West, Amos S.

Born: 1801-09-09 Logan County, Kentucky

Died: 1881-07-07 Jacksonville, Illinois

West married his wife, Elizabeth Washburn, in 1819. They moved from Kentucky to Illinois, in 1827. He was a soldier during the Winnebago War in 1827. He and his wife had five children and settled in Cass County, in 1829. West was a colonel in the Black Hawk War in 1832. After fighting in the war, he opened a mercantile business in 1838. He was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church. He was elected into the Illinois House of Representatives for one term, 1840 to 1842, representing Cass County. After his service in the Illinois General Assembly, West and his family moved to Mason County, Illinois, in 1844, and settled in Bath. Until a Circuit Court building was built for Mason County, West held court in his home. In 1860, he owned $6,000 in real estate and $1,088 in personal estate. West moved his family from Illinois to Kansas, in 1860.

Gravestone, Oak Grove Addition-Southern Half, Paola Cemetery, Paola, KS; The Miami Republican, (Paola, KS), 22 July 1881, 1; The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1879), 653; Centennial History of Mason County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Rokker's, 1876), 139-40; J. N. Gridley, Historical Sketches Volume 1 (Virginia, IL: The Enquirer, 1907), 103, 430; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, 1970), 209; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Mason County, Illinois, 622.