Nobles County MN Archives Biographies.....West, Christopher R. 1862 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 23, 2006, 11:32 pm

Author: Arthur P. Rose (1908)

  CHRISTOPHER R. WEST is cashier of the Brewster State Bank and a large holder

of Nobles county real estate. While he has been a resident of Nobles county only

about six years, he has taken an active interest in the business and social life

of the community and is one of the best known citizens of Brewster.



  Mr. West was born near Marshalltown, Iowa, Oct. 23, 1862, the son of Soren and

Anna C. (Ravnos) Oleson, he having taken the name of West in 1882 on account of

mail complications. Soren Oleson was born near Stavanger, Norway, in the year

1827, came to the United States and to Manitowac, Wis., in 1854, and after a

short residence there moved to Henry county, Iowa. There in 1858 he was married

to Anna C. Ravnos, the mother of our subject. Soon after the marriage the couple

moved to the wilds of Marshall county, Iowa, and were pioneers there and the

first Norsemen to locate in that part of Iowa, where is now a large population

of that nationality. Soren Oleson died in Marshall county, where he had lived so

long, on Sept. 9, 1879, at the age of 52 years. Anna C. Ravnos was also born

near Stavanger, Norway, the date of her birth being March 31, 1832. She came to

the United States in 1856 and is now living with a son, O. S. West, at Paulina,

Iowa. She is 76 years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Oleson were the parents of four

children, of whom three are now living—O. S. West, of Paulina, Iowa; Mrs. Julia

A. Norland, of Gaza, Iowa, and the subject of this biography.



  Christopher was raised on his father's farm in Marshall county. He received a

district school education and was a student one year at Friend's academy, of

LeGrand, Iowa. Later in life he took a business course in the Sioux City

Business college. When our subject was seventeen years of age his father died.

Although then young in years he took the management of the farm and ran it until

20 years of age. Then with his mother and the other children of the family he

moved to Paulina, Iowa, where they bought a farm and where our subject lived

until 1895. Having been elected treasurer of O'Brien county in the fall of 1894,

he took office at the beginning of 1895 and served a two year term. He then

opened an abstract office in Primghar, Iowa, Which he conducted two years, and

during the next three years was engaged in the real estate business in the same

town.



  It was in 1902 that Mr. West moved to Brewster and entered the banking

business, in which he has been engaged since as cashier of the Brewster State

Bank. This institution was organized August 1, 1902, and succeeded the Bank of

Brewster, which had been organized in 1897 and which had been conducted by Geo.

W. Patterson and Samuel Stewart. The first officers of the later organization

were: C. C. Moffit, president; A. P. Jacobs, vice president; C. R. West,

cashier; T. T. Strand, assistant cashier. The only changes in the personnel of

the management have been in the matter of vice president. D. H. McKeller

succeeded Mr. Jacobs to the office and Geo. W. Voak has since succeeded him. The

bank has a surplus and capital of $28,000 and deposits of $73,000. The directors

are the above officers and W. M. Smith, of Sheldon, Iowa, who is a stockholder.

The bank building was put up in the summer of 1902 and cost, with the fixtures,

$6,000.



  Mr. West owns 600 acres of well improved land adjoining the village of

Brewster on the south, 368 acres in Graham Lakes township and 400 acres in

northern Minnesota, and has an elegant home in Brewster. He holds the office of

president of the Brewster school board, was mayor of the town in 1905 and

recorder in 1903 and 1904.



  At Paulina, Iowa, on May 10, 1887, Mr. West was united in marriage to Miss

Jessie Crosbie, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. West have an

adopted son, Theodore Sampson West, aged 17 years.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:



AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NOBLES COUNTY

MINNESOTA

BY

ARTHUR P. ROSE



NORTHERN HISTORY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WORTHINGTON, MINNESOTA 

PUBLISHERS

1908





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