Clark S. West Biography


	This biography appears on pages 495-496 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				CLARK S. WEST. 

	Clark S. West is now living retired in Fullerville, enjoying a 
rest which he has truly earned and richly deserves. For nearly a half 
century he has been a resident of South Dakota, coming here in early 
territorial days when the work of progress and development seemed 
scarcely begun. He was born in Chautauqua county, New York, May 9, 
1841, the family home being about twelve miles from Jamestown and an 
equal distance from Dunkirk. His parents were Lewis and Miranda 
(Hasbrook) West, who both died in Iowa. In 1854 the family removed 
westward, traveling by train from Buffalo to the end of the line 
somewhere near Johnstown, Wisconsin. The family there resided but a 
short time, and during the winter the father made a journey into Iowa, 
seeking a location. He filed on a preemption claim on the Big Cedar 
near where Otranto was later started, being the first settler in that 
township, after which he rejoined his family in Wisconsin and in the 
spring they loaded their belongings into wagons drawn by oxen and began 
the long journey to the west, camping by the wayside at night. There 
were no railroads in Iowa at that time and the nearest market was at 
McGregor, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles. The boys often 
drove an ox team to the river town to market their wheat, the journey 
to and from that place requiring two weeks' time. Occasionally they 
would find, on reaching the end of their journey, that there was a line 
of wagons extending five miles back into the ravine, for all of the 
settlers over a wide territory had to go to that place to market their 
products. Later when the railroad had been extended to Cedar Falls they 
had but eighty miles to haul their produce to market, which seemed a 
short distance in comparison with the trip which they had previously 
made. 

	Clark S. West remained with his father until 1867. In 1862, 
however he was sent with another young man as a scout up into New Ulm 
county, Minnesota, after the Indian massacre there. In the fall of 1867 
he came to Dakota territory and secured a preemption on section 8, 
Gayville township. He now has two hundred and thirty acres in Yankton 
county. He also secured homestead and timber claims in Hutchinson 
county, where he now has eight hundred acres, of which four hundred 
acres is under the plow. He likewise owns a half interest in his 
father's old farm in Iowa of one hundred and seventy-two acres. He 
lived here at a time when a blizzard was not an unknown thing in Dakota 
through the late '60s and early '70s, and also encountered the pest of 
locusts for several seasons, when crops were utterly or almost entirely 
destroyed, but the worst of all was the flood in the spring of 1881, 
when the water stood four and a half feet deep in his house. He had 
been storing his grain for four seasons and had the crops of 1877, 
1878, 1879 and 1880 in the granary when the waters rose and ruined all 
in a night. In addition he lost three horses, thirty head of cattle and 
other property, his losses amounting in all to five thousand dollars, a 
heavy sum for him in those days when he was just getting a start. 

	Mr. West was married November 8, 1863, in Faribault, Minnesota, 
to Miss Mary E Van Osdel, a native of Indiana, whose parents were among 
the earliest settlers of Yankton county and are mentioned elsewhere in 
this volume. Mr. and Mrs. West became the parents of two sons: Abraham 
Lewis, who now operates the home farm; and Jesse C., who was proprietor 
of a store in Fullerville, until his death, which occurred June 3, 
1915, when he was forty-five years of age. Abraham L. married Ida 
Harris and has four children; Harry Lewis, who now has the store in 
Fullerville; and Walter, Edna Miranda and Lillian Irene, at home. 

	Mr. West is a republican in polities and has ever given stalwart 
support to the party Among other offices that he has filled is that of 
member of the territorial council. He has been a member of the Masonic 
lodge since 1874 and is identified with several Masonic bodies in 
Yankton, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite 
He can look back over the period of pioneer existence in Yankton county 
and remembers vividly the conditions brought about by many hardships 
and trials which had to be endured, but all this has passed and today 
he is a substantial and well-to-do citizen of Fullerville, his 
persistent labor and energy having brought to him a comfortable 
competence as the years have gone by in spite of the privations of 
pioneer times.