Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-12-08
BEECHER'S BROTHER.
A Half Brother ofHenry Ward Beech
er Placed in an Easane asylum.

A rumor has been current in Brook
lyn..that Mr.. Observation-Disclosures, the
Rev. James Beecher, who for time
was pastor of the Bethel mission in
Hicks street, near Fulton, had become
deranged and had been sent to an in
sane asylum. James Beecher, it seems,
as well SIS his brother Thomas K. Beech
Ell, inherits from his maternal ancestry
a tendency to melancholy. In his youth
he manifested an extreme fondness for
a seafaring life, and gnally embraced
that as profession after leaving col
lege, and made several voyages, but
finally, out of Difference to the wishes of
his father, James consented to study
theology. Mr.. Beecher has through
life been oppressed with the feeling that
as preacher he was failure. In
tensely conscientious, he fell constantly
short of the ideal he had set before
him, and this intensified his hereditary
misanthrosy. After time he became
settled over a church at Poughkeepsie,
with salary of $3 900 a year. He was
a successful preacher in this field, and
Was we'll liked by large congregation,
Satisfying everyone but himself. Sud-
denly he resigned this position with its
comfortable salary, and went to live in
Ulster county. He, with his brother
Thomas, had been in the habit each
summer for several years of visiting
that place where he settled for rest and
recuperation, On one trip they discov-
cred beautiful sheet of water cover
ing about forty acres, and the Rev.
James Beecher was so charmed with
the spot that he purchased the whole
lake with good deal of land on one
side, his whole property beiNg six hun
dred acres. Having with his own hands
put house there, he resolved to leave
his pastorate at Poughkeepsie and set
tie permanently at his forest home.
After living there five years he was in
duced last year to undertake the work
of the Bethel mission, where he was
daily confronted with pictures of the
utmost poverty and suffering. Already
prediseosed to melancholy, this life in
tensified it, and the excessive labor in
cident to his charge was too much for
a man who az the best was never strong.
He became possessed with the lea that
he was a burden on society and his
friends, and finally it was determined
that quiet and rest was absolutely essen
tial to him, and he was persuaded to
relinquish the charge of the Bethel and
90 to the Elmira water-cure. After re-
manning there month, his friends
deemed il advisable that he should 60
to the Middletown asy lum, not that he
is insane or detained there forcibly,
but they thought it best that he should
be under the care OF physicians who
who have made specially of mental
diseases. ''The trouble with James,"
said Henry Ward Beecher this evening
s'is simply that he was overworked. He
has been buried up there in the woods
in Ulster county so long that he could
not staud the city work. His wife be-
came discontented, thought that ne was
wasting his talent up, here in the woods
and finally persuaded him to come
here and assume the charge of the
Bethel. Well, he was green, as we say
of horse that has been taken up from
pasture. and has been out of work so
long that he codld not stand the hard
labor of the Bethel and he broke down.
He was intensely sympathic. Every
body,s care was his care. He wanted
to carry everybody's burden and he
could not, and by the end of the year
he was all broke up. From that time
on he was under the care of DIR. Scroll
who finally told him besides the de-
rangement of the liver, for which he
was treating him, there was serious
nerve trouble, and he wished he would
consult with the physician in charge of
the Middletown asylum, and the ply
sician told him it would be better to
reside there permanently, because he
might be subject to 3 recurrence of
these alterations. Well ne didn't like
to do that, and last summer, after
spell at Elmira. he and his wife went
back to Ulster county, at ais old place.
Then she had to come here to perform
her work at the Bethel, snd he lived
alone there for awhile, until ne found II
too lonesome, and then he went to
MiddletoHn. That's all there is of it.
T think with rest and quiet he'll get
better, but don't think he will ever be
strong enough for active CITY. life and
work.