The Reverend

Henry Ward Beecher, highly esteemed and renowned man of the cloth, was accused of an adulterous affair with Elizabeth Tilton, wife of Theodore, Beecher’s close friend and editor of Bowen’s paper. Beecher was pastor at Plymouth Church, and a close associate of the Bowens. Rumors circulated that he had affairs with many women parishioners. There was widespread gossip that when Beecher faced his congregation, he was looking at seven or eight of his mistresses. Years later, he was characterized by Hamilton Holt, Henry’s and Lucy’s grandson, as “that sinful, amorous, lusty Preacher.”