Lyman Beecher, the famous theologian of the 19th century married three times...and his wives were intelligent and fascinating people in their own right.
Lyman Beecher was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1775, the son of his father's third wife, Esther Lyman, who died in childbirth. He was raised in Guilford, Connecticut, by his grandparents, and married three times. He died in 1863, at the age of eighty-eight.
Theological Career
Beecher entered Yale College in 1793, after a few years of study with a minister uncle. In Lyman's sophomore year, Dr.Timothy Dwight, an ardent Calvinist, became president of Yale, and Beecher promptly became a dedicated Calvinist. During the years of his studies a classmate invited him to his home and there he met Roxana Foote, a beautiful, spirited woman with whom he fell in love. Beecher graduated from Yale in 1797 and after a year at the Divinity School was licensed to preach and was installed as minister of the Presbyterian Church in East Hampton, Long Island.
Roxana Foote Beecher
Roxana was living in Nutplains, a part of Guilford, when she met Lyman. A granddaughter of General Ward, one of Washington's generals, she was one of three sisters who were all beautiful and talented. "I had made up my mind that a woman to be my wife must have sense, must possess strength to lean upon." He certainly found his dream in Roxana.
Litchfield, Connecticut
Whether she had found her ideal...the title character in "Sir Charles Grandison"... is a bit difficult to believe, but they married and settled down in East Hampton, where, in 1800 Catharine Esther was born.Several children arrived in rapid succession and Roxana found it difficult to live on his meagre salary.
They moved to a new parish in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1809, and more children were soon added to the family. While Lyman Beecher has been referred to as ' the father of more brains than anyone in America,' Roxana must not be forgotten in this equation. She became the mother of Edward, a scholar and minister, president of a college; Catharine, an educator and founder of many schools; William, a minister; Harriet (Beecher Stowe), author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin;' Henry Ward, the most famous minister in America, and Charles, a church musician, composer and minister.
In 1816, Roxana Beecher died of consumption, and with her Lyman's many of Lyman's dreams also died...or remained dormant for several months until he came to realize that he needed a woman to take care of his unruly brood.
That is where Harriet Porter came in...and this will be covered in an article entitled "Lyman Beecher's Second Wife."
There is no available picture of Roxana Beecher
Sources:
Saints, Sinners and Beechers, by Lyman Beecher Stowe, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers, Indianapolis, 1934
Love Divine:The Story Of Henry Ward Beecher, by Anya Laurence, iUniverse Publishing, 2005
For further information about the Beecher family see:
