Clark, Davis Wesgatt, Dd

Clark, Davis Wesgatt, D.D., a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born on the island of Mount Desert, off the coast of Maine, Feb. 25,1812. He experienced conversion in his boyhood; gave up his intended project of a seafaring life, took earnestly to books, and at the age of nineteen had earned sufficient money by his own exertions and economy to start him at Wesleyan University, where he graduated in 1836. The next year he was a teacher in Amenia Seminary, N. Y., and the seven following years its principal. In 1843 he joined the New York Conference, and, after filling five appointments, was called to the editorship of the Ladies' Repository, which position, by two subsequent unanimous re-elections, he retained until 1864, when he was made bishop. He performed his episcopal duties with great zeal and activity, travelling extensively through the South, organizing the Holston, Georgia, and Alabama Conferences. In 1870 his health began to decline, but he nevertheless continued his labors in 1871, conducting the Lexington, Kentucky, and Western Virginia Conferences alone. He had an assistant in conducting the Pittsburgh and New England Conferences. After opening the New York Conference he was obliged to retire, from intense suffering, and on rallying a little he was taken to his home in Cincinnati, 0., where he died, May .23, 1871. Bishop Clark: was a man of decided convictions and great firmness of purpose. As a minister, he was able and successful; as a writer, clear, exact, and forcible; as is shown, not only in his sermons and editorials, but in his published works, such as his. Mental Discipline: — Elements of Algebra: — Life and Times of Bishop Hedding, and Man All Immortal. As a bishop he occupied a high position, on account of his careful and systematic arrangement of his duties, and his prompt and accurate decisions. He was a bold and strong opposer of slavery, and a powerful advocate of liberal education especially Christian. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1871, p..283; Simpson, Cyclop. of Methodism, s.v.; Alumni, Record of Wesl. Univ. 1882, p. 11, 551'.