L. Wheeler Beecher, president of the Geometric Tool Company of New Haven, was born January 17, 1836, at Plymouth Hollow, Litchfield county, Connecticut, now known as Thomaston. He is a son of Anson and Nancy (Benton) Beecher and a grandson of Wheeler Beecher, who came from England in the early part of the seventeenth century. The maternal grandfather, Ebenezer Benton, was a native of Litchfield, now Morris, Connecticut. Anson Beecher was a son of Wheeler Beecher, born in 1754 in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and was born in Watertown, Connecticut, October 19, 1805. He passed away at Waterbury, April 7, 1876. He married Nancy Benton, who was born August 17, 1803, and died on the 13th of January, 1884.

     In young manhood Anson Beecher was a school-teacher. He possessed an inventive trend and was the first person in the United States to plait or weave a straw hat and he made the first solid head pins manufactured in the United States. He also brought forth various other inventions, mainly along the line of mathematical tools. The parents of L. Wheeler Beecher were plain, unassuming people whose well spent lives commanded the respect and esteem of the entire community in which they lived, while the inventive mind of Mr. Beecher constituted a valuable contribution to the world’s work. After his marriage he, for some years, resided in Morris, Litchfield county, and in 1853 he removed to New Haven, where in 1854 he established the firm of A. Beecher & Sons, manufacturers of matches. Mr. Beecher and his sons composed the firm until 1870, when it became the Swift, Courtney & Beecher Company, remaining as such until 1881, when it became the Diamond Match Company, developing into the foremost industry of its kind in the United States, placing the family in a deservedly prominent position among the leading American manufacturers. To Mr. and Mrs. Anson Beecher were born four sons, three of whom are living, Ebenezer B., L. Wheeler and Lyman A. The other brother was the late Hon. William Skinner Beecher, who was a Civil war veteran, serving with a Connecticut regiment during the entire period of hostilities between the north and the south. He also became very prominent in other connections and fully sustained the enviable reputation of the family for activity in business and for loyalty and progressiveness in citizenship.

     L. Wheeler Beecher was educated in the common schools of his native city to the age of sixteen years, after which he became a student of the Washington Gunnery, a private school of considerable note in Connecticut. After leaving school he entered his father’s employ in the sawmill and when the firm of A. Beecher & Sons was established he became a member thereof and his inventive genius found expression in various ways leading ultimately to the development of the Geometric Tool Company, of which he became the president and which office he has since filled. Until recent years he has also had active and financial interest in other manufacturing enterprises and has been a leading spirit in the city’s industrial development.

     Nor has Mr. Beecher been neglectful of his duties in regard to civic matters. He has labored earnestly and persistently to advance the public welfare in many ways. Upon attaining his majority he became a supporter of the whig party, with which he voted until the new republican party came into existence, since which time he has followed its leadership. For the past fifty years he has been a member of the school board and one of the schools of the city has been named in his honor. There is no feature of the city’s life and welfare in which he has not been keenly interested and in every possible way he has furthered the development of New Haven and its business interests.

     On the 18th of January, 1859, Mr. Beecher was married to Miss Sarah Jane Murray, who has now passed away. She was a native of New Haven and a daughter of Henry and Clarissa Murray, representatives of an old Connecticut family. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher became the parents of a daughter, who died at the age of thirty-five years.

     Mr. Beecher is a life member of the Sons of the American Revolution and is identified with the local organization at New Haven. He belongs to the Westville Congregational church and is a member of the Union League. He has been secretary and treasurer of the church during the greater part of the time for forty years. His activities have always been manifested along lines leading to general development and progress and his record is the story of successful achievement.