Henry Beecher of Baxley, Appling County, Georgia

In 2018, a Y-DNA test on a male Beecher who descends from Henry Beecher revealed his family is the same line as America’s famous Beecher family, that of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” who were champions of the anti-slavery movement, and were born in Connecticut, their family descending from John Beecher who arrived with the English party to found New Haven, Connecticut in 1637.

Henry Beecher of Georgia arrived in Darien, Georgia,  directly from England in the early 1800s, and was likely was born in or near Kent, England, which is where John Beecher was known to come from. Also, as part of our Beecher Y-DNA project, we have tested a living male Stephen Beecher in Kent, England, and his test also matches the Y-DNA of Henry Beecher of Georgia.

When did Henry Beecher of Georgia’s line share an ancestor with John Beecher who died in 1637 in Connecticut?

The TIP calculator at FamilyTreeDNA.com indicates there is a 90% chance It will be in the early 1600’s.

We are beginning to build the family tree of Henry Beecher (work in progress)

Click to learn more about our Beecher Y-DNA Project, which traces only the father’s father’s father’s (Beecher) relationships.

Henry Beecher’s Land & Grave

We are hoping to find a tombstone that can reveal Henry’s birth and death years, so we began to research where he might be buried.

On 22 April 1861, Henry’s sons William A. and Henry H. Beecher purchased for $500 Lot 570 (490 acres) from Elijah Sapp, shown on the map at right, and recorded in Appling County Deed Book K pages 76-77.  Sapp was the brother-in-law of their brother, Wilson Lumpkin Beecher.

On 10 Jan 1874 Henry Beecher purchased for $100 all 490 acres in Lot 571, Deed Book N page 395. Lots 570 & 571 are about 11 miles north of Baxley, the county seat.

Henry Sr. took possession of son William’s interest in the east half of Lot 570 by September 1880, when Henry Beecher Sr. filed a homestead exemption in Deed Book J page 124 for himself and his family recorded as Lucinda Beecher aged 58, Andrew Lee Beecher 17, and John Morgan Beecher 17, described as the east half of lot 570 consisting of 228 1/2 acres. (His son Henry H. Beecher applied for an exemption on the west half of lot 570 on 1 Mar 1887.)

On December 25, 1880, Henry’s wife Lucinda was murdered by her son-in-law, William Young, according to a 1 February 1881 article in the Atlanta Constitution. Knowing she was buried in 1880, when Henry was living on Lot 570, we believe she and Henry are likely buried nearby. Lot 570 was on today’s West River Road where shown on this Google Map.

In 2017 we went to Baxley seeking Henry’s grave site and  learned that family lore said Henry was buried in “Mann Cemetery.” The site FindAGrave.com had a Mann Cemetery in north Appling county on West River Road, so we searched there for graves for hours in a timbering forest, but found none. We conclude that  FindAGrave’s location is inaccurate.

Weeks later, we discovered an old U.S. Geological Survey map with Mann Cemetery in another  location east on W. River Road on private property now owned by Ronnie Mann, which plots on a aerial photo map as shown. We have written to Mr. Mann and are awaiting a response and will visit this location if warranted. To add to the intrigue, we know from Henry’s deeds his Lot 570 borders Ronnie Mann’s property on the south. W. J. Mann (1853-1904) owned Lots 583, 569, and 535 surrounding the Beecher’s Lot 570. W. J. Mann is buried nearby in Deen Cemetery #2 on Deen’s Landing Road so perhaps Henry’s grave is there, if not behind Ronnie Mann’s?

We also checked at the Appling County Public Library in Baxley for a record of Henry’s death and an obituary. Since researchers indicate he died about 1908, we reviewed the surviving copies of the newspaper in the years 1907-1909 but did not find mention of Henry’s death. There are no surviving newspaper copies before 1907 and some from 1907 to 1909 also didn’t survive, so it’s possible Henry’s obituary was in a missing issue. Click to download our PDF of the 1907-1909 newspapers but this is a very large file taking a half-hour to download on a fast Internet connection. We also have the Baxley News-Banner from 1910 to 2005 which has many Beecher articles so email if you need access.