Printed Ephemera, 1859-1884, undated

The William A. Westervelt Papers reflect his coursework at Oberlin College and Theological Seminary in the 1830s and 1840s, and his career as a minister and itinerant preacher in Ohio from the 1840s through the 1870s. Westervelt’s student notes from lectures at Oberlin are of interest for their light on the content of early courses by professors Charles Grandison Finney, Amasa Walker, James Dascomb, and others.

The bulk of the papers comprise notes for sermons and orations. Sermon notes are organized by topic or Bible verse. Of particular note are sermons on anti-slavery from the 1860s and perhaps earlier. Also of note is an oration Westervelt performed for soldiers departing for military service from Martinsburg, West Virginia, on October 14, 1861. Other oration topics include character, death, independence, imagination, physiology, phrenology, and “Prospects for America.”

Other materials comprise a small amount of correspondence, diary notes, writings for school or college by his son William D. Westervelt, a few issues of newspapers dating from the 1870s and a 1908 issue of the Southern Voice, and records Westervelt kept on parishioner subscriptions and church records. The contents are divided into twenty-seven folders without arrangement into series. The sermon materials take up a little more than half the collection.

The William A. Westervelt Papers offer modern readers a glimpse into the academic rigor and religious passion of mid-19^th century Oberlin. The doctrinal and devotional discourse championed by the Theological Seminary inspired Oberlin graduates to become abolitionists and champions of social justice. In Westervelt’s papers, readers can explore the genesis of this ethical passion, rooted in the early religious spirit of the school.