Edward Beecher

Edward Beecher, born in East Hampton, New York, was an American author and theologian, the son of Lyman Beecher and the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher. Beecher graduated from Yale College in 1822. He went on to study theology at Andover Theological School. In 1826, he became the pastor of Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts. He married Isabella (Porter) Jones in 1829. In 1830, he became the first president of Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois, where he remained president for 14 years. He was a close friend of Elijah P. Lovejoy and helped organize the first anti-slavery society in Illinois. His wife, Isabella, wrote to his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, to inspire her to write *Uncle Tom's Cabin*. He returned to Boston in 1844, where he was the pastor of Salem Street Church until 1855, when he returned to Illinois and became the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Galesburg. He was senior editor of *The Congregationalist* (1849-1855), and an associate editor of the Christian Union from 1870. In 1871 he settled in Brooklyn, New York, where from 1885-1889 he was pastor of the Parkville Church. Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Beecher)