Rev. Lyman Beecher’s kids in the Southern Tier

Harriet Beecher Stowe became one of the most famous, and controversial authors of the 19th century because of her book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. At the time, however, Harriet was just as famous as her brother, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and her eldest sister, Catherine Esther Beecher.

Catherine took over Harriet’s household and family chores so that Harriet had time to write her famous novel. She was a frequent visitor, and part time resident of Elmira, New York. Not only did Catherine lecture at Elmira College, but also she was an early civil rights activist who probably did more to protest for Native American rights than did most any woman at the time of the Cherokee removals to Oklahoma.  

She refused to support woman’s suffrage, but she was an avid abolitionist. But one of the things she was most known for was the promotion of education for both girls and boys, even to the point of taking on studying subjects like chemistry and mathematics in order to write text books for girls.  

One of the three colleges she founded, Milwaukee-Downer, still exists and contains an architectural plan for a home. Her book, “The American Woman’s Home” (1869 with sister Harriet) contains an architectural plan for an easily maintained cottage. The home built in 1867 by her youngest brother, Rev. James C. Beecher, is almost exactly as the plan in her book.  

Catherine was a close friend to some of the leading abolitionist families in Elmira, particularly the Gleasons (owners of the Elmira Water Cure) and Langdon family (in-laws of Mark Twain).  One of Catherine’s pet projects was finding young women to be trained as teachers to go west to establish public schools.  Catherine died in Elmira of a stroke in May 12, 1878 in the home of her brother, Rev. Thomas Kincaid Beecher. 

Rev. Thomas Beecher remained the minister of the Presbyterian Church in Elmira from the 1840s until his death in 1900. Today, there is a statue of Tom next to the church.  

Tom was an avid supporter of his community, including being the chaplain of the Elmira Water Cure and the infamous Elmira Prison Camp. What is least known is that he also, typical of the Beechers, wrote at least one book.  

It was a book particularly for children to help them understand faith. Tom’s house, possibly yet another Catherine design, still stands just across the street from where the Water Cure once stood. One of the marriages he performed was of Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon in Elmira in 1870. It seems that Tom was a faithful clergyman who didn’t seem to need the spotlight his elder brother, Henry, craved.

The youngest sibling, Rev. James C. Beecher, served temporarily at his brother’s church in Elmira while Tom was recovering from an illness. Jim had not wanted to become a minister, instead wanting a maritime career. He finally gave in to his father’s demands and went to college before becoming ordained as a Presbyterian minister.  

His first church was in China, as part of the Seaman’s Chapel mission in Canton and Hong Kong, which served sailors from all types of ships. His life there was difficult, as he had to flee because of the Opium Wars of the 1850s, and his first wife became an alcoholic that even time at the Elmira Water Cure wasn’t able to help.  

Jim returned to America in time to enlist in the Union Army early in the Civil War.  It was after an injury and hospital stay that he became the commander of a unique army, the 1st North Carolina Colored Troops, formed in 1863 in New Bern, North Carolina. Jim went beyond what was expected of him as commander as he arranged for books to be sent by his family in order to teach the ex-slaves in his care to read and write.  

His second wife, Frankie, got special permission to go into the battlegrounds with the troops to teach them. The 1st were in some of the worst situations and suffered huge casualties to the point that they were absorbed into the more famous 35th United States Colored Infantry.  

The three-year enlistment of the colored troops ended in 1866, and Jim’s troops may have, based on military correspondence, created the first Memorial Day after they finished building the military cemetery (for both Union and Confederate) in Charleston, South Carolina.  

The brutality towards ex-slaves on the battlefield may have been too hard for Jim to bear, leading into years of treatment of mental illness in the late 1870s until his suicide at the Elmira Water Cure on August 25, 1886. One of the few homes that James lived in still stands in Owego, N.Y., and was known at one time as “Comfort Cottage”. This house, built by James in 1867, is clearly a Catherine Beecher design. 

It should be a point of pride for the Southern Tier that three members of such an illustrious 19th century family were drawn to the area and became part of its life. Tom wrote of how he found his sister after she had a stroke in his home, and how he buried not only his sister, but also his brother Jim. Tom, as well, is buried in Elmira.

Tamara Manker Gates is a historian and researcher based in the Village of Owego. She has presented a number of living history presentations covering the Gilded Age and World War 1. She is presently working on a group presentation centered on the year 1902 that will be offered at several museums throughout the northeast.