Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-07-03
Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Ildllltb DttNutI DlOWt hlth az htl llOllN
in Hartford, Conn, at noon Wednesday.
Mrs. Stowe was the third daughter and
the sixth child of Rev. Lyman and Rox-
anna Foot Beecher, and was born in Itch
field, Conn, June IA, 1912. The mother
died when Harriet was only four years old,
and her home from then until her fathers
second marriage was with her grandmother
in Gulford, Conn. When about II years
old Harriet went to Hartford, Conn, as
pupil in her sisters school and she after
ward became an associate teacher there.
In 1882 she went to Cincinnati, Ohio,
where her father had been called as presi-
dent of the Lane theological seminary.
She was married in 1886 to Rev. Calvin
Stowe, d. D., professor of biblical history
in Lane seminary. The Stowe family
moved in 1850 to Brunswick, Me-, where
DIR. Stowe was a professor in Bowdoin col
lege. They spent many years at Andover,
Mass, where DIR. Stowe had a professor
ship in the theological seminary, and upon
his withdrawal from that position % years
ago they moved to Hartford, where Dr.
Stowe died in 1886. Mrs. Stowe leaves
one son, Rev. Charles Stowe, and two I'M
married daughters, Harriet and Eliza. A
third daughter is the wife of Rev. II. +.
Allen.
Mrs. Stowe began her literary work after
she went to Cincinnati, but her writings
attracted no particular attention. During
her life in Ohio she was unconsciously lay
ing the foundation for the great work of
her life, which was written at Brunswick
In one of the later editions she states that
the most narrowing incidents related in
-. ,.l,,lr
versation with former slaves in Ohio.
1.-The cruel sale and separation of mar
ried woman from her husband, narrated in
chapter y, had passed under her own eye
while passenger on a steamboat on the
Ohio river. Her husband and brother had
once been obliged to flee with a fugitive
slave woman by night, as described in
chapter 9, and she herself had been called
to write letters for former slave woman,
servant in her own family, to a slave hus-
band in Kentucky, who, trusted with un-
| limited liberty, free to come and go on bust
ness between Kentucky and Ohio, still re-
fused to break his pledge of honor TO his
master though that master, from year to
year, deferred the keeping of his promise
of freedom TO the slave.
at was the simple honor and loyalty of
this Christian black man, who remained
in slavery rather than violate trust, that
first impressed her with the possibility of
such character as, years after, was de-
lineated in Uncle Tom
Mrs. Stowe read in an anti-slavery mag
azine edited by DR.. Bailey of Wash
ngton the account of the escape of a
woman with her child on the ice of the
Ohio river from Kentucky.
This formed the first salient point of the
story. The faithful slave husband in Ken
| lucky occurred to her as pattern of Uncle
| Tom and the scenes of the story began
gradually to form themselves in her mind.
| The first part Of the book ever committed
to writing was the death of Uncle Tom.
This scene presented itself almost as a
tangible vision to her mind, while sitting
al the communion table in the little church
| in Brunswick. She was completely over
come by it and could scarcely restrain the
CONFUSION of tears and sobbing that shook
! her frame She FASTENED home and wrote
| it, and her husband being away she read it
to her two sons of 10 and Il years. The
lads broke out into weeping, one of them
saying through his sobs: "Oh. mamma,
slavery is the most cruel thing in the
world. ~
From that time the story can less be said
to have been composed by her than i'm
| posed upon her
Great as the effect hoped for might have
| been, the author could not have imagined
the tremendous power which the story
| actually assumed. There are many now
! living who remember the great CONFUSION
which overspread the land wherever the
book was read. Appearing first as a Sc
rial in the National Era, it was speedily
put in book form by j. P. Jewett, then a
popular Boston publisher. Everyone read
it throughout the North, and although pro-
| hibited at the South, it found its way into
not few southern homes. Its effect at
the North was none other than to crys-
tallize the rapidly growing anti-slavery sem
| timent, and those who we're once despised
as abolitionists now became the leaders of
the grand advance.
Within a year from its publication in
March, 1852, over 100000 copies had been
sold. The work was translated into over
20 foreign languages. 1t was given more
presentations in its dramatized form than
any American play ever written.
Mrs. Stowe wrote a second story on
slavery, "Dred, tale of the Dismal
Swamp" Many of her other works delin-
Gated the domestic life of New England
years ago. Probably "a Minister'S Woo
ing" "The Pearl of Orr's Island" and
agnes of Sorrento" are among the most
widely read of Mrs. Stoves subsequent
efforts. The sudden and violent death of
favorite son made of "The Minister s
Wooing" an immortal cutlery to mothers
bereaved.
Although the member of famous fam
lily, the sister of Americas greatest preach
er, Henry Ward Beecher; and the wife of
| erudite classical scholar, Harriet Beecher
! Stoves fame is more extended and more
enduring than that of any of her relations.
| Lord Carlisle wrote: 81 return my deep
and solemn thanks to Almighty God who
has enabled you to write such book. I"
| Lord Palmerston said of it: ~ have not
read novel for so years; but l have read
that book three times, not only for the
story but for the craftsmanship of it,"
The story was written at time when
Mrs. Stowe did all of her own houseWork
and had to care for family of children.
In addition to the installments paid her by
Dr. Bailey she hoped to get enough to buy
a silk dress. Within a few months she
had received over $4,000 in royalties.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward was JUS
titled in writing recently of Mrs. Stowe as
1.-THE greatest of American women" I'm
Gle Toms Cabin excited the greatest influ-
ence of any book ever written in America,
and as Lord Cockburn said it did more for
humanity than was ever accomplished by
any single book of fiction.
sTRATTON
All the schools in town close on Friday.
II Dalpoar 10 Mill,