Lyman Beecher's second wife was the aristocratic Harriet Porter of Portland. Maine, who came to a tragic end as stepmother of the Beecher brood.
Lyman Beecher was a famous minister of the 19th century who was the father of many children...four of whom were born during his marriage to Harriet Porter, who was distinguished in the society of her time. Unfortunately for her, the marriage brought much sorrow and suffering.
Litchfield, Connecticut
Lyman's first wife, Roxana Foote, had died of consumption in the early autumn of 1816, leaving him heartbroken and with several children to raise. So, in the fall of 1817 Lyman decided that he would go to Boston, on a 'hunting expedition,' as the young girls of Miss Pierce's School described it. He was successful, meeting and wooing Miss Harriet Porter of Portland, Maine, while she was visiting in Boston.
Harriet was from a very prominent family, her father being one of the most sought-after physicians in the east. Her relatives included an uncle, William King, who had been the first governor of Maine, other uncles who had been congressmen and members of the Continental Congress and a United States Senator. She was pronounced 'a beauty, with wit and cultivation.'
Marriage to Lyman
This, then, was the woman who entered into the Beecher family in 1817. She was described by Harriet Beecher Stowe as being "a beautiful lady, very fair, with bright blue eyes and soft auburn hair bound round with a black velvet bandeau." Harriet was always elegantly dressed, and the children would flock around her to play with her rings and other jewellery. She was also a ' very pious woman.'
It was not long before she produced her own child...a boy named Frederick, who died at a young age. Soon after, Lyman made a decision to leave Litchfield and go to Boston as Pastor of the Hanover Street Church. Harriet did not want to go, but he persuaded her by saying that ' the streets had been sanctified by the blood and sweat of the pilgrims.'
Hanover Street Church
Harriet resolved to make the best of it in Boston and with Charles, Henry Ward and now her own two, Isabella and Thomas, she set up housekeeping at 18 Sheafe Street. All went well until, in 1830, the church burned to the ground and Lyman was forced to make new plans. The trustees of Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, had approached him and asked him to take over as president of the school...he was now considering this move. Harriet was heartsick at the thought.
Lane Seminary
They made the trip by most unusual means...losing luggage on the way ...taking them weeks to make the trip. Harriet was ill and this was the beginning of her breakdown in Cincinnati. They had another child, James, and settled in a house in Walnut Hills adjoining the seminary grounds. Soon Harriet became so unwell that she was unable to fulfill her household duties and an aunt was called in to take care of the family.
Harriet would visit the little graveyard on the college premises and think of the day when she would be interred there. It seemed to give her the only peace her troubled mind could accept. At this time Lyman was also up on charges of heresy, and this was probably the last straw for this delicate and cultivated women.Far away from home, society, relatrives and friends, she began to fail rapidly and in the summer of 1835 she died. The next year Lyman would be off on another wife-hunting expedition.
There is no available picture of Harriet Porter Beecher.
Sources: Saints, Sinners and Beechers, by Lyman Beecher Stowe, The Bobbs Merrill Company Publishers, Indianapolis, 1934
Love Divine: The Life of Henry Ward Beecher, by Anya Laurence, iUniverse Publishers, 2006
For further information about the Beechers see:
Who Was Isabella Beecher Hooker?
