, 1878-07-25
Catherine Esther Beecher.

Catherine Esther Beecher, not the least
remarkable of remarkable family, was
born at East Hampton, Long Island
September 6, 1900. She was the daupb.
ter of the Rev. Lyman Beecher, and The
eldest of thirteen children. When the
family removed to LitChfeld Conn, in
1910, Catherine was placed at the best
school there to be found. She describes
herself at that time as having great ac.
tivlty OF body and mind, great cheerful
ness OF spirits, a strong love of the ludi-
crous, and an Imagination teeming with
poetry and romance; but she had no taste
for study, or for anything demanding
close attention. When she was about the
age OF twenty years great grief over.
shadOwed her life. She was betrothed
to Professor Fisher OF Yale College, who
persisted by shipwreck while on VOYAGE
to England. Her whole religious faith
was unsettled by the announcement of
Professor Fishers death, and she found
no relief, in her distress, from the ordi-
nary consultations of religion. She de-
termlned then to give her whole life to
benefit other persons, and ia 1922 opened
school for young ladies at Hartford.
Conn, which soon numbered from 100 to
16O pupils, from every State in the Union.
Comprehending the DEFICIENCIES of exist
ing textbooks, she prepared for use in
her own school an Arithmetic, a work on
Theology and third upon Mental and
Moral Philosophy. The last has never
been published, though it has been print.
ed and used as text book in one of the
colleges for young men. Miss Beecher
remained at Hartford until the arduous
duties of her school impaired her health
and compelled her to give up the work.
In 1882, when her father removed to Gin
cinnati, she accompanied him, and for
two years superintended an institution
for female education, which she estab-
lished in that city. Mrs. Stowe was one
of her assistants. This school, too, she
was obliged to abandon on account of
i'll health.
Miss Beecher had peculiar ideas about
education, and to the propagation of
these ideas she devoted herself for thirty
years, organizing societies for training
teachers, establishing plans for supply
ing the Territories with good educators,
writing, pleading and travelling with per-
sistent energy and earnestness. Her OBJ
iect as stated by herself, was "to unite
American women in an effort to provide
Christian education for 100000 chill.
dren in our country" who were destitute
Of schools. Her field of labor was es-
pecially in the West and South. She
first sought to secure the immediate SER
vices of a great body of educated women.
Her second purpose was to establish
prominent institutions regularly organ
lied upon the college plan, for the educa-
tion of female teachers. An association
was organized at Jacksonville, ILL.,, which
was to hold in trust all the libraries and
apparatus employed In a portion of her
work, Miss Beecher cooperated with the
"Board of National Popular Education"
of which Governor Slade was the general
agent. To certain extent these plans
succeeded, and were found beneficial.
While engaged in this wOrk Miss
Beecher found time to prepare several
works for the press, and to largely con-
tribute to several periodicals. Her books
mainly relate to the training of women,
and among them may ne enumerated
domestic Service" "Duty Of American
Women to Their Country" "Housekeep-
er's Receipt Book" Q845), "The True
Remedy for the Wrongs of Women"
QS5D, domestic Economy for the Use
of Young Ladies at Home and at School,"
"Truth Stranger than Fiction" QS5O),
"Letters to the People on Health and
Happiness" 1855, "Physiology and Cal
isthenics" 1856, Common Sense APP
piled to Religion" Qs5D, and appeal
to the People as the Authorized Inter
prefers of the Bible" Miss BeeCher oc-
casionally wrote verse of arespectable but
not remarkable character; and she was
sometimes an attendant at women's con-
ventions and congresses. She was not
averse to controversy, and, as she showed
in her "1'ruth Stranger than Fiction" was
sufficiently bold in denOuncing what she
believed TO be wrong. N. Y. Tribune.