Violet Beach - Henry Ward Beecher Collection

Violet Beach was the daughter of Chloe Buckingham Beach and newspaper owner Moses S. Beach. According to "the History of the Descendants of Henry Dwight of Hatfield, Massachusetts," Violet was born in New York on January 31, 1867 and lived in Brooklyn and then, for most of her life, in Peekskill, New York. She died on on February 16, 1946.

Henry Ward Beecher was born in 1813 to Rev. Lyman and Roxana Foote Beecher in Litchfield, Connecticut. His Amherst connections begin with his prep school experience at the Mt. Pleasant Institute and then with his years at Amherst College, from which he graduated with the Class of 1834. On August 3, 1837 he married Eunice Bullard, by whom he had 11 children during their 50-year marriage. Beecher was a popular preacher at the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn (1847-1887), a rebellious son of Calvinism, and an eloquent anti-slavery advocate. Beecher died on March 8, 1887. Beecher's well-documented life has been explored in several biographies, including the prize-winning "The Most Famous Man in America," by Debby Applegate.