Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1901 — REFUSED ALL TITLES. [ARTICLE]

REFUSED ALL TITLES.

Beecher Preferred “the Name by Which My Mother Called Me.” A reporter, probably broken into work after Henry Ward Beecher died, recently referred to the late Henry C. Bowen as “prominently related to some of the troublous years in the life of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.” Dr. Henry Ward Beecher was not Henry Ward Beecher. He refused all doctorates, whether of divinity, of philosophy, of letters or of law. He did so not ostentatiously, but so positively that degree conferring institutions at last passed him by. His naive and characteristic statement was: “I prefer to be known by the name my mother called me.” And, somehow, amid the throng of D. Ds., LL. Ds., S. T. Ds, or D. C. Ls., plain Henry Ward Beecher on a program or on a paster or in an advertisement had an explicit distinction by itself, because the greatness of the man exceeded the greatness of all degrees. “His mother,” by the way, was his stepmother. His mother died in his infancy. His stepmother came into his life when he was 4 years old. She was all love, tact and wisdom to him.—Brooklyn Eagle.