Beecher-Stowe family papers, 1798-1956

Scope and Contents

Reports that Lyman is licensed to preach and is paying court to a Miss Foot (!) in Guilford. (N.B. Roxana Foote later married Lyman.)

Scope and Contents

Lyman discusses Alexander Fisher's slowness in declaring his intentions (toward Catharine) and later, after their engagement and Fisher's death, tries to comfort her. His efforts to help her get her school started in Hartford. Discusses her brother Edward's career prospects. Much religious exhortation. His debt. The family's state of health, affairs of the Litchfield Church. The later letters are directed to Mary, George, and Harriet Beecher as well.

Scope and Contents

Messages from James, Thomas, Catharine and Henry Ward Beecher.

Scope and Contents

Written on day he is to be installed as pastor of Second Church. Suggests Eastern friends might supply a chapel for the Lane Seminary.

Scope and Contents

On November 29, 1846, Sprague wishes to obtain a complete set of Lyman's pamphlet sermons. On March 6, 1848, he asks for recollections of a Dr. Buell for inclusion in Sprague's proposed bibliographical "Annals of the American Pulpit."

Scope and Contents

Writing to Lyman in Boston, July 6, 1849, he describes the cholera epidemic in Cincinnati. Non-church-going people are the worse afflicted. The Stowe family is well. On September 23, 1850, he terms the moment a critical one in Lane affairs, and urges Lyman to return (from Brooklyn).

Scope and Contents

Written while she was caring for Lyman during his declining years. She asks for money from Harriet and acknowledges its receipt. Describes Lyman's condition; his mind failing.

Scope and Contents (Of these 3 are undated, but were written during the same period.) Very full and confidential letters which document the metamorphosis of Catharine's character following Fisher's death. The first five, full of gay girlish gossip and nonsense, report on a visit to Boston in 1819. The following three describes in some detail Catharine's first experience in teaching at New London, and Fisher's courtship. In January and March 1822 she sends news of Fisher's proposal and his farewell visit before...

Scope and Contents

Chatty news from Cincinnati of the Beecher and Stowe families.

Scope and Contents

Lecturing him about overeating and the laws of health.

Scope and Contents

(This letter is a copy made by Catharine.) Much of the pioneering missionary work in which he is engaged could be done by women. Recommends a lady who shares Catharine's views on this subject.

Scope and Contents

Edward describes his busy life during his last year at Yale, and talks over problems in science and his Commencement speech. Wrestles with Catharine's sorrow and her religious doubts after Fisher's death. Passes on an account of Fisher's last moments from a survivor of the shipwreck in a letter dated October 29.

Scope and Contents

Introspective account of his life as a student--he is writing his autobiography in an attempt to see how the Lord has led him. He exercises on a rope in his room. Social growing pains. Bowdoin student uproars. Charles at New Orleans, to Lyman, March 3, 1839. The incoherent and melancholy meditations of "a disordered soul" about the uselessness of his life, the bitterness of disappointing his father's hopes, etc.

Scope and Contents

A long account of a family argument between Catharine, Edward and himself on philosophical questions. Exasperated with Catharine. Thomas, at Jacksonville, Ill., to Lyman, January 4, 1842. He is giving up the ministry and plans to enter West Point. The first half of this letter is written by Thomas; the last half by Charles.

Scope and Contents June 24, 1847, he has come around to Lyman's and Harriet's views on the lectures he is preparing for publication. Wishes Harriet could make revisions. Charles, at Fort Wayne, to Lyman, February 1, 1848. Reports the call he has received to a new Congregational church established with the backing of Lewis Tappan, in Washington, D.C. They are looking for an abolitionist preacher. Describes how he would approach the task. With advice from Lyman, Calvin Stowe, Edward, and Henry Ward, he might in...

Scope and Contents

Written on his wanderings down the Mississippi during his agnostic period. Lengthy accounts of his travels his reading, and his and others' views on topics of current interest like slavery and Maria Monk.