San Bernardino County
Biographies
JAMES MONROE WEST,
living two and one-half miles east of San Bernardino, on Third street, is a pioneer of 1856. His native State is Alabama. He was born in Dallas County, October 23, 1825, and is the son of Simon and Nancy (Thompson) West, natives respectively of Tennessee and North Carolina. The father was born August 19, 1797, and the mother April 3, 1799. Simon West moved with his family to Mississippi in 1839, and died there in January, 1884. The mother is still living in Itawamba County, Mississippi. They had ten children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the second. He was married in Mississippi, December 30, 1847, to Miss Adaline Weeks, who was born and reared in Marion County, Alabama, a daughter of Jephtha Weeks, a farmer and mechanic. He started to make the trip across the plains in 1856, and died in August of that year in Utah, of small-pox. Besides our subject and his family there were four other families that started at the same time. They left their homes in Mississippi on February 21, 1856, and arrived in Salt Lake on July 19 of the same year. Before reaching Salt Lake Mr. West's oldest son, a boy of seven years, fell out of a wagon and was run over by his uncle's wagon and almost killed. His uncle found a large blue bead in the road near where the accident occurred, and it was put on a string and given the boy as a plaything. He had not played with it many days, however, until he took the small-pox, supposed to have been conveyed to him by the blue bead, and all of the party had it in a light form except Mr. Weeks, who died, as before stated.
September 8, 1856, they set out for California, and November 8, of the same year, they reached San Bernardino. They were delayed just ten days by a man purposely misdirecting them, having heard that it was a party that had the small-pox, and he afterward made a boast of it. After his arrival here Mr. West bought the land where he now lives, in partnership with his old neighbor, Mr. G. W. Sparkes. Mr. and Mrs. West have reared a family of nine children: Samuel M., Simon J., Sarah Jane, now Mrs. W. H. Mee; Martha Allen, who died at the age of seventeen years, five months and two days; James Monroe, Nancy Abigail, now Mrs. Charles A. Moore; Mary Elizabeth, wife of Frank Yager; Thomas Jefferson, now on the police force of San Bernardino, and George Washington.
Politically Mr. West affiliates with the Democratic party. He was nominated by his party for the office of superintendent of schools some years ago, which fact is mentioned to show the high regard his brethren had for him by bringing him forward for such a responsible position. In his vocation he has met with good success. He owns a farm well improved and productive. He is practically retired from active labor, and with the wife of his youth is enjoying the blessings which come only to those who have led industrious and temperate lives.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 564
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
SAMUEL E. FITZHUGH
is a native of New Madrid County, Missouri, born February 7, 1822, a son of Samuel E. and Margaret (Ruddle) Fitzhugh, natives respectively of Maryland and Missouri, and of Irish origin. John Ruddle was a soldier in the war of 1812. The subject of this sketch is the third in a family of nine children. His father moved from Missouri to Kentucky in 1833, where the family grew up. Mr. Fitzhugh was married in St. Louis, in 1845, to Caroline McKee, a native of Pennsylvania, but reared in Kentucky. She is the daughter of David and Eliza (Dehaven) McKee, both born in Pennsylvania, of Irish parentage. Subsequent to his marriage Mr. Fitzhugh moved to Texas, where he lived for five years. When the war came on he enlisted in the Eighteenth Texas Volunteer Cavalry, Company C, Colonel Darnell's regiment, and served in the Confederate army for a period of four years. After the war he joined his family in Texas and soon set out for Arizona, where he tarried two years, and then came to California. They arrived here in March, 1866, and he at once bought twenty acres, where he has since lived, three miles east of San Bernardino, for which he paid $15 per acre. It is now highly improved and worth at least $300 per acre. He hauled the lumber in his house from the mountains, a distance of twelve miles. For eighteen years he followed teaming on the mountains. He was the father of eight children, five of whom are still living, viz.: Charles E., the oldest, is engaged in the cattle business in Arizona; Caroline. now Mrs. Fred Rable, of Santa Ana; A. J., wife of John Poppet, of San Bernardino; Mary A., wife of William Morton, and Allen J. Mr. Fitzhugh and wife are both members of the Christian Church, of San Bernardino. Politically he is an intelligent supporter of the Democratic party.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 564-565
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler