Charles Beecher was born 7 October 1815 in Litchfield, Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States to Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) and Roxanna Foote (1775-1818) and died 21 April 1900 Georgetown, Essex County, Massachusetts, United States of unspecified causes. He married Sarah Leland Coffin (1815-1897) 23 July 1840 in Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois, United States.
Biography
Charles Beecher was an American minister, composer of religious hymns and a prolific author.
Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the son of Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), an abolitionist Congregationalist preacher from Boston and Roxana Foote Beecher. He was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the famous author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the brother of renowned Congregationalist minister, Henry Ward Beecher. He also had another prominent and activist sister, Catharine Beecher.
He attended Boston Latin School and Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1834, and then attended Lane Theological Seminary in Ohio. He taught music classes in Cincinnati, Ohio, and received his preaching license from the Presbytery of Indianapolis, Indiana.
Beecher married Sarah Leland Coffin (1815-1897) in 1840 and they had six children. He served as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1844 until 1851. He was also a prominent member of the Peucinian Society.[citation needed]
In 1851, he moved east and ministered to the First Free Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey. The church, known as a stronghold of abolitionism, was expelled from the Presbyterian Synod in 1853, and re-organized as a Congregationalist church. Beecher left in 1857 for a pastorate in Georgetown, Massachusetts. In 1863 he was relieved of his preaching duties in the Congregational Church for preaching against orthodox doctrine.[1] Following the Civil War, he moved to Florida to help his sister Harriet and her husband minister to newly freed slaves. He eventually was state Superintendent of Public Instruction in Florida from 1871–1873. He finished his ministry as acting pastor in Wysox, Pennsylvania, from 1885–1893. Beecher died in Georgetown, Massachusetts.
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Frederick Henry Beecher (1841-1868) | |||
| Charles McCulloch Beecher (1845-1906) | |||
| Helen Louisa Beecher (1847-1901) | |||
| Mary Isabella Beecher (1849-1928) | |||
| Esther Lyman Beecher (1853-1867) | |||
| Edith Harriet Beecher (1854-1867) | |||
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Isabella Holmes Beecher (1822-1907) | 22 February 1822 Litchfield, Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States | 25 January 1907 Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut, United States | John Hooker (1816-1901) |
| Thomas Kinnicut Beecher (1824-1900) | 10 February 1824 Litchfield, Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States | 14 March 1900 Elmira, Chemung County, New York, United States | Olivia Day (1826-1853) Frances Juliana Jones (1826-1905) |
| James Chaplin Beecher (1828-1886) | 8 January 1828 Boston, Massachusetts, United States | 25 August 1886 Dr. Gleason's Water Cure Sanitarium, Elmira, Chemung County, New York, United States | Ann Morse (-1863) Frances Johnson (c1828-c1903) |
References
- Genealogy of the Early Generations of the Coffin Family of New England - 1870 work by Silvanus Jenkins Macy (Author), Nathaniel Wheeler Coffin (Author), William S. Appleton (Author) - This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
- Coffin Family of Boston - Boston Brahmin
- Beecher in Massachusetts
- Charles Beecher - disambiguation
Footnotes (including sources)
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