The Monitor-register., 1897-01-29
Childhood Of Harriet Beecher Stowe
BY E. B. SANFORD,

Inc autobiography of Lyman Beeehel
gives some delightful "reminiscences Of
the home life of the great preacher and
theoiogian. Mrs. Stowe was the fifth
child in large family of sons and
daughters, several of whom, In later
years, became widely known. She was
two years older than her brother, Henry
Ward Beecher, the famous pulpit orator
and lecturer. A family letter, dated
'Litchfield, Feb. 4, 1872 informs us
that Harriet makes just as many wry
faces, is just as odd, and loves to be
laughed at as much as ever. Henry does
not improve much in talking. but speaks
very thick"
Mrs, Stoves older sister, Catherine, in
letter to their brother Edward, then in
college, writes as follows:
"Dpropos-last week was inferred
Tom, Jr., with funeral honors, by the side
OF old Tom, of happy memory. What a
fatal mortality there is among the cats OF
the parsonage! Our Harriet is chief
| mourner always at their funerals. She
asked for what she called an epithet for
the gravestone Of Tom, Jr., which gave
| as follows:
"'Here died our kit,
Who had a fit,
And acted queer.
Shot with gun,
Her race Is run,
And she lies here'"
In sketch of some of her earliest
recollections Mrs. Stowe tells us how her
father aroused the family enthusiasm in
any work in which general interest could
be enlisted. The wood furnished by the
parish was brought in winter ON sleds
and piled up in the yard. "Of course, as
all this wood was to be cut, split and
carried into the woodshed before an early
garden could be started, it required a
miracle of generalship to get it done.
considering the immense quantity re-
qulred in that climate to keep an old
castle of house comfortable. How the
axes rung and the chips few, and the
jokes and stories flew faster; and when
all was cut and split, then came the great
work of wheeling and piling; and then 1,
sole little girl among so many boys, was
sucked into the vortex of enthusiasm by
fathers ll-pointed declaration, that he
wished Harriet was boy; she could do
more than any of them.'"
Litchfield, although a country village
on Connecticut hilltop, was famous in
those days for its law school and young
ladies' seminary, which attracted stu
dents from every part of the country. A
teacher of rare gift connected with the
seminary was very successful in arousing
interest in the art of composition. Mrs,
stowe relates that when she was but nine
years old she became SO enthusiastic in
this work that much to her teachers a
amusement she volunteered to write
every week.
In her twelfth year she had made such
Advancement that she was appointed one
4of the writer's for the annual exhibition.
The subject assigned was, "Can the i'm
mortality of the soul be proved by the
light of nature 2' ''Several of the young
ladies" says Mrs Stowe, chad written
strongly in the affirmative. Mr.. Brace
[her teacher] had written in the negative.
10 all these compositions and the conse-
quent discussions l had listened, and in
view of Il en- chose to adopt the negative.
Il remember the scene at that exhibi.
tion, to me so eventful. The hall was
crowded with all tho iiterxvYUf TTtchfeld.
Before them all our compositions were
read aloud. When mine was read 1
noticed that father, who was sitting ION
high by Mr.. Brace, frightened and looked
interested, aud at the close | heard him
say, Who wrote that compositions' p
Your daughter, sirp was the. answer.
l5'was the proudest moment of my life.
There was no mstaking fathers face
when ne was pleased, and to have inter.
ested bim was .past ali juvenile
triumphs.''
1t is pleasant to recall that In the years
of advanced age and weakness children
and childhood were ever a constant
source of happiness to the author of
"Uncle Toms Cabin Christian Adoo-
cate.