Henry Ward Beecher was born on June 24, 1813, in Litchfield, Connecticut; his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

In 1847, he became the first minister of the new Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York. Beecher was an advocate of women’s suffrage, temperance, and Darwin’s theory of evolution, and a staunch opponent of slavery and bigotry. During the antebellum period he raised funds to arm those opposed to slavery in the Kansas-Nebraska Territory. The weapons he bought became known as “Beecher’s Bibles.”

Early in the Civil War, Beecher urged President Lincoln to emancipate the slaves. Beecher’s church raised and equipped a Union volunteer infantry regiment.

Beecher died in Brooklyn on March 8, 1887, of a cerebral hemorrhage; his family received messages of condolence from all over the world, and his funeral procession was lead by an ex-slave and slave-holder walking arm in arm.

Carte-de-Visite by Unknown Photographer

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31535