The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-03-09

From the first the attending physicians
gave small hope for her recovery.
No woman was ever more devoted to
the wife of Henry Ward Beecher. whose
death after a number of years Of wild
owhood Is now announced. She was the
daughter of DR.. Artemus Billiard OF
West Sutton, Mass. She was born Aug.
26, 1872, and was christened Eunice
White. 1t was when she was at school
at Hadley, Mass, and Henry Ward
Beecher was student at Amherst that
they met and plighted their troth. Jan.
2. 1881. Both were very young. and when
the boyish student made known his de-
sire to marry DR.. Billiards. daughter
that worthy was angry and his wife
grieved. why, you are a couple of
babies" said the doctor. You don't
know your own minds yet, and won't
for some time to come"
Welded In 1887.
DIR. Billiard relented, however, after
time, but it was not until Aug. 3, 1887.
shortly after Mr.. Beecher had begun
his pastorate at Lawrenceburg, Ind.
that they were welded. Their first
years of married life were not years OF
financial plenty, for the salary then re-
ceived by Mr.. Beecher was but $500
year. But they were happy days to
Mrs. Beecher, for she loved her hus-
band and her home. Children came to
them as time passed until they had ten,
and Mrs. Beecher's life was necessarily
one of care and constant occupation.
From Lawrenceburg they moved to
Indianapolis, and from there to Brook
Ign, where he became a famous pastor
of the famous Plymouth church and
where she became his secretary. She
had met with a serious accident that
resulted in partial paralysis of one side,
and from which she never recovered.
She could not even read at first, but
she could write, and ii occurred to her
that she could be of service to Mr..
Beecher in answering his letters. SO
she bought two desks just alike, which
were placed back to back. at one of
which he sat when engaged in writing
sermons or at literary work, while she
sat at the other. When she had suffi-
GENTLY recovered to be able to oversee
the household affairs again, she pro-
posed to give up her secretaryship, but
her preacher husband would not have
1t so, and she continued to assist him
by attending to his correspondence till
the day Of his death.
Her Faith Never FaItered.
During the dark days of the Tilton
scandal her faith in Beecher never fall
tered. After he died she wrote great
deal for the press Having done con-
siderable literary work during his life
time, she had acquired clear, direct,
unpretentious style that won readers
easily. She told the story of how she
began to write something after this
fashion: Mr.. Beecher\ had promised
something from her pen for The Chris
tan Union. She protested for two or
three weeks, but one evening when he
went out he told her that he had made
a solemn promise for her, and she must
not disappoint him and his publisher
So she set to work, but like many an
other beginner, she tore up sheet after
sheet Finally she finished one sheet
and had begun on another when callers
came in. She hid her work under a blot
ter till the callers should leave. In the
meantime Mr.. Beecher returned with
the publisher of the paper They found
her manuscript, Mr.. Beecher added
several pages, and the whole was pub
lished under her name the next week
Her most interesting work was "Mr
Beecher as / Knew Him." which ran
as serial in monthly magazine. Dur
ing her widowhood Mrs Beecher lived
in little brick house in Brooklyn, so
near Plymouth church, where her gifted
husband once swayed the hearts of men
with his logic tongue, that she could
hear the music of the organ every Sun
day.