Henry Ward Beecher - Amherst, MA
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neoc1
N 42° 22.298 W 072° 31.128
18T E 704293 N 4694021
A statue of clergyman, lecturer, author, abolitionist and social reformer, Henry Ward Beecher is located on the campus of Amherst College in Amherst, MA.
Waymark Code: WMMDPQ
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 09/06/2014
Views: 4
Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, CT on June 24, 1813. he graduated from Amherst College in 1834 and Lane Theological Seminary in 1837. He was a Congregationalist clergyman, lecturer, social reformer, and ardent abolitionist. In 1847, he became the first pastor of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York and soon became a sought speaker on the lecture circuit.
Before the Civil War he raised funds to purchase the freedom of slaves and to send rifles, called "Beecher's Bibles", to the abolitionists fighting in Kansas and Nebraska. During the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln sent Beecher to Europe to gain support of the Union. After the war he advocated for women's suffrage and temperance. In 1869, was unanimously elected to be the first president of the American Woman Suffrage Association.
Henry Ward Beecher was also a publisher and author. He was a founder and was an editorial writer for the New York Independent, a Congregationalist newspaper. He published the novel Norwood, or Village Life in New England, in 1868. He died of a stroke on On March 8, 1887.
A 8.5' by 3.5' by 3.5' bronze statue of Henry Ward Beecher stands on a 7' high by 5' square pink granite base. Beecher is Henry War Beecher holding his hat in his proper left hand. He is dressed in a large calf-length overcoat with a long cape around the shoulders. His arms are by his side and he is holding a hat in his left hand. The lower right side of the bronze plinth is inscribed: J.Q.A. WARD SCULPTOR where J.Q.A. stands for John Quincy Adams. The base has the inscription:
HENRY
WARD
BEECHER
CLASS·OF·1834