Chapter 2: school days in Hartford, 1824-1832.
- Miss Catherine Beecher. -- Professor Fisher. -- the wreck of the Albion and death of Professor Fisher. -- the minister's Wooing. -- Miss Catherine Beecher's spiritual history. -- Mrs. Stowe's recollections of her school days in Hartford. -- her conversion. -- unites with the first church in Hartford.- -- her doubts and subsequent religious development. -- her final peace.
The school days in Hartford began a new era in Harriet's life. It was the formative period, and it is therefore important to say a few words concerning her sister Catherine, under whose immediate supervision she was to continue her education. In fact, no one can comprehend either Mrs. Stowe or her writings without some knowledge of the life and character of this remarkable woman, whose strong, vigorous mind and tremendous personality indelibly stamped themselves on the sensitive, yielding, dreamy, and poetic nature of the younger sister. Mrs. Stowe herself has said that the two persons who most strongly influenced her at this period of her life were her brother Edward and her sister Catherine.
Catherine was the oldest child of Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Foote, his wife. In a little battered journal found among her papers is a short sketch of her life, written when she was seventy-six years of age. In a tremulous hand she begins :
I was born at East
