Benjamin West
Benjamin West, one of the prominent and enterprising farmers in Clyde Township, is located on section 17. He was born in the vicinity of the village of Penistone, Yorkshire, England, April 23, 1820. John West, his father, was a mechanic of more than ordinary claims, possessing a complete and practical knowledge of the craft of a carpenter, millwright and wagon-maker. He was an inventive genius, and was the inventor of a variety of wagon axle, which was so contrived as to be oiled without the removal of the wheel. He was a fine scholar and was college bred. He did not accumulate much property, but held a good social position. He was born in Yorkshire, England, July 12, 1796 and died about 1876, in the place of his nativity. His wife, Ann Fieldsend before her marriage, was born May 10, 1799 in Yorkshire. She was carefully brought up and educated. She died near Penistone in 1837. Both she and her husband were communicants in the Church of England. Of their children - 10 in number - but two are l iving, Thomas and Benjamin. The first is still a resident of his native country, where he is prominent in Church and social circles. Through his connection with Lord Caverly he has been enabled to give his sons a collegiate education.
Mr. West was educated in the schools of Yorkshire, and when he was 15 years old he went to Holmfirth to learn the trade of cloth-making in the large establishment of John and George Hirst. He served an apprenticeship, which lasted until he was 21 years old, and acquired a complete and practical knowledge of the processes from first to last. He went from one place where he learned his business to Brown Hill, where he took charge of a woolen factory owned by James Booth, in whose interests he operated three years. At the expiration of that time he sailed for the US, making his first stop at the city of NY. He went thence to Poughkeepsie, NY and remained one year, and proceeded thence to Washington Hollow, Dutchess Co., NY where he engaged in the management of a mill for Messrs. Burch & Sullivan. He remained there one year, and then returned to Poughkeepsie, and spent some time in a carpet-mill. He passed two years in Haverstraw, in the same State, after which he returned to England and was married to Mary, daughter of Jeremiah and Mary (Hirst) Whiteley. She was born in Yorkshire, and was English in nativity and descent. Her father and all the members of her family were manufacturers of cloth. Her parents died in 1836 and 1846 in their native country. They had 12 children; John, Betty, Joseph, Joshua, Maria, James, Mary, Hannah, William, Mathew, Sarah and Jane. All lived in England with the exception of Mrs. West and her brother Joshua, who came to America in 1851. The brother was killed Jan. 24, 1853 while chopping in the woods. Failing to return to his home at nightfall, he was found crushed to death between the stump and fallen trunk of a tree he had been cutting.
Mrs. West was born Dec. 5, 1819, in Yorkshire, where she was reared. She is the mother of eight children; Henry, a miner in Arizona; William married Lucy A. Fieldsend, and they reside in Clyde Township; Anna is a music teacher; Jennie is next in order of birth; Joshua is a member of the mercantile firm of Hollinshead & West, doing business at Morrison; Thomas is a miner in Colorado; Benjamin and Charles are conducting the homestead estate.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. West came to America and passed one year in Haverstraw. They came thence to Clyde Township, where they arrived Sept. 19, 1849, and they were among the earliest of the permanent settlers. They entered claims on sections 17 and 21, where they purchased a land warrant of 200 acres. That portion of the township was so unsettled that there was not a fence between their location and Fulton, a distance of 12 miles. The land had never been touched by the plow, and Mr. West set himself about improving his property, and also exerted his influence in the development of the town. He induced numbers of his friends to locate in the township. He was one of the first Englishmen to fix his residence in Clyde Township. There are 15 other English settlers who came hither through his representations, and that nationality predominates. Mr. West is the proprietor of 298 acres of land, all improved and stocked iwth fine graded cattle.
Mr. West is independent in political views and has represented both parties in their conventions. He takes great interest in local politics, and he has been the recipient of all the official honors pertaining to his township.
He has crossed the Atlantic five times, having twice revisited the home of his birth. Jennie, the second daughter, visited the birthplace of her parents in 1881. She left morrison Nov. 21, 1881 and sailed from the city of NY six days later on the steamship Furnersia, and reached Glasgow, Scotland, December 7. She went by rail to Penistone in Yorkshire, England, where she spent four months on the soil where her family had its origin. She sailed for America April 13, 1882, and derived much benefit to mind and body from the trip.
Mr. West is a genuine Englishman of the middle class, the type which constitutes the bone adn sinew of the government under which he was born; and he is as genuine an American citizen, appreciating the abundant privileges accruing to him as such, and giving the hertiest support to the institutions of the Republic. His genial mirth-loving temperament secures its reward in the general esteem he wins and the broad influence he wields.
Portrait and Biographical Whiteside Co IL 1885 Pg 531
