Brief History of Joseph Alva West from the Latter Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia

Brief History of Joseph Alva West from the Latter Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

JOSEPH ALVA WEST

West, Joseph Alva, a prominent Elder in the Weber Stake of Zion, is the son of Chauncey W. West and Mary Hoagland, and was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept 12, 1851. His colonial ancestry came to America in the early part of the sixteenth century, and his parents, who had arrived in Utah in 1847, removed to Bingham’s Fort, Weber County, in 1855. In the following spring they located in Ogden, where Joseph A. Received a common school education. He subsequently attended the Deseret University, at Salt Lake City. In the winter of 1865 he and a number of other young men were called from different parts of the Territory by Pres Brigham Young to go to Salt Lake City, and learn telegraphy, preparatory to taking offices on the Deseret Telegraph Line then projected between Paris, Idaho, and St. George, in southern Utah. The first office on this line outside of Salt Lake was opened at Ogden, and here, on Dec 1, 1866, Joseph A. West received Pres. Young’s opening congratulatory message directed to his father. He soon after went to Provo, where he remained in charge of the Provo office without compensation until released to return home the following year. In the meantime the Western Union Telegraph company built a line into Idaho and Montana; and when he returned to Ogden, he was appointed manager of the Ogden office, embracing the lines of the two companies.

When in the early days of Utah’s settlement the necessity existed for the maintenance of a well disciplined militia organization, Joseph A. West became associated therewith. H e first acted as aid-de-camp on his father’s staff, and on Feb 20,. 1868, when in his 17th year, he was commissioned by Governor Durkee regimental adjutant in the first regiment, first brigade, in the Territorial militia. In the fall of 1870 he was appointed major of cavalry and detailed to enlist a battalion of volunteer cavalry from among the young men of the Weber military District, to be known as the Weber county Volunteers. So popular was the movement that the command numbered 250 in a very short time. They soon became very proficient in military tactics, under the command of Major West, and being completely uniformed, presented a very fine appearance.

There being quite a demand for surveyors in those early days, Pres,. Young, about this time, requested Brother West’s father to educate his son for this profession. He was accordingly sent to Salt Lake City, where he entered the office of Jesse W. Fox, then Territorial surveyor-general, and under his direction he received practical training. In 1868, when eighteen years of age, he had so far acquired a knowledge of the profession as to be deemed qualified to act as Deputy Territorial Surveyor. He was subsequently elected city surveyor of Ogden, and county surveyor of Weber County. When the Utah Central Railway was being built between Ogden and Salt Lake City he was one of the engineers who had charge of its construction. He was assistant chief engineer of the Utah and Northern, or Oregon Short Line, as it is now called, and in addition to having charge of the construction of this line form Ogden North, he made several preliminary surveys into Idaho through regions then comparatively unknown. Since that time he has headed expeditions as chief engineer for projected lines of railways, all over the west, many of which have since been built. As early as 1880 he made extensive surveys between Salt Lake City and California, through central Nevada, of which work the “Deseret Evening News” of Feb 25, 1881, made the following complimentary mention: “Joseph A. West is said to be one of the best field engineers in the west. We are informed by a prominent railway m an yesterday that he accomplished the unusual feat of surveying for the Salt Lake and western over a distance of 350 miles of desert last year.” Again, in 1888, he had charge of the Union Pacific surveys in California and Nevada, having for their object the obtainment of the most feasible route for a railway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, via southern Utah and South-eastern Nevada. While upon this expedition he surveyed three lines through Death Valley and encountered many hardships incident to that dreadful locality. In 1890 he went to Oregon and built the Sumpter Valley Railway, of which, in addition to being chief engineer, he was made secretary, and subsequently general superintendent. He was chief engineer and superintendent of construction of the Utah and pacific Railway, and after its completion remained in charge of the operating department of the road until again called to go to Oregon to superintend the building of the Sumpter Valley Extension.

Feb. 17, 1865, he was ordained an Elder, and a Seventy March 20, 1869; he was also set apart as one of the seven presidents of the 75th Quorum of Seventy. Oct. 21, 1877, he was ordained a High Priest and set apart as a High Councilor in the Weber Stake of Zion, which position he held until called to go on a mission some five years later. When the young men of Ogden City were organized into semi-religious and literary society by Apostle Franklin D. Richards, in the early 70’s, Elder West was called to be their president and when the mutual improvement associations were organized a few years later, he was appointed Stake superintendent. About this time “The Amateur” was published, with Jos. A. West as its editor. This little periodical ran through two volumes and was enlarged to a four page publication, 12 x 16 inches in size. It was superseded by the “Contributor.”

Nov 1 1878, Elder West organized the Junction Printing Association, of which he was made president and business manager and bought out the “Ogden Junction.” Which he greatly enlarged and changed from an evening to a morning paper. He also published a semi-weekly edition of the same paper, and the following year published a paper at Logan called the “Logan Leader.” Hon. Frank J. Cannon and Benjamin F. Cummings, Jun, were among its first editors.

Having been called upon a mission to England, he left home April 11, 1882, with a large company of Elders (over which he was called to preside) for his appointed field of labor. He arrived at Liverpool on the 29th, and was assigned to the London conference. In June following he was appointed president of said conference, which position he held until his return home. During his absence, he traveled considerably over the British Isles and continental Europe, going as far as Rome and Naples near which latter place he visited Herculaneum and Pompeii and ascended Mount Vesuvius.

The winter after his return from England he was appointed minute clerk of the lower house of the Utah legislature, and was selected by that body to get up an official map of Utah, which he did the following year. He w as likewise appointed a member of the board of directors of the Territorial Insane Asylum, a position which he held for several years and until after the completion of the building in 1885.

At the general semi-annual conference of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations held at Salt Lake City, in October, 1883, he was appointed first assistant in the general superintendency of the organization, in place of Milton H. Hardy.

In 1885 he was nominated for the legislature by the people of Weber county and elected by a large majority, He served his constituency with fidelity and distinction, and was made a member of several of the most important committees of the house. During much of the session he occupied the speaker’s chair. He was also appointed chairman of the committee on memorials to Congress, and of the committee on the governor’s vetoes. These vetoes were annoyingly frequent during the session, occasioned by the rabid anti-Mormon disposition of the governor. They covered nearly every enactment of the session, including the general appropriations bill, carrying with it the pay and expenses of every department of the local government as well as the appropriations to the several Territorial institutions, such as the Insane Asylum, the Deseret University, etc., etc. At the close of the session Joseph A. West was selected to go to Washington and assist in the presentation of the legislature’s side of the controversy with the governor to the General Government. The Congressional appropriation for the pay of the legislature and the expenses of the session had been withheld, and this he was also instructed to try to recover.

On the 23rd of March, 1886, he left for Washington, where he remained until the 10th of June following. He called upon the President and members of the Cabinet, and labored diligently among the members of Congress during the whole period of his absence. These were among the darkest days in the history of Utah, for every department of the General Government seemed to be arrayed against her people, backed by the public sentiment of the entire nation. It was at this time that the notorious Edmunds-Tucker bill was before Congress—that infamous measure that wrought such havoc and produced such a reign of terror in Utah a few years later. Early in May Hon. John T. Caine and Joseph A. West joined in a communication to the Hon. J. Q. C. Lamar, then secretary of the Interior, fully setting forth the Utah situation, and asking for such legislation as would relieve the Territory of the embarrassing situation occasioned by Governor Murray’s sweeping veto messages. The letter having been presented to the Cabinet, the President, under date of May 11th, sent a special message to Congress upon the subject, taking the “Mormon” side of the controversy. He promptly removed the governor, and the desired legislative relief was soon after obtained. Brother West now turned his attention to the withheld legislative pay, and after an arduous struggle with the First Comptroller of the Treasury, Hon. Milton H. Durham, finally succeeded in securing every cent of the illegally withheld appropriation, to the great satisfaction of his legislative colleagues, and the people of the Territory in general. May 4, 1886, Jos. A. West appeared before the full judiciary committee of the house and made a two hours’ argument against the Edmunds-Tucker bill, a lengthy report of which was published in the Utah papers at the time. Since his return from Washington, Brother West has been almost constantly occupied in the construction and operation of railroads. His present home is at Ogden, Utah.

FROM LATTER-DAY SAINT BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA,

Salt Lake City, Utah

1902.