Rev. Thomas Cumming Beattie, Page 1

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="0a5d05a3.jpg"> <div> Orange County, New York</div> <div> American History and Genealogy Project</div> <div> Rev. Thomas Cumming Beattie, Page 1</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="0a6d2123.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/orange/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/or"><U>Orange County AHGP/ALHN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/"><U>New York AHGP/ALHN</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://ahgp.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://ahgp.org"><U>AHGP</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://alhn.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://alhn.org"><U>ALHN</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="623" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 812 WIDTH="617"><div> <IMG SRC="04dd5240.jpg" border=0 width="213" height="292" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Old English Text MT" >T</FONT>HE Rev. T. C. Beattie, successor to Dr. Leggett, was born of a ministerial family, and has eminently sustained the glory of the family name as a preacher of the gospel.  He was the son of Rev. David Beattie, the beloved Pastor of Scotchtown Presbyterian Church, Orange Co., N. Y., for forty-two years.  He was born in Scotchtown, N. Y. July 23d, 1854, with a strong physical constitution which was splendidly developed in his boyhood romps over the rugged hill of Scotchtown.  After absorbing what was to be had in the way of education at his own village school, he was sent to the Middletown, N. Y., Academy, where George A. Decker, Esq., now a lawyer of wide repute in Middletown, was then the prominent teacher.  At twenty years of age and with a bright career before him, he entered Princeton College.</div> <div>      Very shortly after entering College, however, he was smitten with typhoid fever.  It was a very malignant case, and left him after a severe struggle for life, with a much weakened constitution.</div> <div>      He graduated, nevertheless, four years later, very near the head of his class of seventy-eight fellow students, delivering the class oration.  He was also one of the six appointed to debate on Commencement Day.</div> <div>      He still looks back to those College years with much gratification, for the teachers in his day, Dr. McCosh, in Philosophy, Lyman Atwater, in Logic, Charles A. Young, in Astronomy, and A. Guizot in Physical Geography, were not only eminent men at that time, but have since become world renowned in their various departments.</div> <div>      After graduating in 1878, and while his studies were still fresh in his mind he spent one year in preparing his younger brother, William, for College.  The death of this younger and only brother, William, while in his Junior College year at Princeton, made a deep impression upon him.</div> <div> Mr. Beattie was converted under his father's preaching while yet a young boy of about 14 years of age, and united with the Scotchtown Presbyterian Church.  Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit he chose the ministry as a calling.  This shows the character of the man for there is no higher vocation on earth, and he was fully convinced that this was his mission in life.  His choice of Union Theological Seminary was not made upon its superior teachers, but because he had lived in Princeton four years and believed that a change of surroundings might be beneficial to him.  After one year at Union, however, he was strongly convinced that Princeton was the place for him, because there the Word of God was pre-eminently exalted.  In Princeton the guesses and theories of the best scholars were subordinated to the inspired Word.</div> <div>      In his course at Union Seminary he received the lectures of such men as Drs. Shedd, Hitchcock, Schaff and Briggs.  While at Princeton Seminary his instructors were Drs. A. A. Hodge, Casper Hodge, Aiken, Green and Moffat.  He was one of the four speakers appointed for the Commencement exercises of the Seminary.  He had been taken under the care of New Brunswick Presbytery while at Princeton, and so was licensed in April, 1881, by that Presbytery.</div> <div>      The Church of Chester being vacant at that time, and nearing various candidates, was supplied by Mr. Beattie for two Sabbaths, though not consciously as a candidate.  The people were quite pleased with the young man, both in and out of the pulpit.  A hearty call was extended to him and he began his labors with the Church on June 2 7th, 1882.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="pg19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rev. Thomas Cumming Beattie, Page 2"><U>Next Page</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="pg1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Table of Contents"><U>Table of Contents</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></I></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>