California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


WELLS W. WEST. � But faint and vague recollections linger in the 
mind of Mr. West concerning the place in Erie county, Pa., where he was 
born September 3, 1836. Perhaps the most distinct of these memories is that 
of a raft built by his father out of sawed lumber. More vividly he recalls 
incidents of the voyage down the Alleghany and Ohio rivers as well as the 
aspect of the great steamer on which they sailed up the Mississippi river to 
the Illinois landing in Pike county, where they disembarked. The parents 
were Josiah and Mary J. (Hayes) West, the latter a distant relative of ex- 
President Rutherford B. Hayes. The father, a native of New Hampshire and 
a carpenter by trade, followed general farming as well as work at his trade, 
liis wife died in Pike county, and from there in 1852 he came to California by 
water, settling in Amador county, where he died at the age of fifty-four years. 
Eight children formed the family, namely : Almina J., Jeanette, Amorette, 
Corydon M., William Wirt, Wells W., Henry H. and Helena. The sole 
survivor of the eight, excepting Wells W., is Henry H., a farmer in Sacra- 
mento county. 

The seventeenth anniversary of his birth Wells W. West celebrated on 
the plains en route to California, where he arrived during the fall of 1853. and 
where for several years he engaged in mining. An experience of three years 
as a vaquero in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys gave him a thorough 
knowledge of that part of the state, besides developing his skill as a "broncho 
buster." In those days he was one of the swiftest riders in the cowboy con- 
tingent, and nothing gave him greater happiness than a long ride with a fine 
horse. When the war broke out he began to make plans to enlist in the Union 
service, and during 1862 he was accepted as a member of the California One 
Hundred at San Francisco. The members of this troop sailed for the east 
via the isthmus and after arriving in New York became a part of Company 
A, Second Massachusetts Cavalry, their captain being the gallant J. Sewell 
Reed, who fell in battle in 1864 at Dranesville, Va. After having been 
mounted and drilled in Massachusetts, Mr. West was dispatched to Baltimore 
by train, thence by boat to Fortress Monroe and later by boat to Yorktown, 
where he was stationed on picket duty. He had his baptism in blood at the 
skirmish near South Anna bridge in Virginia and helped to take one hundred 
boys in gray prisoners of the Union. On board a transport he went to White- 
house and from there proceeded to the railroad, later engaging as a scout and 
on picket duty south of Washington. After South Anna bridge he took part 
in the following battles and skirmishes: Ashby's Gap, Dranesville, Aldie. 
Fort Stephens, Fort Reno, Rockville, Poolville, Summit Point, Berryville 
(where his horse was shot from under him), Berryville Pike, Charleston, 
Halltown (where they fought for four days), Opequon (where the encounter 
lasted for six days), Winchester, Luray, Waynesboro, Tomsbrook, Cedar 
Creek (where Col. C. R. Lowell fell and the regiment lost sixty men in killed 
and wounded), South Anna, White Oak Road, Dinwiddle Courthouse, Five- 
forks, Sailors" Creek and Appomattox Courthouse. The greater part of his 
service was in Virginia. Being near the seat of war, he had a most active 
and laborious service and gained a comprehensive knowledge of the horrors 
of such a contest. On the 24th of July, 1865, he was mustered out and in 
September he received final discharge. 

After a visit in Illinois with an older sister Mr. West went to Chillicothe, 
Mo., and there married Miss Delilah J. Thompson, who was born in Living- 
ston county near Chillicothe. Immediately following his marriage in 1867 
he began housekeeping in that town and followed the trade of a carpenter. 
During 1878 he took his family to Kansas, where he worked as a carpenter 
for four years. April of 1882 found him in California after an absence of 
twenty years. After a visit to St. Helena, Napa county, in the fall of 1882 
he bought ten acres in the suburbs of Lakeport, Lake county. On this he 
has one hundred and fifty prune and pear trees besides an excellent family 
garden. After coming west he joined the G. A. R. post at St. Helena and 
always he has maintained a warm interest in the work among the boys in 
blue. Religion has entered his life and deepened the spiritual element of his 
character. For years he has been a trustee of the Christian Church at Lake- 
port and recently he was ordained to the office of elder, while in the same 
congregation his wife is a capable assistant with the Ladies' Aid Society 
and the C. W. B. M., besides being a leader in the forward movements inaugu- 
rated by the W. C. T. U. of Lakeport. 

When Mrs. West was a very small child her father, James Thompson, 
leaving his family behind in Missouri, started across the plains, but died of 
cholera at Fort Laramie. Later the mother, Angeline (Thaxton) Thompson, 
married again, but had no children by the second union. Of her first marriage 
there were four children, namely : Sarah Ann, Mrs. Richard Williams, who 
died at Chillicothe, Mo. ; Delilah J. ; Mercer Warren, who in boyhood enlisted 
in the southern army and was never heard from afterward, the belief being 
that he fell in battle and was buried in an unknown grave ; and Thomas, now 
a blacksmith at Lathrop, Mo. Nine children comprised the family of Mr. 
and Mrs. West, namely: Maude A., Mrs. Alonzo Clark, a teacher living at 
Santa Cruz ; Mary Blanche, who married Dr. Mallory, of Santa Rosa. Cal., 
and has seven children ; Jessie, who died at the age of twenty-four, leaving a 
daughter, Jessie Lee ; Lester, a boat builder at Everett, Wash. ; Guy H., of 
Santa Rosa, who married Miss Jennie Monroe and has one child ; Cora, who 
married Charles Benson, a farmer at Kelseyville, Lake county, and has two 
sons ; Ray, who was born in Kansas and died at eighteen years of age . Wirt 
M , who was born at Lakeport and is now a carpenter at Richmond. Cal.. the 
home of himself and wife, formerly Miss Ada McCoy : and Dwight. who died 
at the age of thirteen months,