Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1899 — WHERE BEECHER WOOED. [ARTICLE]

WHERE BEECHER WOOED.

Rbbom Divine Wm Bia Wife la Partly of a Pana Boom. Henry Beecher. Bullard is just entering upon his thirty-first year a* Eistmaster and proprietor of the vilge etore in West Sutton, Mass. Mr. Buliard is well known in business and political circles through Worcester county, but it is not generally known, says the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram, that his name, Henry Beecher, was given to him by his uncle, Henry Ward Beecher.

Mr. Bullard was born in Holden April 9, 1839, and when the question of naming the child came up the celebrated Brooklyn divine said: “I would like you to name the boy Henry Beecher, and if you do I will give him a first-class education.” The name was given him, and his uncle watched and waited for the time when the lad should be old enough to leave the parental roof and begin the promised education.

When the boy Henry was five years of age his parents moved to the Bullard farm in West Sutton. The elder Bullard was a poor man, and his three sons, Ira, Henry and Franklin, had to work early and late to help carry on the 180-acre farm.

When a small lad Henry built fires and took care of the village schoolhouse winters, receiving ninepence a week. When ten years of age Henry and his brother Ira, two years older, began hauling wood from a forest three miles away, each lad having the management of a team, one of which was two pairs of oxen, the other one fiair and a horse. This work was folowed, when other farm duties would permit, for seven years. When Henry reached the age of 15 Henry Ward Beecher wrote to the father that he was ready to fulfill his promise, and requested that the boy be sent to Brooklyn to become a member of Mr. Beecher’s family, attend a preparatory school and later enter college. The elder Bullard had taught district schools, and must have realized the value of a thorough education, but, feeling the need of his son’s help, he vetoed the plan of Mr. Beecher, and, instead of a college education, Henry received only the benefit of the district school winters until he was 17 years of age. The father gave each of his sons his time at the age of 17, and when Henry reached that age he worked for his father, the first year receiving SIOO and board. There being no money in the family treasury, the son took the parental note for the year’s wages'and went to Oxford, where he passed a year in the employ of Franklin F. Sibley, working 16 hours a day and receiving therefor sl2 a month. When Henry was 20 his father was in feeble health and he returned to the farm. The Bullard farm is one of the most interesting landmarks to visitors, it being the girlhood home of Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher and the scene of her marriage to the young clergyman who afterward became the most noted divine of his day. The house, a large two-story frame structure, was built in 1767, and came into the possession of the Bullard family in 1805. The present owner, 11. B. Bullard, keeps the house in perfect repair, but the parlor where Eunice W. Bullard married Henry Ward Beecher,and theroom above, which was hers, remain unchanged, the paper upon the walls having survived the dust of over 80 years.

In the later years of her life Mrs. Beecher made frequent visits to her girlhood home, and on each of these occasions she wrote the name and the date of her visit on the wal] paper of the room where she and Mr. Beecher used to sit in their courting days. The last of these visits was in the summer of 1893, when she was accompanied by Rev. Lyman Abbott. For some time Mr. Amasa Bullard opposed Mr. Becher’s attentions to his daughter Eunice, on the ground that the young man’s financial prospects were not what he wished for his daughter’shusband. Mr. Beecher was wont to tell that he did his courting in the pantry of the Bullard house while the fair Eunice was making pastry for the family- table. Among the milkpans and shelves of tarts they enjoyed their communion of hearts, that they might be out of the way of the father. Mr. Beecher alluded to this in his later life when making an address at the opening of Hampden park, Springfield, thus: “I love to be here among the farmers. I love the farm, and I love the farm pantry, as it was there I began my courtship.” Near the house stands a spreading elm, which Mr. Beecher said he had in mind when writing his famous serial story, “Norwood.”