1885.1 '^^*- [Agnew. 



lungs, and as the condition of tlie country continued to be turbulent and 

 unsettled, he returned to the United States, after an absence of three 

 years. During the year 1843, he remained in New Haven, devoting the 

 entire time to rest and study. 



In 1S44, on the invitation of the Rev. W. A. Scott, he repaired to New 

 Orleans in order to deliver a course of lectures on Syria. A year later Dr. 

 Beadle returned to the same city, which for six years he made the theatre 

 of a most remarkable ministerial work. In this period he organized three 

 Presbyterian churches, all of which remain as permanent and influential 

 organizations. It was while a resident of New Orleans, in 1847, that a 

 fearful visitation of yellow fever occurred in the city. Eight members of 

 his family, including servants, were attacked by the disease, five being 

 down at one time, but notwithstanding the great mortality of the epi- 

 demic, all recovered. I remember on one occasion, when relating some of 

 the scenes witnessed during the prevalence of the disease, and when the 

 whole community seemed to be in a state of panic and fear. Dr. Beadle 

 spoke of the singular moral effect of a single unlerrified individual in in- 

 spiring courage and hope. With the dawn of the morning, and again with 

 the setting sun, an old negro going to and returning from his daily toil, 

 sang at the top of a clear musical voice, "Way down on Suwanee river." 

 Whether the song was inspired in order to keep up the courage of the 

 singer, or, like the warble of a bird, was the simple outcome of a heart free 

 from fear or care, he was unable to say, but the moral efl'ect on the spirits 

 of himself and others was perfectly magical. 



While in New Orleans, Dr. Beadle, in addition to his ministerial labors 

 as the regular pastor of the Prytania Street Church, one of the three which 

 he organized in that city, was the associate of the Rev. Dr. Scott in estab- 

 lishing and conducting a religious publication, the New Orleans Presby- 

 terian, a paper distinguished alike for its able advocacy of the distinctive 

 doctrines of Presbyterianism, and its high literary merit. 



In 1852 Dr. Beadle was called to Hartford, Connecticut, to the Pearl 

 Street Church. This was a new organization, and in many respects a diffi- 

 cult field to fill, inasmuch as the incumbent would be measured alongside 

 of a number of the ablest preachers and scholars in New England. Beadle 

 at tliis time was in the very prime of his power, and at once assumed a 

 commanding position among his ministerial brethren. In a short time the 

 new church was crowded to its full capacity with young men, and during 

 the ten years in which he lived and wrought in Hartford, no man ever 

 was more deeply entrenched in the affection of a people than was Dr. 

 Beadle. Untirthe time of his demise, he was to them the son of consola- 

 tion, responding to their often repeated calls by his personal ministrations 

 in times of sickness or sorrow and of death. 



In the winter of 1859 he had a return of his pulmonary malady, and was 

 compelled to take refuge in Santa Cruz. Few who saw the wasted man 

 depart entertained any hope of ever seeing him return alive. Yet, after a 

 sojourn of eight months, the abscess in the lung closed, and in 1860, one 



