John E. West Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1257 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	JOHN E. WEST is a native of the Empire state of the Union, having 
been born in the city of Syracuse, New York, on the 22d of May, 1848, 
and being a son of Henry - and Elizabeth (Bloomer) West. He was reared 
in his native commonwealth and there secured a common school education. 
When but fifteen years of age he manifested in a significant way his 
loyalty to the Union, the country being then in the period of the great 
Civil war. In 1863 he enlisted in the Fourteenth New York Heavy 
Artillery, proceeding with his command to the front and taking part in a 
number of the most hotly contested battles incident to the farther 
progress of the war, among the number being Spottsylvania, the 
Wilderness, Petersburg and Fort Steadman. He received his honorable 
discharge in Washington City, 1865, having proved himself a valiant 
young soldier and gaining the right to be designated as a youthful 
veteran. He retains an interest in his old comrades in arms and 
perpetuates the associations of his army days by retaining membership in 
the Grand Army of the Republic. 

	After the close of the war Mr. West was variously employed in the 
state of New York until 1874, when he secured the position of fireman on 
the New York Central Railroad. Four years later he was given an engine 
and continued in the employ of that great system for eight years. In 
1883 he entered the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 
Railroad, and in this connection established his residence and 
headquarters in Aberdeen, which has thus been his home for the past 
score of years, during which time he has had runs out from this point, 
now hauling the passenger train west of Aberdeen. He has ever been self-
controlled and clear-minded in his thirty years of service as an 
engineer and his record has not been marred by serious accidents. He is 
a popular member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and also of 
the time-honored Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the 
thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. In politics 
he gives his allegiance to the Republican party, taking an intelligent 
and lively interest in the questions and issues of the day. 

	At Bowdle, Edmunds county, South Dakota, on the 13th of February, 
1889, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. West to Miss Mamie C. Barndt, 
who was born at St. Mary's, Ohio, and reared at McComb, Hancock county, 
Ohio. They have two daughters, Florence and Helen. The parents of Mrs. 
West were L. T. and Louise (Crawford) Barndt. The father was born at New 
Lexington, Perry county, Ohio, and died at Everett, Washington, on 
December 7, 1903, at the age of seventy-one years. The mother, who is 
still living, was also born in Ohio.