Southwick family.

The Southwicks were a prominent Brooklyn Heights family. John Claflin Southwick (1835-1896) was in the hide and leather business and a partner at Schultz, Southwick & Co. (1864-1884); he was married to Ella Mather Clapp Southwick (1840-1927). Their four children were John C. Southwick, Jr. (b.1865), Susie Kent Southwick Phelps (b.1868), architect Horace Claflin Southwick (1871-1925), and Clifford Southwick (b.1875). An important family connection was Henry Ward Beecher, minister of Plymouth Church of Brooklyn. The Southwick children were baptized by Beecher and John C. Southwick was a character witness at the Beecher/Tilton trial in 1874. Southwick family members were active art patrons, commissioning the family and Beecher portraits associated with this collection from artists George A. Baker and Thomas Waterman Wood.