Rev. Burroughs Westlake
Rev. Burroughs Westlake was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, February 13, 1792. He connected with the Methodist Church in 1812, and commenced as a minister in 1814 in the Baltimore Conference. He was transferred to the Pittsburg Conference, and thence to the Ohio Conference, and afterwards to the Indiana Conference. During his membership of the Ohio Conference, he was stationed at West Union, in Adams County, and while there lost his wife, Hannah Westlake. who died in 1826. and is the first interment in the West Union Cemetery which had a monument.
He is well remembered by a few of the oldest surviving citizens of Adams County as a strong minister. He served some nine years in the Conference of Indiana, and while stationed at Logansport fell a victim to an epidemic of erysipelas. He was taken in the morning with a swelling of the throat. His breathing was protracted a few hours by an incision in his throat and the use of a tube. He died at six o'clock in the evening. He was speechless for some time before his death; but arose, and knelt by his bedside and prayed. He was a rigid disciplinarian and a strong theologian. He was deeply pious. His wife, Ruth Westlake, survived him but seven days, and died of the same disease.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900