CHARLES GORDON BEEBE, whose
portrait is here shown, was engaged in business in the village of Mystic,
at first as a merchant and later as a manufacturer, for more than half
a century; and for the last thirty years of his life he resided with his
family on West Main Street in the house now occupied by his widow, Mrs.
Emily T. Noyes Beebe. Mr. Beebe was born in Norwich, Conn., November 16,
1818. He was the younger son of William and Elizabeth (Brooks) Beebe, was
a grandson of John Beebe, and was a descendant of Myles Standish. William
Beebe was a manufacturer in Norwich, and died there at the age of forty-five.
His wife, Elizabeth Brooks Beebe, who survived him many years, lived to
be seventy-seven, dying in 1865. They were the parents of two sons and
a daughter; namely, Eliza Jane, William N., and Charles Gordon. Eliza Jane
married Calvin Stetson, became the mother of ten children, and died in
the spring of 1896. William N. Beebe, who died in New Haven, aged seventy-two,
had been married, and had lost all of his six children.
At the age of twenty, in 1838, Charles Gordon
Beebe came from Norwich to Mystic, and in company with the late E. R. Gallup
was engaged in trade for three years. Dissolving his firm relations with
Mr. Gallup, he then formed a partnership with the late Hon. B. F. Palmer,
and continued in the same line of business seven years more. In 1848 he
began the manufacture of cotton twine and cordage, which he continued with
success for about forty-four years. On September 28, 1843, Mr. Beebe was
united in marriage with Emily T. Noyes, who survives him, as above mentioned.
Mrs. Beebe was born in Stoning-ton, Conn., daughter of Joseph and Eunice
(Chesebro) Noyes. She is a descendant in the ninth generation of the American
progenitor of this branch of the Noyes family, who was a native of Nottinghamshire,
England, whence he came to this country in the seventeenth century. Mrs.
Beebe's father, Joseph Noyes, was twice married. By his first wife, Zurviah
Wheeler, he had eight children, seven sons and one daughter; and by his
second wife, Eunice Chesebro, he had nine children, five sons and four
daughters, Emily, Mrs. Beebe, being next to the youngest. All grew to maturity,
and five are still living, the eldest, Nathan Noyes, a son by the first
marriage, being ninety-four and the youngest seventy-one years of age.
Joseph Noyes outlived both his wives, dying in August, 1851, aged eighty-four.
The death of Mr. Beebe occurred March 28,
1895, his latest years having been passed in retirement. He left a good
name. To quote from the obituary published in a local sheet: "Mr. Beebe
was a citizen whose voice and influence were always given to the side of
virtue, temperance, and humanity. He secured and maintained the respect
of all those with whom he came in social or business contact, and by them
will be long kept in remembrance."
His pure faith and loyalty of affection are
revealed in a poem dedicated to his wife on the forty eighth anniversary
of their marriage, a portion of which we quote below, regretting that lack
of space prevents us from giving it in full:
Through many years of calms and storms
We have sailed life's sea together,
And shared alike its changing forms
Of foul and pleasant weather.
Together eight and forty years
We've journeyed for our heavenly home,
Mid joys and tears, while hopes and fears
Alternate frowned or cheered us on.
. .
. . . .
. . .
. .
Sickness and pain, as well as joy,
Were wisely sent, our faith to try;
But He who gave us grace to live
Will grant the needed grace to die.
Now, as passing years remind us
One soon must leave the other here,
Our tested faith should closer bind us,
While this great hope our prospects cheer:
That, when the night of death is ended,
We'll rise, from sin and sorrow free,
In purer love our spirits blended,
United for eternity.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Beebe was blessed
by the birth of seven children, six of whom —Charles H., Edward S., Emily
A., Courtland, Lillian E., and Herbert L.-- lived to celebrate with them
the golden anniversary of their marriage. Edward Stewart, the second son,
unmarried, is engaged in the insurance business at Mystic; Emily A. is
the wife of William A. Shutze, of Baltimore, Md.; Courtland, of Norwich,
is married, and has five children; Lillian E., widow of Frank R. Mallory,
with her son, Charles B., and daughter, Lillian Stark Mallory, lives with
her mother here in Mystic; and Herbert Lincoln, a commercial traveller,
who has his home in Syracuse, is married and has one son. The eldest son,
Charles Hamilton Beebe, died on April 12, 1895, aged fifty years, but two
weeks after the burial of his father, a cold having developed into pneumonia.
He had returned to his home in Roanoke, Va., where he was engaged in business.
He left a wife and three children. In announcing his death, the Roanoke
Daily Times said of him: "Mr. Beebe has been connected with, and was practically,
the Norwich Lock Manufacturing Company, for almost a quarter of a century;
and since his removal to the city about five years ago he has done much
toward the upbuilding of Roanoke. He was a man of integrity and of character,
who enjoyed the full confidence of all with whom he came in business or
social contact; and his death removes a man Roanoke could ill afford to
lose."
(Photo attached)
Biographical Review Volume
XXVI
Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens
of New London County Connecticut
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1898
pgs 68 - 71
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