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1865-6, Studied in Union Theological Seminary, New York, N.Y.
1867, Joined Providence Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church. Appointments:
1867-9, Phenix, R.I.; 1870, Bristol; 1871-3, Trinity Church, Providence; 1874,
Transferred to New York East Conference; 1874-5, New York Avenue, Brooklyn,
N.Y.; 1876-8, Middletown, Conn.; 1879, Transferred to New England Conference;
1879-80, Central Church, Lowell, Mass.; 1880-85, Professor of Political and
Social Science, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.
Died June 28, 1885.
Married, July 30, 1867, Miss Sarah E. Gardner, of Fall River, Mass.
Children: Lewis Gardner, born Oct. 8, 1868; (Wesleyan, Class of '90;) now
Professor in Ohio Wesleyan University.
Harris Morton, born April 2, 1870; died Dec. 1, 1870.
Mary Lawton, born Feb. 14, 1874; (Wesleyan, Class of '97.)
Helen Elizabeth, born Dec. 5, 1876; (Wesleyan, Class of '99.)
"He entered the Freshman class of Wesleyan University in the autumn of
1861 in his seventeenth year. So good had been his preparation and so
unflagging was his application, that he always was ranked second in a class
which has given the University three of its professors. . . . In 1865-6 he
was a student in the Union Theological Seminary, New York. There he was as
conscientious and successful as ever in his studies. He was not in the
least drawn to exchange his Methodistic theology and religious life for those
expounded and commended in this great school of the Presbyterian prophets; he
came out of it a more decided Methodist than when he entered. . . . The most
marked quality of Westgate's preaching was the regnancy of the intellect
therein. His choice of subjects and texts was almost always such as would
invite and require a large measure of study and reflection. . . . So deep
was Westgate's sense of his duty to preach the gospel, and so keen his
satisfaction in any success he had in it, that he would never have become a
professor, but for his hope that he might still be able to preach much. He
accepted the new work with delight. . . . His were the special endowments
of a teacher rather than a preacher; hence when he was called to occupy the
chair of Political and Social Science in Wesleyan University, it was with a
strong conviction on our part that he would vindicate the wisdom of the
selection, so as to silence all criticism. But probably none of us, not
even those professors who had led him in the ways of learning as an
undergraduate, nor those who had taken his measure in the nobler rivalries of
college life, anticipated so prompt a success as he achieved. . . . Had
his life been spared, he would have become one of the ablest teachers in this
country, by merely developing the lines of work he had already laid out, for his
ability and character made it certain that the success he had achieved, would
have been repeated to the end. His most intimate friend, Professor
Winchester, says:
"'The same clearness and exactness of thought were evident in his
remarkably successful work as a teacher. Those who have been in his
classes in history, especially the advanced classes, or in constitutional law,
know how he used to insist that the student, whether he memorized many details
or not, should clearly see and clearly state the essential fact or principle
upon which the details depended. . . . I think his marked and growing
success as a teacher of history depended upon the skill with which he could fix
the interest of the student upon those great social and political principles
which underlie the course of history, and show how those principles appear in
all the complex and picturesque diversity of outward events.'" - New
England Conference Memoir, by Prof. George Prentice.
"In his student life, Professor Westgate distinguished himself by his
extraordinarily high scholarship. His scholarship was almost uniformly
high in a number of departments, indicating apparently great general ability
rather than marked genius in any one direction. . . . But his classmates
love to remember him for the moral traits, which impressed them even more than
his intellectual ability. His was eminently that manly type of character
which is based on love of truth and devotion to duty. To say that no
competition or rivalry could lead him to dishonorable courses is an
under-statement which would do him injustice. He seemed to live above the
atmosphere in which temptations to dishonorable conduct have their being.
He was a christian when he came to college, and his years of student life were
marked by a beautiful growth in the graces of christian character. As the
years passed on he grew in gentleness and sympathy. In Freshman year he
was admired, in Senior year he was loved. . . . It was evident from the
beginning, that Professor Westgate had found his true calling. His
clearness of thought and expression made him a remarkably fine lecturer.
His enthusiasm for truth, and for truth in the concrete forms of human life gave
an intense vitality to his discussions, alike of the history of the past and of
the social problems of the present. His department rapidly became one of the
most popular in the college. His elective classes were thronged with earnest
students. . . . The goodness of his life blossomed at the last into the
consummate flower of saintliness. His memory is a precious treasure to the
college he loved and served so well." - Prof. Wm. North Rice (Olla
Podrida, '87).
"The prominent traits in Professor Westgate's character were a love of
truth and a devotion to duty. He was open, frank, noble, - the soul of
honor. He could not endure the appearance of indirection or
subterfuge. And his determined fidelity to duty in the closing months of
his life - that was heroic. No one who saw him then can ever forget the
calm courage with which for months he faced the inevitable end, without once
swerving from the regular course of daily duty. His ambitions, naturally
strong and eager, he had already resigned; but he kept resolutely at his work
because it seemed to him his religious duty - the thing providentially given him
to do. Men held their breath in reverent admiration to see this slight,
worn man present himself day after day at his post, without a word of complaint
or even any reference to himself at all. His discussions of political
questions were never more subtle and discriminating than in the last days, when
his only utterance was a husky whisper, and the marks of death were already in
his face. He finished his year's college work; and at the last, it was
only when his examination had been held, his classes dismissed, that he
consented to go away to the hill of Norfolk - to die. He lived but little
more than a week after reaching there. Almost his last utterance was, 'Let
us do the duty of the hour, and leave the rest with God.' That was the
watchword of his noble life. That life seems to us too short; but it was
filled with good works, and rounded to a calm and perfect setting." - Wesleyan
University Alumni Obituary Record.
Source: History of Class
of 1865 Wesleyan University, Fortieth Reunion, Middletown
Connecticut, June 27, 1905.
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