WILLIAM W. WEST was born at Winsted, Litchfield county, Connecticut, February 27, 1820, a son of Edgar West, also a native of Connecticut . The father removed to Ohio in 1829, and
first settled in Concord township, Lake county, remaining there one year. At the end of
twelve months he came to Geauga county, and there passed the balance of his days, departing this life in 1887, at the age of eighty-three years, honored and respected by all
who knew him. He married Margaret Wilson, a daughter of Captain Wilson, of Connecticut, an old Revolutionary soldier. They reared a family of nine children, seven of markets. He carried on this industry for twenty-five years, with marked success. In 1866 he located on his present farm in Chardon township, and has given his attention to agriculture. He is an excellent judge of cattle, and became so expert in guessing weights that it was said he carried a pair of scales in his head. He now has 200 acres well improved, with good, substantial farm buildings, his residence being a home of comfort and elegance. He is numbered one of the most progressive farmers in the community. He takes quite an interest in breeding poultry, and has a novel method of transferring the spurs from the legs of young roosters to the tops of their heads, grafting them so well that they grow there; he has several queer specimens of the horned fowls, and at one time sold a tine specimen to the late P. T. Barnum for $50, as a natural curiosity. Mr. West was united in marriage, February 2, 1864, to Mary A., the accomplished daughter of Charles and 'Mary (Gooding) Smith, and a native of Cortland county, New York . She is a lady of culture, and before her marriage taught in some of the best schools of Wisconsin and Ohio . They have no children.
Mr. West is a member of the Masonic Order. In politics he is a Democrat. He is a man of generous nature, benevolent and charitable, and holds the esteem and confidence of those who know him.

Source: Biographical history of northeastern Ohio, Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1893

Submitted by Linda Blue Dietz

WILLARD P. TISDEL.

Willard P. Tisdel was bone in Lake County, Ohio, July 27, 1844, and was educated in the common schools of that county, with a slight "finishing" at Poughkeepsie College, through a commercial course.
He entered the military service at Painesville , Lake County , Ohio , on April 20, 1861. He served in Company D. Seventh Ohio Infantry, as a private, corporal, sergeant, first sergeant, and as sergeant-major of the regiment, and participated in the battles of Cedar Mountain . Virginia;
Antietam, Maryland; Dumfries, Virginia; Chancellorsville, Virginia; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, and Ringgold. Georgia. Was wounded in the head at Gettysburg . He was discharged at Columbus , Ohio , on April 27, 1864, on expiration of his term of enlistment. He also served one year in the U. S. Reserve (Hancock's) Corps—on detail in the War Department entire time. 
He was married in Washington, D. C, to Miss Sarah Fenton Stone, and has three daughters. His eldest daughter, Helen, is the wife of a Russian diplomat. Count Gregoire Alexandrovich De Wollant, now Minister to Mexico . 
Since he left the Army Colonel Tisdel (as he is now best known among his friends) has been principally engaged as follows: he served in the U. S. Treasury Department from 1868 to 1870; as Assistant Marshal U. S. Supreme Court, 1871 to 1872; agent Pacific Mail Steamship Company and Panama R. R. Company at New York, 1873 to 1874; agent Pacific Mail Steamship Co. and Panama R. R. Co., 1874, 75, 76; superintendent U. S. and Brazil Mail S. S. Co. at Rio de Janeiro, 1877 to 1884; U. S. Commercial Expert, and U. S. Commissioner to the Berlin-Congo Conference, 1884, 85; superintendent Pacific Mail Steamship Co., west 
coast of Mexico, Central and South America, 1885 to 1805; assistant general manager Guatemala Central Railroad, at Guatemala , 1886 to 1895; acting general manager and
general manager, Guatemala Central Railroad, 1896 to 1906. Colonel Tisdel is also largely interested in the production of coffee, cocoa and rubber, and all in all has a promising outlook. He resides now in Guatemala City , Central America .

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