se men. Of them all,
Mr. Bowen was perhaps the most aggressive and the most of a leader. He
was the first superintendent of the Sunday School, and had much to do
with the plans for and the erection of the present church building. A
man of very positive convictions and great executive ability, he did
what he did with his might. The same characteristics went into his
conduct of _The Independent_, of which he was one of the founders in
1848. While the fame of its editors, Henry Ward Beecher, Joseph P.
Thompson and Richard Salter Storrs, went far and wide, not a little of
the success of the paper was due to his general management, and to his
hearty indorsement of the position of his editors, however radical they
were--indeed the more radical the better. Later, when he acquired entire
control, these characteristics were still more manifest.

Another prominent man was Austin Abbott, brother of Dr. Lyman Abbott, a
well-known lawyer, and one who was closely identified with the defence
of Mr. Beecher in his famous trial. Well do I remember him as he first
came, a boy, and took his seat in the west gallery. Then there were
Henry M. and Augustus Storrs. The former was an intimate friend of
Horace Greeley and used to travel about with him in his political tours.
Both were warm friends of Mr. Beecher, but Augustus was specially
active; it was at his house in Sidney Place that many of the meetings
for consultation were held. Robert R. Raymond came to Brooklyn from
Boston and brought the classic atmosphere, combined with a most
emphatic manner, to his professor's work in the Polytechnic Institute.
He was one of the comparatively few who took part in the prayer
meetings, which generally were really lecture talks by Mr. Beecher. He
seemed to think that a literary atmosphere would certainly do no harm,
for his favourite subject was Shakespeare, and he frequently read
lengthy extracts from his plays. He became widely known as a student and
reader of Shakespeare. His son, Rossiter Raymond, will be mentioned
later.

Robert S. Bussing was specially interested in the Bethel Mission; at
first it was independent, but afterwards became a regular part of
Plymouth Church work. General Horatio C. King was among the leaders in
somewhat later days. A son of Horatio King, United States
Postmaster-General under Buchanan, he always identified himself with the
various reform movements, especially the anti-slavery ones, and was thus
in hearty sympathy w