Henry Ward Beecher - Brooklyn, NY
Posted by: 
garmin_geek
N 40° 41.692 W 073° 59.407
18T E 585324 N 4505375
Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887) was a prominent Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th century. The statue is located in Columbus Park.
Waymark Code: WMFCBN
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 09/27/2012
Views: 9
Dedicated in 1891, this striking bronze figural (life size) group by sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910) honors the esteemed clergyman, abolitionist and orator Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887).
The piece places the cloaked Beecher atop a lavish granite pedestal designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt (1828–1895). Attached to the base on one side is the figure of an African-American girl placing a palm branch at his feet, and on the other side a boy assists a girl laying a garland. Considered a full flowering of Ward’s artistic expression, Beecher is depicted in a pensive manner, and the figures beside the base symbolize his devotion to children and his support of abolitionism. Though there were repeated attempts to place the statue in Prospect Park, it was installed instead in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall, and dedicated before 15,000 spectators on June 24, 1891. In 1940 it was relocated and restored, and in 1960 it was relocated again to its current location at the north end of Columbus Park. For comparison, one may view another depiction in bronze, by Mount Rushmore’s sculptor, Gutzon Borglum (1867–1941), placed in 1914 in the courtyard of the Plymouth Church on Orange Street. text source
Henry War Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the son of Lyman Beecher, a prominent Congregationalist minister and educator. His sister was Harriet Beecher (Stowe), author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Beecher graduated from Amherst College in 1834 and studied at Lane Theological Seminary where his father was serving as president. In 1837 he was called to a Presbyterian ministry at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and began to develop his extraordinary preaching techniques. From 1839 to 1847 he ministered in Indianapolis.
In 1847, Beecher moved to a Congregational church in Brooklyn, New York. His dramatic oratory quickly drew crowds of 2,500 to the pews in Plymouth Church. Most of the great liberal causes of the day were espoused, including temperance, women’s suffrage, abolitionism, evolutionism, and scientific biblical criticism.
In 1854 Beecher and his congregation were strongly opposed to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and launched a fund-raising drive to purchase rifles to arm the antislavery forces in the territories. Those arms were dubbed “Beecher’s Bibles.”
Beecher was also active in political circles, first with the Free-Soil movement and later with the Republican Party.
When the Civil War erupted, Beecher raised money to support a volunteer Union regiment. In 1863 he conducted a lecture tour in England for the purpose of popularizing the Northern cause to often doubting audiences.
In 1874 Beecher was sued by Theodore Tilton, a former friend, for alleged adultery with Tilton’s wife. This was one of the great scandals of the post-war era. The trial resulted in a hung jury, but Beecher was later cleared of all charges before two church courts. The notoriety sparked by this event followed Beecher for the remainder of his life, but he continued to be a popular writer and lecturer.
Henry Ward Beecher, regarded by many as the greatest clerical orator of his century, was also the embodiment of much that the South feared and hated — a man of liberal ideas who was willing to marry religion, politics and money to accomplish his goals. text source