The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-04-04
CONNECTICUT TRIBUTES TO
THE LATE REV. DR.. BECKWITH

Waterbury Comm American.-The
Rev. Edward G. Beckwith, DID, died
at Hamakuapoko, near Honolulu, on
March g. DIR. Beckwith was pastor Of
the Second Congregational church in
this city for ten years and the news
of his death will be received with re-
greet by great many people here who
know him personally and remember him
most cordially.
The news of his death came to The
Republican in copy of the Pacific
Commercial Advertiser of Honolulu, of
March T. Here follows an extract
from the Advertiser.]s
While the above clipping contains
many interesting facts about him,
aside from the announcement of his
death, yet there is much more to be
said The following facts are CLEANED
from the History of the Town and City
of Waterbury,:
Edward Griffin Beekwith, son of
Erastus and Martha (Wilcox) Beck
with was born in Great Darlington,
Mass, Nov. 16, 1926. His early educa-
ton was obtained in the common
school and at the academy where he
prepared for college. He graduated at
Williams in lS49, the valedictorian of
his class. He taught school for win
ter in Salisbury, and after his gradua-
tion taught year in CRANKY and there
became an assistant in the normal
school at Westfeld, Mass.
At the normal school in Westfield he
exhibited SO great an aptitude for
teaching as to draw to him the atten-
tion of the trustees of Williams college
as a suitable man to go to the Hawai-
ian Islands to develop the educational
institutions of the newly formed king
dom. He became in 1851 principal OF
the ROYAL school at Honolulu and
King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani
were among his pupils. He returned
to New England in 1860 and studied at
Andover two years, and in 1862 found
ed the Third Congregational church IN
San Francisco.
While taking a much needed rest at
his old home in Great Darlington,
Mass, he was called to the passionate
of the Second Congregational church
in this city and accepted, He was IN
stalled July II, 1871, and his first
sermon eaptivated his hearers. The
membership of the church under his
leadership increased from 500 to over
$50. After ten years of earnest work
he resigned to accept call to his for
mer charge, the Third Church of San
Francisco.
In 1887 he returned to Honolulu.
The Rev. DIR. Anderson, editor of the
history, says:
"Dr. Beckwith had a cultivated
mind, excellent reasoning faculties,
keen insight and an earnestness winch
carried conviction. By forethought and
iudicious management he carried most
of the changes he desired to introduce
in the church. He was rarely unlnter-
esting, often eloquent and sometimes
brilliant It is often the case that one
who excels as preacher is deficient
as a pastor, but the Second church
found DIR. Beckwith to be an exception
to this rule. He was unwearied IN his
attention to parish duties. His heart
overfowed with sympathy as he visited
the sick and dying and comforted those
who were stricken with sorrow. He
was loved not only by his own church
but by all denominations for the Cath
olicity of his spirit and his genial and
brotherly ways
In 1852 DIR. Beckwith married Caro-
line p Armstrong, daughter of the
missionary Armstrong so long connect
ed with the Hampton institute. They
had two children, Frank Armstrong
Beckwith, who graduated from Yale
-, H. Cd 81 go Iar 1c
in San Francisc in 1885. His daughter,