Joseph West, Stagecoach Driver
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| Stagecoach 1830, loc.gov |
Joseph Jackson West was born September 22, 1819 in Mason County, Kentucky. His parents were Michael West and Susannah McKee. Joseph was the brother of our direct ancestor, Susan Emeline Leffel. Read about the West family here.
Joseph grew up in Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. On May 23, 1842, he married Hulda Dunkle in Montgomery County, Indiana. Joseph and Hulda were the parents of seven children: Adeline, Martha, John, Barbara, Joseph, Thomas, and Mary. Hulda died in 1894. Joseph married again a year later to Josephine Blackburn. On 27 June 1904, Joseph, died at his home in Linden, Indiana. He was 84 years old at the time of his death. An obituary was placed in the Attica Daily Ledger on 28 June 1904.
According to the obituary, "Mr. West was an Indiana pioneer and in his earlier days drove a stage coach between Crawfordsville and Lafayette. He was a man of excellent character and was considered one of the best and most trusted stage drivers in the country, and during the days of overland travel passengers would wait over for many days to ride with him, knowing him to be a man who did not drink, and they felt themselves perfectly safe in his care."
Stage Coach Driver Is Dead
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| Attica Daily Ledger, Attica, Indiana 28 June 1904 |
2 comments:
Your blog is awesome...I just went and read some stuff on my family. I want to just sit and read...read...read...:) Keep up the good work.
A 3rd-cousin once-removed
What a cool reputation to have. Must have been a really great guy.
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