The Portland daily press., 1878-05-13
The Eldest Of the Beecherss
Plymouth Pastor Announcing the Prob-
able Deaii, of his Sister Catherine.

AT the Plymouth Church prayer-meetug Fri
day evening, Mr.. Beecher said IL have had
an invitation from the authorities of the town
of franklin, little place about thirty miles
from Boston, to attend a centennial celebration
there on the 18th of June. The reason Why L
have been invited was this, that the town was
the birthplace of Professor Fisher, of Yale,
who at one time was engaged to be married to
my sister, Miss Catherine Beecher. Today 1
have received telegram-or, rather, my broth
er Edward has-from our brother. Thomas
Beeoher, saying that my sister, Catherine
Beecher, has been seizsd with an apoplectic
stroke. By this time suppose she is dead and
her earthly troubles are over. My earliest rec
objections of her are in connection with Prof.
Fisher, about the year 1922. L was then a
round-faced boy, and L recollect being curious
and inquisltive in very laundering way, L
recollect that the Professor used to visit at our
house, and can recall his fgure-tal slender,
with very thin, pale face, not severe in ex-
preston butt intense-and 1 remember very
well when the intimation was made to me whas
he came there for; but all this is nebulous, and
l remember with a great deal more of distinc:-
ness when the news came of his death. can
remember the sorrow of my sister, her utter
prostration and hopeless despair. 1t was an
utter breaking up of her whole religious faith,
She found that her religious views did not sus-
tain her, and she went into rebellion against
them, and have seen her go into my fathers
study and talk to him of her utter loss of relig-
lous faith. She was the eldest of the whole
eleven children of our family. There were two
who died in infancy, making thirteen in all,
and OF the eleven, one, my brother George, was
killed by the accidental discharge of gun;
I'm tho 9TH oil l.x,,,, ~
was the first to come into life, and is cow rs
years old, and she is the first to go bv natural
death. The family has begun to crumble She
found no relief in her great grief and distress
from the ordinary consultations of religion, and
she made up her mind that as life was done for
her before it had been begun, she determined
to do this-to give the whole of her Ii fe for the
benefit Of others. Think no person ever did
with more entire conservation use every ener-
gy OF her life for the benefit of Others
She irst established seminary for wo-
men in Hartford, which became very eminent.
Then she wrote and published an arithmetic,
and also wrote and printed, but did not pub
lish, work on mental philosophy She con-
much broken down, and when my father went
to Cincinnati, she founded a seminary for wo-
men there. After this she organized plan for
supplying the great West with female teachers,
which was extremely successful although they
dld not teach great while, most of them get
ting married after year or so of teaching; but
this was instrumental in establishing great
normal female seminaries in the different
Northwestern states. During all this time
her pen was not idle, and she had written some
fifteen or twenty works, all on the subject of
female education. In her later years she was
communicate of the Protestant Episcopal
church. Although motherless she was the
mother of more children than any other woman
of her time, and there are hundreds of women
in all parts of the country that gratefully re-
member her as their teacher and guide. For
myself rejoice that she has gone, and that
her death has been so sudden. She has been
spared the pain of a long and lingering illness.
give to God great thanks for her life of use
fulness and for her departure"
DR. Edward Beecher then read ths TELEGRAM
received as follows:
Catherine is dying. Apopletic May not
last the hour. Have the other brothers and
sisters any instructions to give as to her
funeral?