WEST, BENJAMIN
, born May 15, 1812, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was educated at Harvard College, and came to Sangamon county, Illinois, about 1835, and settled at Rochester. He was married April 16, 1840, to Permelia A. Taylor. They had three children in Sangamon county, namely--LOUISA, born Jan. 30, 1841, married Benjamin T. Rice, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts. They have two children, HELEN W. and NATHAN, and reside at Millbury, Massachusetts--1874.
FANNY, born May 2, 1843, died Dec. 11, 1861, caused by swallowing her false teeth, while asleep, on the night of the 9th of the same month. She died at the house of her mother, Mrs. John North, near Mechanicsburg, Illinois.
BENJAMIN, Jun., born Jan. 30, 1845, in Sangamon county, and was educated in the Lutheran College at Springfield. He went to New Hampshire to visit his father's relatives, and from there embarked on board the ship Syren, Nov. 16, 1861, at Boston, for San Francisco. The voyage was made around Cape Horn, arriving at the latter city in March, 1862. Captain Green, of the Syren, determined to sail for the Phillippine Islands. On arriving at the port of Manilla, the captain interested himself in the welfare of young Mr. West, and secured for him a situation in the shipping house of Russell & Sturgis, of Boston. That was in July, 1862. After spending a year in their house at Manilla he was placed in charge of a branch house 150 miles distant on the island of Yoilo. Soon after his arrival at the latter place, he went in a pleasure boat with a small party of friends to a neighboring island, and on their return the wind capsized the boat some distance from the shore. His comrades expected him to cling to the wreck until they, who were more experienced, could go to shore and bring assistance. He attempted to swim to shore also, and when they returned no vestige of him could be found. He had gone down alone and unseen. That was on December 25, 1863.
Benjamin West was a lawyer, and was one of the representatives of Sangamon county in the state legislature at the session of 1846 and '47. He died at Rochester June 23, 1847, and his widow married Erastus Woodruff, who died and she married John North. See his name.