Ecclesia," and some of these pieces found their way into cotemporary collections of sacred poetry. In 1853, accompanied by a younger brother, she visited England, where she remained nearly two years. At the desire of her uncle, a vicar in Wells, she prepared a "Handbook of Wells Cathedral," which was published in different styles with illustrations. After returning home she wrote a series of papers entitled "The Emigrant's Quest" which attracted for a year attention and were republished in a modest little volume some years later. Her mother died in 1859, and the death of her father in 1867 broke up her home in Skaneateles, and in the ensuing year she took the position of teacher in the orphan ward of the Church Charity Foundation, in Buffalo, N. Y., remaining there twelve years. In 1879 she went to Europe for a year accompanied by a lady who had been happily associated with her in church work. Soon after returning to this country Miss Beauchamp learned that the Mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church to the Onondaga Indians was in temporary need of a teacher. She offered her services and was delighted with the work. She next purchased a residence in Skaneateles, where she conducted a school for the children of summer residents, organized a literary society for young ladies, and had adult pupils in French and drawing. She took her full share in parochial and missionary work and wrote for religious papers. In March, 1890, she was prostrated for some months by < erebral hemorrhage, and has since resided with a married sister in Skaneateles.
BEAUMONT, Mrs. Betty Bentley, author and merchant, born in Lancastershire, England, 9th August, 1828. She was the only child of Joseph Bentley, the great educational reformer of
BETTY BENTLEY BEAUMONT.
England. Mr. Bentley organized and conducted a society for "the promotion of the education of the people," and wrote and published thirty-three books to improve the methods of education, but he presents another example of the neglect, by public benefactors, of those bound to them by the closest ties of nature. He allowed his child to acquire only the elements of an education, and took her from school in her tenth year and employed her in his business to copy his manuscripts, correct proof and attend lectures. The independent spirit of the little girl was roused by a strange act on the part of her father He showed her a summing up of the expenses she had been to him in the ten years of her life. To a child it seemed a large amount, and having set her young brain to devise some plan by which she might sup|K»rt herself so as to be of no further expense to her father, she surreptitiously learned the milliners' trade. She loved her books, and her propensity for learning was exceptional, but her opportunity for study was extremely limited. At a very early age she was married to Edward Beaumont, and came to America seven years after her marriage. They lived in Philadelphia for five years and, on account of Mr. Beaumont's feeble health, removed to the South, going to Woodville, Miss. The coming on of the Civil War and the state of feeling in a southern town toward suspected abolitionists are most interestingly described in Mrs. Beaumont's "Twelve Years of My Life." (Philadelphia, 1SS7). The failing health of her husband and the needs of a family of seven children called forth her inherent energy, and she promptly began what she felt herself qualified to carry on to success, and became one of Uie leading merchants of the town. Her varied experiences during a period of historical interest are given in "A Business Woman's Journal" (Philadelphia, 1888). That book graphically explains the financial state of the cotton-growing region of the South during the years immediately succeeding the Civil War, the confusion consequent upon the transition from the credit system to a cash basis, and the condition of the suddenly freed blacks. Mrs. Beaumont's books are valuable because they have photographed a period that quickly passed. Her style is simple and unpretending. She is one of the hard-working business women of to-day. She has shown independence of spirit, self-sacrificing courage and remarkable tenacity of purpose. She has a kind and sympathizing heart, and a nature susceptible to every gentle and elevating influence.
BECK, Miss Leonora, educator, born near Augusta, Ga., in 1862. At an early age she showed an unusual aptitude for linguistic study, speaking several modern languages when nine years old. She was well grounded M Latin and Greek when fifteen years old. Oxford College, Ala., having thrown open its doors to young women, and being the only college for nu n in the South which received them, Miss Beck entered and received a careful
and thorough training for her chosen profession. At the age of sixteen years she was graduated with A.M. distinction and at once accepted the position of young lady principal in the Bowden, Georgia, College, which she held for two-and-one-half years. During her connection with that institution Miss Beck Instructed in metaphysics, Latin and Greek about one-hundred students, ranging from the ages of fifteen to thirty years. Her success as an educator becoming more generally known, she was urged to accept many positions of trust and honor, but declined them. The Jackson Institute was her next field of labor, and that now famous school owes its popularity and success in a great measure to the energy of thought and action which characterized her work while connected with it. In 1889 Miss Beck removi d to Atlanta to engage in founding a first-class school for girls. That college, first
