(1859) is a controversial autobiographical novel, set principally in Indianapolis, by Eunice White Bullard Beecher. Born on August 20, 1812, in Massachusetts, Eunice Bullard was a schoolteacher who married in 1837 and moved with him to Indiana. Beecher, who became one of the most influential clergymen of his time, served two Presbyterian churches in Indiana between the years 1837 and 1847, First Presbyterian in Lawrenceburg and in Indianapolis.
Twelve years after leaving Indiana, Eunice Beecher, under the pseudonym “A Minister’s Wife,” published , a thinly veiled autobiographical novel about her years in Indiana. (The volume was subtitled .) Second Presbyterian Church in the state capital was the major subject of the book.
Using the fictional names of Glenville and Norton for Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis respectively, Mrs. Beecher’s portrayal of the cities and congregations outraged Indianapolis residents, particularly members of Second Presbyterian. Especially troublesome were allegations that both congregations, and notably Second Presbyterian, had been remiss in paying Mr. Beecher’s salary. Also offensive were depictions of Indianapolis as a primitive, disease-infested backwater, devoid of culture or modern sensibilities.
In the novel, the character of Mary Leighton stands for Mrs. Beecher and her husband is represented by George Herbert. Mary, a vital, educated woman, follows her young clergyman husband to the frontier. There she endures profound loneliness and isolation, chronic illness, and the deaths of several children. In addition, she suffers the daily indignities peculiar to a minister’s wife. She is little more than a domestic servant, at the constant disposal of judgmental parishioners.
Such unflattering depictions caused the novel to be banned by public sentiment in Indianapolis for decades after its publication. In 1872, copies disappeared from the shelves of the newly established city library and the school board passed a resolution officially withdrawing it. Twelve years later, when a new librarian put it back in circulation, the novel again disappeared.
Scholars have corroborated the events described in the novel and consider the characters and chronology to be an accurate representation of the Beechers’ years in Indiana. Whatever its literary merits, has value for its portrayal of events and personalities from Indianapolis in the 1830s and 1840s.
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