Tehama County Biographies

DR. JOHN M. WEST

Transcribed by: Christine Helmick

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Dr. John M. West, a prominent physician of Red Bluff, was born in Athens, 
Illinois, December 22, 1837.  His remote ancestors came to this country from 
England and settled in the South long before the revolution.  His father, J.C. 
West, was a native of Tennessee, a strict Methodist and a farmer.  His 
grandfather, Jacob West, was a soldier in the war of 1812.  The Doctor�s mother, 
Eliza (White) West, was a native of Kentucky.  He is one of a family of eight 
children, only two of whom survive.
     The subject of this sketch took his first course in the Missouri Medical 
College, and graduated from the Rush Medical College, February 27, 1864.  He 
entered the Union army as contract surgeon in June, 1862, and was with the 
Twenty-eighth Illinois Regiment, doing regiment and hospital service.  It was 
after leaving the army that he graduated and commenced the practice of his 
profession in Springfield, Illinois, where he continued until 1877.  In that 
year he came to California, located in San Francisco and practiced medicine 
until 1880, when he came to Red Bluff.  Here he established a medical practice 
and has met with eminent success.  A love for the study of medicine caused Dr. 
West to make it his life profession and it is with a deep interest and untiring 
zeal that he engages in its practices.
     Since coming to Red Bluff, Dr. West has purchased property on Washington 
Street, between Oak and Sycamore, where he has erected a handsome and commodious 
home.  He is also interested in farming lands and fruit culture.
     In 1863 he married Miss Susie Lockwood, a native of Connecticut.  To them 
have been born three children, viz: Jacob H. and Edna, born near Springfield, 
Illinois, and Neva, born at Red Bluff.  Mrs. West is an interesting and amiable 
lady, and an earnest and efficient member of the Presbyterian Church of Red 
Bluff.  
     Politically the Doctor�s views are in harm only with Democratic principles. 
 Twice he has been elected Coroner and Administrator of his county, and he now 
(1890) holds that position.  He is a blue lodge, Royal Arch and Knight Templar 
Mason, and is also a Knight of Pythias.
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 
1891, Pages 653-654