William Beecher ^{1 2 3 4}

   Other names for William were William Beacher and William Bicher.

  General Notes:

Note: one might question the validity of the biography of this Beecher as printed in the Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County Pennsylvania in 1909. We have been unable to find any ties between George Beecher and the Connecticut Beecher lines. It appears more likley this George Beecher ancestor who died in Berks County is the same as this <a href="http://www.searchtrees.com/tree/4344.htm">George Beecher</a> who is the son of John Beecher/Bucher b.1759.

If you are a descdant of this family please email bucher@SiteServers.net to learn how you can participate in our research which can prove if William is related to the other Beecher lines in southern Pennsylvania (who are of Germanic descent) or the Beecher lines from Connecticut (who are of English descent).

  Noted events in his life were:

• Census, 1840, Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA. ⁶ William Bicher is listed in the 1840 Census with this household:
Males (born)
Under 5 (1836-1840) = 1 son
20-29 (1811-1820) = 1 father William
Females (born)
20-29 (1811-1820) = 1 mother

• Census, 1850, Lower Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA. ⁵ William Beacher, age 33, blacksmith, is living with wife Sarah, also 33; Reuben, 11; Mary, 7; John, 3; Levi, 1; Mary, 23; Harrison, 17, also a blacksmith. The second Mary is too old to be his daughter, so she must be a sister? Harrison is probably a brother? Everyone was born in Pennsylvania.

• Census, 1860, Lower Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA. ² William Beecher, 42, blacksmith, is listed in the 1860 Census in Lower Heidelberg Township in Berks County with real estate valued at $350 and possessions worth $175. With him is Sarah, 43; Reuben, 21, mason; Mary, 17; John, 13; and Levi, 11. Everyone was born in Pennsylvania. The post office is listed as Stouchsburgh.

• Census, 1870, South Heidelberg Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA. ⁷ Three Beechers are found on page 423 of the 1870 Census in South Heidelberg Township in Berks County. The post office is Wernersville.

William Beecher, age 52, blacksmith, is living with wife Sarah, 52; Levi, 21; and Ellen, 16. With them is a Sarah Strunk, age 4, and Harrison Beecher, 37, no occupation listed. William's real estate is valued at $1,800 and his possessions worth $400.

Reuben Beecher, 30, farm laborer, is living with wife Emma, 26, and George L., 7 months old, born in Oct. 1869. He has no real estate and $400 of possessions. Everyone was born in Pennsylvania.

• Census, 1880, Penn Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, USA. ³ William Beecher, blacksmith, 62, was living with Sarah A., 63. Also in the home was George L. Beecher, grandson, age 10; and Sallie M. Strunk, domestic servant, age 14. Everyone and their parents were born in Pennsylvania.

• Book: Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County, 1909. ⁸ William L. Beecher, who is the incumbent of an important position in the United States Custom House at Philadelphia, Pa., is a descendant of the well-known Beecher family in America, and traces his ancestors to the Beechers in England.

They were noted as "blacksmith-preachers", and Nathaniel Beecher, the first of the family in America, had his anvil set on the stump of a wide-spreading elm under which the famous John Davenport preached his first sermon before the New Haven Colony in Connecticut; and in a direct line the trade was followed by each succeeding generation in this family until 1903, when William L. Beecher's father retired in Berks county.

William Beecher, the grandfather of William L., who was a son of George Beecher who settled in Berks county about 1800, was a blacksmith by trade, and married Sarah Reifsnyder, by whom he had four children, the only survivor of whom is Levi R. Beecher, the father of William L.

Levi R. Beecher, who was for many years a blacksmith of Heidelberg township, where he is now living retired, married Ellen Louise Lake, a native of London, England, where her father carried on the business of a contractor for a time and whence he emigrated to America when she was a young girl. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher became the parents of four children: William L.; John A. m. Elsie Dundor; Katie E. m. Isaac Luckenbill; Howard died young.

William L. Beecher was born Oct. 1, 1870, in Lower Heidelberg township, Berks Co., Pa., about three miles north of Wernersville. He received his early education in the township schools, and then attended the Keystone State Normal School at Kutztown, Pott's Shorthand College at Williamsport, and the Reading Business College. When fifteen years old, he entered the Reading Hardware Works to learn the trade of molder, and while following this trade was licensed to teach public school. This was in 1889, and he taught for twelve terms, in West Reading, and Perry and Cumru townships, nine terms being in the last named, and during the summer months he worked at his trade.

In the summer of 1900, Mr. Beecher passed a very creditable examination for a position in the Philadelphia Custom House, and May 1, 1901, received an appointment as messenger. After serving in this position several months he was promoted to a clerkship and detailed for duty in the Custodian's office, where he has continued to the present time. His spare time is devoted to photography, entomology and painting. During the past five years, he has visited many battle-fields of the Army of the Potomac in the Civil war, photographing prominent places for the purpose of illustrating a book entitled "From Bull Run to Appomattox," of which he is to be the compiler. He has a fine collection of butterflies at his home, which he secured in his travels and mounted.

Mr. Beecher took an active part in the Pennsylvania National Guard for a number of years, having been a sergeant of the Reading Artillerists, and serving as company clerk. He participated in the suppression of the labor troubles in the coal regions in 1900, having been summoned from his school in Cumru township, and was engaged in this service for forty days.

In 1891 Mr. Beecher married Clara S. Moyer, daughter of the late Elias Moyer of Robesonia. One child has been born to this union: Lew Wallace, who is now attending the high school in Philadelphia, preparatory to taking up the study of medicine. He is quite an athlete, has participated in a number of cross-country runs, and at one time, in company with his father, walked from Philadelphia to Reading in less than twelve hours. The father and son have a great fondness for music, both playing the cornet very efficiently, and the son assisting in the orchestras attached to the high school, and Palatinate Reformed Church.

William married Sarah A. Reifsnyder, daughter of George Reifsnyder and Elizabeth Spengler. (Sarah A. Reifsnyder was born about 1817 in , , Pennsylvania, USA ⁵.)