Lyman Beecher
Americas Voluntary establishment of religion
Childhood and Education
Lyman Beecher was born October 12, 1775 and died January 10, 1863 but in between then he lived a life as a Presbyterian minister. When he was young he was committed to caring for his uncle who adopted him, Lyman spent his life between blacksmithing and farming until he soon realized he liked to study. He went to Yale University and became a minister in 1799.
Aldulthood, marriage and family
Beecher gained famous recognition in 1806 when he gave a sermon abou the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. And with gaining a large salary for increasing family and moved to Litchfield, Connecticut in 1810 where he was the minister to the tonwns congregational church, where he remained for 16 years preaching calvinism. He purchased a home built by Elijah Wadsworth and had a large family consisting of 3 wives and 13 children.
Motivations to become a reformer
Excessive use of alcohol or intemperance was a concern in the United States and it even sometimes occured in formal meetings, and Beecher decided to stand against it. At about 1814 he published six sermons on intemperance and they rapidly spread through America and several different countries. Also in 1832 Beecher started to pastor the second presbyterian church in Cincinnati, Ohio and as the abolitionist movement grew he saw how voluntary groups could powerfully work together to fix social ills.