Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was a prominent, theologically liberal American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th Century. Beecher attended Boston Latin School, graduated from Amherst College in 1834 and in 1837 received a degree from Lane Theological Seminary outside Cincinnati, Ohio, which his father then headed. First becoming a minister in Lawrenceburg (1837-39) he was then pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana (1839-47). In 1847, he was appointed the first minister of the new Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York. Beecher's fame on the lecture circuit led to his becoming editor of several religious magazines, and he received large advances for a novel and for a biography of Jesus. His works include: Seven Lectures to Young Men (1844), New Star Pagers; or,... Religious Subjects (1859), Plain and Pleasant Talk About Fruits, Flowers and Farming (1859), Life Thoughts: Gathered from the Extemporaneous... (1859), From Dawn to Daylight; or, The Simple Story of a Western Home (1859), War and Emancipation: A Thanksgiving Sermon... (1861) and Great Speech (1855).