BEECHER, Catherine Esther, American educator and philanthropist, eldest daughter of Lyman Beecher : b. East Hampton, L. I., 6 Sept. 1800; d. Elmira, N. Y., 12 May 1878. Her faith and life were nearly wrecked at 22 by the loss of her betrothed, Prof. A. M. Fisher of Yale, in a shipwreck, and she lived unmarried, plunging into work as a relief ; but she had the Beecher energy which could hardly have re mained quiet in any case. From 1822 to 1832 she managed a girls' school in Hartford, Conn., with remarkable success and repute; she wrote some of her own classbooks, one on mental and moral philosophy being afterward used in col leges. From 1832 to 1834 she kept a similar school in Cincinnati, in order to be with her father, who was at the head of Lane Seminary; but her health compelled her to abandon it. For the rest of her life she worked with heart and soul to advance the education of women and girls, physical and social, as well as intellectual and moral, for she believed in the full harmony of all inborn human qualities. She organized
a "National Board of Popular Education," to train women teachers, especially for the South and West, and traveled and wrote extensively in this behalf. As with most persons of much force, she had many "fads" and eccentricities; but she was a high-minded, accomplished and charming woman, of great wit and executive capacity. Her first work was on the 'Difficulties of Religion' (1836) ; among others were 'True Remedy for the Wrongs of Women> (1851) ; 'Physiology and Calisthenics' (1856) ;'Common Sense Applied to Religion> (1857) ; 'Woman's Profession as Mother and Educator, with Views in Opposition to Woman Suffrage' (1871).