Thomas Beecher: Elmira Minister

"Let us see whether the rich man can love the poor, and not feel them a burden; whether the so-called refined and the unrefined can find some common bond; whether the aversions of race and caste are somewhat mitigated in us... Let us see whether we can make our children happy in fellowships and sports that are without taint of sin."
-Thomas Kinnicut Beecher

Thomas K. Beecher could often be found riding around town on a tricycle in a green velvet cap and overalls. He wanted to be viewed on a personal level by the people of his town and congregation, as opposed to a distant, impersonal level from where many pastors were viewed.

Thomas K. Beecher was a non-conformist man from a non-conformist family, which included several famous preachers and abolitionists. Thomas became a preacher as his father and brothers before him, but his methods of pastoring were very unconventional. He was a part of a family renowned for their abnormal and unique ways of pastoring. Although Thomas was firm and outspoken in his beliefs, many of which were controversial, he was loved by many and had a profound impact on the Park Church and many of the citizens of Elmira.

Thomas K. Beecher was born on February 10, 1824 in Litchfield Connecticut. He was the son of Lyman Beecher and Harriet Porter. Lyman Beecher was worried about the fate of his children's eternal souls and encouraged all his sons and daughters to serve God. He felt it was necessary for all his sons to enter the ministry. He sent Thomas to study at Illinois College. Thomas graduated in 1843, but at the end, he was not inclined to enter the ministry as his father wished. Thomas went to Indiana to help his brother, Henry, with his Evangelical ministry. Henry and Thomas would talk in simple terms about God as they did outdoorsy things like sawing wood and picking berries. It was in this simple way that Thomas became interested in his religion. It was very different from his father's intimidating lectures about hell fire and damnation.

After helping Henry, Thomas sought independence from his family. He took a job as teacher and principal in a school in Philadelphia, and then went on to Hartford Public High School in Connecticut for two years. While there he met a lovely young teacher named Olivia Day who accepted his proposal of marriage in 1850. At this time, too, partially because of the failure at the Hartford Public High School, he decided to become a minister, also helping him to provide financially for a new family and share his beliefs and faith.

In 1851, Thomas was able to start off as pastor to the New England Congregational Church in Williamsburg (part of Brooklyn, New York). This was fairly unsuccessful, though, and his wife Olivia died while pregnant in 1853. At this time the antebellum abolitionist movement was growing stronger. Thomas Beecher was not in favor of the movement, however. He preached his opinions in his church, offending many of his parishioners by saying they were ignoring other injustices like the unpleasant lives and conditions of northern industrial workers. Many members of the church took offense at this, most of them being middle class business people. In the latter 1850s he was called to Elmira's Independent Congregational Church, the early Park Church.

Originally the Park Church was founded as an abolitionist church in 1846. Several Elmira families who broke away from the Presbyterian Church were involved in the founding of the Independent Congregational Church of Elmira, among them: the Langdon family, the Robinson Family, the Andrus Family, and the Billings family. The new church made some changes like prohibiting members from selling liquor and members were not allowed to attend theatres, balls, or dance parties.

The early church struggled with pastoral and financial problems during the late 1840s and early 1850s. In order to find a replacement pastor for William Bement they called on Thomas Beecher, who one of the members had heard while visiting Brooklyn. By 1854, Thomas K. Beecher came to Elmira to preach. Mr. Beecher had odd little habits and was very unorthodox. He asked to be viewed first as another human being before anything else, in order to eliminate ideas of him being a typical, distant, and arrogant minister. Taking down these formal barriers between minister and congregation allowed him to become involved in the community more than just one day a week and in areas outside the church. He said, "Preaching never really converts anyone, but living does." In an effort to attract more working class males and counter the somewhat common misconception of pastors being weak and effeminate, he organized a campaign that he called "Muscular Christianity." He played baseball, billiards, and cricket with men in the church and provided them social time in a manly way without going to the tavern. He organized a church baseball team called The Lively Turtles. On days off, Thomas did various kinds of physical work such as plumbing, carpentry, bricklaying, and watchmaking for people in the community. He also was in charge of running the Elmira town clock for several years. Thomas Beecher kept up his scientific interests with astronomy and by founding an academy of science in Elmira. Thomas characterized anything that restored one mentally and physically as a form of play. He was very devoted to his church, though he was a different sort of minister with a whimsical personality. He once said, "I cannot make pastoral calls. I am not constructed so that I can. But I am yours all times of the day and night when you want anything of me. If you are sick and need a watcher, I will watch you. If you are poor and need someone to saw wood for you, I will saw wood for you. I can read the paper for you, if you need anybody to do that. I am yours but you must call upon me, the same as you would a physician."

In 1857 Thomas Beecher married Julia Jones, the cousin of his deceased wife, Olivia. She was a very energetic woman and seemed to be very different from her cousin. The Beechers also had a close family relationship with the Langdons, which is indicated by the fact that Thomas had a key to their house (across from the church) so he could go over and take naps instead of going home. The Langdons were a prominent family in Elmira. The Beechers and Langdons frequently dined at each other's houses. Each family seemed to have a very different viewpoint on slavery, however. Thomas Beecher was pro-slavery and very open about his views. Even in his close friendship with the staunchly abolitionist Langdon family, he didn't waver in his pro-slavery opinions and their ties of friendship remained strong in spite of this.

Though Beecher was a pro-slavery advocate, he believed in the unity of the country and spoke out against the secession of the Southern states that triggered the Civil War. In 1862 Beecher joined the union army as the chaplain for the 141st New York volunteers. Near the end of the war, he preached to the Confederate soldiers at the Elmira prison camp.

During the war Thomas and Julia adopted three children: Julia, May, and Clara all of whom they enjoyed caring for. In addition they often helped a boy named Oscar Bailey and another boy named Frank, whose father was a lower class laborer. They took great joy in children, and they were very active in creating activities for youth.

Thomas Beecher was always very outspoken and preached his opinions from the pulpit. He wrote a column in the Elmira Daily Advertiser that he called "Saturday Miscellany," in which he discussed both religious and secular issues. On Sunday mornings he preached in the Opera House, a location that was not considered proper by many local ministers. Beecher invited his colleagues to join, but they refused and were angered by him and his impropriety. Still, thousands turned out for Beecher's Sunday service. He wrote a book called Our Seven Churches in 1870. The book was about the seven main churches in Elmira that shared common religious views.

Although his sister was Harriet Beecher Stowe the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Beecher was not opposed to the institution of slavery and continued to preach on the subject in church. For some unknown reason people in his church never chastised him even though many of them were abolitionists themselves. Beecher did help on the Underground Railroad, however, providing counseling for runaway slaves. He was also friends with sexton and runaway slave George Jones and vouched for the honesty of his family. Beecher was willing to help many African Americans on an individual basis.

In 1871, plans for a new church building were drawn up, and at that point the name of the Independent Congregational Church was changed to Park Church. Although Thomas Beecher advocated simplicity in church buildings and affairs, the church ended up being very large and elaborate. The new church was one of the first institutional churches in the United States. Such churches supply many services to the community, and indeed with the new church, new services were offered to the community. Beecher developed many of the plans himself to create a "Church Home." Until 1899 when the Steele Memorial Library was built, the church served as the Elmira library. There was also a nursery and a "Romp Room," the latter in which Sunday school was held and where there were many activities offered for young people throughout the week. Thomas himself was the leader of the Sunday school.

Julia Jones Beecher was an active participant in church affairs as well. Thomas said of her, "My strong, courageous, energetic Julia- to whom belongs nine-tenths of the achievement of our long life in Elmira." She was an intelligent, unique, and practical woman. She helped in Sunday school by making props for theatrical performances in the "Romp Room" and square danced in her old age. Julia became famous throughout the United States for the rag dolls she created with old stockings. She also made other toys and stuffed animals, sold them, and donated the profits to charity. Julia was also a part of the temperance movement, a movement Thomas came to accept later in his life.

Thomas ran as the Prohibition Party candidate for the mayor of Elmira in 1884. Thomas's efforts were directed towards ending alcohol abuse, but not prohibiting alcohol.

As Thomas got sickly in his old age the church gave him vacations and leaves. Thomas had been preaching in Park Church for 46 years. Samuel and Annis Eastman, both of whom were ministers, took over in 1894. Beecher had been opposed to the ordination of women in the past, but accepted the wife, Annis, as a minister. Thomas Beecher became an advocate of cremation in his old age. On March 11, 1900, he suffered a stroke after services. He died three days later. In keeping with his belief in simple funerals, they held a simple memorial service and he was cremated.

A statue of Thomas Beecher stands in Wisner Park in front of Park Church. Beecher Elementary School on Elmira's eastside is also named after Thomas K. Beecher.