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Erasmus Darwin Beach


Gender:
Male
Born:
July 25, 1809
Died:
August 22, 1867
Home Town:
Sandisfield, MA
Later Residences:
Springfield, MA
Marriage(s):
Eliza Foot Beach (October 29, 1856)
Olive Hubbard Beach (November 22, 1862)
Biographical Notes:
Erasmus Darwin Beach was the son of Dr. Erastus and Sarah Beach. He was born on July 25, 1809 in Sandisfield, Massachusetts. Erasmus attended the Litchfield Law School in 1832 and was admitted to the Hampden County Bar in 1833.

After passing the bar Beach began practicing law in Springfield, Massachusetts with his business associates James Crooks, William G. Bates, Edward B. Gillett and Ephraim W. Bond. Beyond his legal career, Beach also had a prominent political career. In 1851, Erasmus was elected a member of the Massachusetts Senate and in 1853 he participated in the Massachusetts State Constitutional Convention. He also ran as the Democratic Candidate for the Governor of Massachusetts, but was unsuccessful.

Beach also had business interests and upon acquiring the ...
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Education
Years at LLS:
1832

Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Political Office; Business
Admitted To Bar:
Hampden County, MA in 1833
Political Party:
Democrat
State Posts:
State Senator (MA) 1851
State Committees:
Member of the MA State Constitutional Convention in 1853.

help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849, 24.
Secondary Sources:
Alvord, Samuel Morgan, comp. A Genealogy of the Descendant of Alexander Alvord. Webster, NY: A.D. Andrews, Printer, 1908;

Davis, William T., Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Vol. 2. Boston: The Boston History Company, 1895.

Everts, L.H. History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts. Higginson Book Company, 1993.

Smith, Elizur Yale. Vital Records of Sandisfield, Massachusetts to the year 1850. Tuttle Publishing Co., 1936.

Warren, Thomas B. and Ella May Lewis. Springfield Families. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1998.


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