Henry Ward Beecher was born in 1813 in Litchfield, CT. The son of Lyman Beecher a well known Congregational Minister. Henry’s equally popular sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was credited by President Lincoln who is reported to have said that book may have started The Civil War. In recent blogs I mentioned John Brown, a Torrington, CT native, who was involved in the Kansas-Nebraska Act where voters had the right to vote for slavery or against it. Henry Beecher raised funds to buy rifles for antislavery supporters. The rifles were called “Beecher Bibles.”

An abolitionist, Beecher was regarded by many to be the best orator of his century. Many of his sayings have been accumulated and published. An outspoken man he was hated in the South as they saw him as a man with to many liberal ideals willing to merge religion, money, and politics to accomplish his goals. The only blemish of his career was a law suit filed by a friend Theodore Tilton who accused Beecher of an affair with Mrs. Tilton. The trial ended with a hung jury. He was later cleared of all charges by two church courts.

He died in Brooklyn, NY of a stroke.