Few women's names have made so vivid a mark upon the history of our country as that of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
On June 14, 1811, in the little town of Litchfield, Connecticut, Harriet first saw the light of day. She was the seventh child, the eldest being but eleven years of age. Just two years after Harriet was born came a little brother, Henry Ward, who became the renowned pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn.
Harriet's father, the Reverend Lyman Beecher, was a man of marked ability, and her mother, Roxanna Beecher, was a woman whose beautiful life has been a help to many. The family was a large one to be supported on a salary of five hundred dollars a year, and in order to assist, Roxanna Beecher started a select school, where she taught French, drawing, painting and embroidery, as well as the higher English branches.
A great grief came to little Harriet, when she was between three and four, in the death of her mother. Certain things in connection with this event, as the funeral, the mourning dresses, and the walk to the burial ground, never left her memory. Her little mind was confused by being told that her mother had gone to heaven, when Harriet had with her own eyes seen her laid in the ground. Her brother Henry suffered likewise from this confusion of thought. He was found one day in the garden digging diligently. When his elder sister Catherine asked him what he was doing, he answered: "I'm going to heaven to find mamma!"
When Harriet was six, her father married again. At first the little girl, who had loved her own mother so dearly, felt very sad about this; but she afterward learned to love and respect her new mother.
Harriet had a remarkable memory. At seven she had memorized twenty-seven hymns and two long chapters in the Bible. She read fluently, and continually searched her father's library for books which might interest her. Very few did she find there, however. Most of the titles filled her childish soul with awe, and she longed for the time when she could understand and enjoy such works as Bonnett's Inquiries, Bell's Sermons, and Bogue's Essays.
One day good luck befell her. In the bottom of a barrel of old sermons she came upon a well-worn volume of The Arabian Nights. Imagine her joy! A world of enchantment opened to her. When Ivanhoe fell in her way, she and her brother George read it through, together, seven times.
It was in the school of Mr. John P. Brace that Harriet discovered her taste for writing. Her compositions were remarkable for their cleverness; when one of them was read at the entertainment at the close of the year, Harriet's cup of joy was full to the brim.
About this time Harriet's elder sister, Catherine, opened a school in Hartford. The circumstances which led her to do so were very sad. Catherine, who was remarkably gifted, had been engaged to Professor Fisher of Yale, a brilliant and promising young man. These young people expected to be married on the return of the Professor from a European trip. But the vessel on which he sailed was wrecked, and he never came back.
This almost prostrated Catherine, but her strong nature rose to meet the blow. She determined to devote her life to the work of helping girls. After hard work she raised several thousands of dollars and built the Hartford Female Seminary, where girls studied subjects heretofore taught only in boys' colleges, and received an education more on an equality with that given to boys.