he edited a weekly “Miscellany,” first in the Elmira “Advertiser,” and afterward in the “Gazette,” discussing as they came up all the current questions of the day. Among these, in 1874, were a series of papers in which he took the ground that the people of the United States never had been, and were not at the time, in favor of universal suffrage. He has lectured in the principal cities of the United States, and against his wishes and counsel he has been nominated for political office by the greenback, the democratic, the prohibition, and the republican parties, but has never been elected to any office. He was chosen chaplain of the 141st New York volunteers in 1863, and served with the army of the Potomac four months. He has pronounced mechanical and scientific tastes, and is a lover of art as well as a keen critic. He made a tour of England and France in 1853, visited South America in 1864-'5, England again in 1873, and California in 1884. He has published in book form, “Our Seven Churches” (New York, 1870), a series of lectures, one of which has been widely circulated as a tract, with the title “A Well-Considered Estimate of the Episcopal Church.” The other prints but rarely published are sermons and lectures for the use of the Park Church Bible School. — Another son, James Chaplin, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., 8 Jan., 1828; d. in Elmira, N. Y., 25 Aug., 1886, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1848, studied theology at Andover, and on 10 May, 1856, was ordained a Congregational clergyman. Until 1861 he was chaplain of the Seamen's Bethel in Canton and Hong Kong, China. During the civil war he was chaplain of the 1st New York infantry (1861-'2); lieutenant-colonel of the 141st (1862-'3); colonel of the 35th U. S. colored troops (1863-'6), and was mustered out of service in 1866 as brevet brigadier-general. Later, he held pastorates in Owego, N. Y. (1867-'70); Poughkeepsie (1871-'3); and Brooklyn (1881-'2). After three years of acute suffering because of incurable hallucinations, the shadows of which had been hovering about him since 1864, he died by his own hand at the Water Cure in Elmira. — Charles's son, Frederick Henry, soldier, b. in New Orleans, La., 22 June, 1841; d. on the upper Republican river, Kansas, 17 Sept., 1868. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1862, immediately entered the military service, and became successively sergeant, second and first lieutenant. He was in the battles of the army of the Potomac from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg; was twice severely wounded, but could not be persuaded to remain away from his command. The severe nature of his wounds necessitated his transfer to the 2d battalion veteran reserve corps, where he served as lieutenant and acted as adjutant-general under Gen. E. Whittlesey of the Freedmen's Bureau, until commissioned in the regular army in 1864. He was transferred to the 3d U. S. infantry in November, 1864, and made first lieutenant in July, 1866. He served with distinction on the western borders, and was killed by the Indians while on a scouting party some distance from Fort Wallace.