Beecher, at the request of the federal government, delivered an oration at Fort Sumter on the anniversary of its fall, and on the occasion of the formal restoration of the national flag by Ma,jor Anderson. Besides his other literary labors, Mr. Beecher edited " The Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes," a work largely used by churches that practice congregational singing. In 1867 he wrote for the New York Ledger, for which he had previously contributed a series of papers teaching the art of profit and enjoyment in familiar objects -- a novel entitled, " Norwood ; or. Village Life in New England," which was afterwards published in book form. In 1872 he published "The Life of Jesus Christ: Part I. -- Earlier Scenes," of which the introductory " Overture to the Angels," had appeared in 1869. In the same year he accepted the " Lyman Beecher Lectureship on Preaching," then recently founded in the theological department of Yale College. Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher has also contributed to the press, and in 1859 published anonymously a work of fiction, " From Dawn to Daylight : A Simple Story of a Western Home, by a Minister's Wife." Her "Motherly Talks with Young Housekeepers " appeared in 1873.

Alexander H. Wells was born January 18, 1805, at Cambridge, Washington County, N. Y.. to which his father, Daniel, son of Edmonds Wells, had emi-

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

grated from Hebron, Tolland County, Conn., about the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Edmonds Wells was one of six patentees of the tract twelve miles square now embraced in the townships of Cambridge, White Creek and Jackson, Washington County. On his mother's side Alexander H. was descended frem Rev. Elijah Lothrop, a stern Whig, who was the Congregationalist minister at Gilead, Tolland County, Conn., during the Revolution.