BEECHER, William Henry [1802-1889] -- American clergyman

His father directed his studios until he entered Andover theological seminary. He was ordained a clergyman in the Congregational church in 1830, and took his first pastorate at Newport, R.I. In 1833 Yale college conferred upon him the honorary degree of A.M. He went to Ohio in 1837 and located in Putnam, Muskingum county. He remained in the Western Reserve some years, engaged in missionary work, and returned to New York to fill a pastorate at Batavia. He returned to Ohio and preached at Toledo, where he established a church, of which he was pastor for several years, and was made president of Illinois college, Jacksonville, in 1843¹. The climate undermined his health, and he returned east and labored in Reading and North Brookfield, Mass., at which latter place he also served as postmaster. Upon the death of his wife he took up his residence with his daughters, Mary and Roxana, in Chicago, where he died June 23, 1889. BDNA

¹ He was never president of Illinois college, nor of any other college.