Betsey Jane West

Betsey Jane Fish was born August 9, 1836, in Hatley, Quebec, Canda, to Horace Fish and Hannah Leavitt Fish. She was their third child, with two older sisters, one younger sister, and two younger brothers. Her father, Horace Fish, was born January 6, 1799, in Hatley, Stanstead, Quebec, Canada, the son of Joseph and Sally Spear Fish. He married Hannah Leavitt on July 18, 1825. Hannah Leavitt, was born December 26, 1805, in Johnsbury, Caledonia County, Vermont, daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah Shannon Leavitt.

Betsey's mother, Hannah, was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1836, and her father, Horace, was baptized in 1839. On July 20, 1837, they left Hatley and traveled to Twelve Mile Grove near Joliet, Illinois, staying for three years. In 1840 they traveled to Nauvoo, Illinois. Horace worked on the Nauvoo Temple.

May 23, 1846, leaving their property and most of their belongings, they crossed the Mississippi River bound for a new life in the west. They endured sickness, food shortages, and many other hardships along the way. They arrived at the Des Moines River about four miles south of Farmington and spent the winter of 1846-1847. On May 8, 1847 they made their way to Council Point on the Missouri River, near present day Omaha, Nebraska, remaining for three years. On May 29, 1850, they departed Council Point for the trek to Salt Lake City. The company consisted of fifty wagons. Many graves were found along this western trek, and many more were added from their company.

They left the Missouri River on June 3, 1850, in the Milo Andrus Pioneer Company of Latter-day Saints. In the company were Horace, 50, Hannah, 45, Julia, 25, Betsey, 14, Anna Maria, 8, Joseph, 10, and Franklin Richards, 2 years old. They took the Mormon Trail to Salt Lake City, Utah, and arrived on August 29, 1850.

They settled in Centerville, north of Salt Lake City. Later Horace sold his property and moved to Parowan, Utah, arriving April 30, 1853. Horace and Hannah lived out their lives in Parowan, and both were dedicated to their church and their community. They were buried in the Parowan Cemetery. They have thousands of descendants that pay homage for their many sacrifices. Their children were:

Julia, born July 18, 1825, married Edward Washington Thompson

Sarah, born October 24, 1828, married John Calvin Lazelle Smith

Betsey Jane, born August 9, 1836, married John Anderson West, and they later divorced.

Joseph, born June 17, 1840, married Mary Campbell Steele, Eliza Jane Lewis, Adelaide Margaret Smith, and Julia Ann Reidhead

Anna Maria, born May 1842, married Sidney Rigdon Burton, Sr.

Franklin Richards, born April 12, 1848, married Rebecca Wimmer.

Betsey married John Anderson West in Parowan, Iron County, Utah, May 19, 1854. John's family were also early settlers of the town of Parowan, Utah, having come west in 1851. John was the second child and first son of Samuel Walker West, born 1804 in Tennessee, and Margaret Cooper West, also born 1804 in Tennessee. They were married in 1829 while living in Tennessee. They joined the LDS church in about 1834, and moved to Kentucky for a while to stay with Samuel's widowed mother, and then left for Nauvoo, Illinois, in about 1842.

John Anderson West served a mission for the LDS church in Hawaii from 1854 to 1858, so he and Betsy were not together for very long before John had to leave on his mission.

Betsey and John had five children, but later divorced. Their children were Elizabeth Jane West, born 1859, Margaret Hannah, born 1862, John Anderson West, Jr., born 1865, Horace Ezra West, born 1867, and Sarah Ann, born 1869. From the above picture of her gravestone, it appears that she was buried with her son, John Anderson West, Jr., who died the same year as his mother in 1919, only seven months apart. John Jr. died first in January and Betsey in August. John Anderson West, Jr., never married. There is a separate gravestone photo of hers under the media tab, which simply bears her initials, BJFW.

John Anderson West. Sr. took a plural wife, Mary Jane Robinson, in 1865, and by 1870 he was living with Mary Jane in Parowan, and they were listed in the census record as John A. West, 39, Mary J., 21, and living with them were: Elizabeth, 9, Nanette, 11, Martha J., 11, John A., 4, and Samuel 4. Elizabeth and John A. were probably John's children with Betsey, but I don't know who Nanette and Martha were, because they were too old to be Mary Jane's children, and I know that John and Betsey did not have daughters named Nanette or Martha. Samuel was certainly Samuel Ezra West, John and Mary Jane's first-born son.

However, there is also a 1870 census for Parowan showing Betsey Jane Fish West's parents, Horace, 72, and Hannah, 65, and living with them was Jane Fish, 34 (probably Betsey Jane Fish West), and her children, Elizabeth J., 10, John A., 6, Horace E., 3, and Sarah Ann, 1 year old. All of the children were using the surname Fish and not West.

Betsey's brother, Joseph Fish (1840-1926) married John Anderson West's niece, Adelaide Margaret Smith, the daughter of John Anderson West's sister, Margaret Fletcher West, and her husband, Jesse Nathaniel Smith, a cousin of Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS Church. Margaret and Jesse had two children, a daughter, Adelaide Margaret Smith, and a son, Joseph West Smith, and sadly, Margaret passed away at the very young age of 26 years old in 1864 from a ruptured appendix while Jesse was on an LDS Mission in Denmark.

Margaret's sister, Emma Seraphine West, was Jesse's first wife, and Emma raised Margaret's children, Adelaide and Joseph, after Margaret's death. Some of the West and Smith families moved from Parowan, Utah, to Snowflake, Arizona, in about 1879 at the request of the LDS church in order to settle that area. Also relocating there about that time was Samuel Walker West and Margaret Cooper West's youngest daughter, Nancy Malinda West, and her husband, John Henry Rollins, Sr. and their children. Nancy's mother, Margaret, also traveled to Arizona with the family, since her husband, Samuel, had passed away in Utah in 1873. Margaret lived with John Henry and Nancy Malinda West Rollins until her death in 1882, and worked as a "doctress" which was her given occupation in the 1880 census in Safford, Arizona. Samuel Walker West's two plural wives stayed in Utah after his death.

By the 1880 U.S. Federal Census for Parowan, Iron, Utah, Betsey, 44, was divorced from John and was living with three of her children, John Anderson West, Jr., 15, Erastus Horace, 13, and Sarah A., 11. Betsey was keeping house and her two sons were working as laborers. Sadly, her daughter Margaret, passed away on May 5, 1866, in Parowan, from mountain fever. She was only 4 years old at the time of her death. Margaret was buried in the Parowan City Cemetery.

Betsey's daughter, Elizabeth Jane, known as "Lizzie", married Job Hall Whitney on January 2, 1879, in St. George, Utah, when she was 19 years old. They had seven known children, Amy, Sophronia, Maud, Laura, Blanche, Bessie, Jennie and Frances L. Sadly, Lizzie died just short of her 34th birthday on October 2, 1893, in Sanford, Conejos County, Colorado. Her husband, Job, passed away in 1922, however he married three other times, to Eliza Adeline Tobias, Georgia Ann Mitchell and Ella Austin Lennington before he passed away. Lizzie and Job were both buried in Sanford, Colorado. Their daughter Amy married Edwin Hyrum Jones, and they had at least six children, Lyle Edwin, Stanley West, Blanche Savilla, Ellen, Kenneth and Charles.

By 1880, John Anderson West was living in Snowflake, Arizona, with his second wife, Mary Jane Robinson West. They were listed in the census as follows: John, 49, Mary Jane, 32, Samuel Ezra, 14, Joseph Anderson, 12, William Heber, 10, and Moroni Erastus, 8. They had six more children, Mary in 1883, Robert McCord, in 1885, Susan, in 1887, and Wilford Cooper in 1890, and sadly two of their children died as babies, including Amulek Isaac born in 1876 and James Alma born in 1877 who both passed away in 1879.

In the 1900 U.S. Federal Census for Huntington, Emery, Utah, Betsey, a 63-year old widow who had given birth to five children, three of whom were still living, was living on her own farm which she owned free from a mortgage. Living with her were her son, John Anderson West, 35, (who was single), her daughter, Sarah Ann, 31, and Sarah's husband, Delos D. Crandall, 41, along with Sarah and Delos's children: Nellie J., 12, Ernest, 4, Horace, 6, Edward T., 3, and Maud, 8 months old. Sarah and Delos had been married for 14 years and had given birth to five children, all of whom were living. John was working as a farmer, and Delos as a farm laborer.

In 1910 Betsey and her son John were living in West Emmett, Canyon County, Idaho, and were listed as follow in the census record: John A. West, 45, and Jane West, 73. John was working on a hay farm. John was listed as being single and his mother as being divorced. She had given birth to 5 children, 2 of whom were still living. John was born in Utah and Betsey Jane in Canada. John's father was born in Tennessee. They owned their own farm free from a mortgage. John Anderson West, Jr., born September 2, 1865, passed away at the age of 53 years old on January 31, 1919, and was buried in the Darlington Cemetery in Custer county, Idaho, His mother, Betsey Jane Fish West passed away just seven months later in August and was buried with her son in the Darlington Cemetery.

In 1910, Betsey's son, Erastus Horace West, 41, was living in North Emmet, Canyon County, Idaho, with his wife, Lona, 36, and their children, Ralph, 15, Roy, 12, Florence, 10 and May, 1, and Erastus was working as a fruit farmer. Erastus and Lona had been married 15 years and had 4 children. Their son Ralph was born in New Mexico, and Roy in Arizona, as was Florence, but May was born in Idaho, so they had moved around a lot during those years of their marriage. In 1900 they had been living in Lower Gila, Grant, New Mexico, and were listed in the census that year as: Erastus, 32, Martha Lona, 25, Ralph, 5, Roy, 2, and Florence, 3, months old, and Erastus was working as a farmer. He and Martha Lona had been married for seven years.

After about 1910 John Anderson West, Sr. returned to Salt Lake City from Arizona, and lived there until his death in 1917. I don't know if he ever saw Betsey or their children ever again before he passed away.

In 1920, Erastus, 52, and Martha Lona, 44, were living in Antelope, Butte, Idaho, with their 11 year old daughter, Meta V., and they owned their own home free from a mortgage. Erastus was still working as a farmer, but was then the owner of a stock farm.

In 1929 Erastus and Lona's son, Roy A. West, married Geneva, and in 1930 they were living in Richmond, Cache, Utah, in a home they were renting for $12.00 per month. Roy was working as a teacher in a church school. In the 1930 census Erastus, 63, and Martha Lona, 55, were living in Paul, Minidoka, Idaho, with their daughter, Florence, 24. They had been married for 35 years, and Erastus was still farming.

In 1940, Roy A., 42, and Geneva, 33, were living in Price, Carbon, Utah, with their children, Emerson R., 9, Rosa Marie, 6, and Sylvia, 2 years old. Roy was working as a principal in a church seminary, and for the 52 weeks he worked at that profession for 60 hours per week in 1939, his income was $2,400. He had achieved a college degree in a 5th or subsequent year. They were renting their home for $40.00 per month. Geneva also had 5 years of a college education. They had previously been living in Paris, Idaho, in 1935, and before that Roy and Geneva had lived in Durham, North Carolina, where they were both students attending college. As late as 1972, Roy and Geneva were living in Salt Lake City, Utah, where Roy was the Director of Research at the LDS Seminaries & Institute, and they were living at 148 Lucy Avenue.

By 1940, Erastus, 73, and Martha Lona, 64, were living in Burley, Cassia, Idaho, and in their home was a young man named Wilber Trout, 26, a lodger, who had previously been living in Illinois in 1935. They owned their home which was valued at $1,200.00 and Erastus was still working as a farmer. Wilber was working as a mechanic in a garage. For the 34 weeks that Wilber worked at the garage for 60 hours per week, his income was $510.00.

Horace Erastus or Erastus Horace West passed away at the ripe old age of 90 years old on September 29, 1957, in Burley, Cassia County, Idaho. He had been born January 10, 1867, in Parowan, Iron County, Utah. Horace married Martha Lona Harriett Elizabeth Wilkins on December 25, 1893, in Beulah, Rio Arriba, New Mexico. They were both buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Heyburn, Minidoka County, Idaho. Martha Lona is buried in Block 2, Row 11, and passed away December 13, 1964, in Rupert, Minidoka County, Idaho.

Their son, Ralph West, born October 7, 1894, in Rio Arriba, New Mexico, married Mary Mae King, born March 22, 1896, Eureka, Juab County, Utah, and they had at least five children, Ralph King West, Wendall Horace West, Elizabeth, Floyd Daniel, and Melvin John West. Mary Mae passed away September 3, 1962, in Burley, Cassia, Idaho, and Ralph passed away June 3, 1976, also in Burley. They were also both buried in the Riverside Cemetery with Ralph's parents.

Ralph and Mary's son, Ralph King West, born in Darlington, Idaho, May 9, 1919, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and was involved in all the major campaigns in the Pacific. He married Elda Hurst on July 6, 1945. They had seven children, Sharon, Brett, Loren, Wendell, Monte, Robert, Betty. Ralph King West passed away on May 18, 2006, and his wife, Elda, preceded him in death in 1994. They were both buried in the Gem Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Burley, Cassia, Idaho.

Ralph King West's brother, Wendell Horace, born October 9, 1921, in Moore, Butte, Idaho, passed away July 13, 1941, in Yakima, Washington. He was buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Heyburn, Idaho. I don't know if he was ever married or had any children.

Their sister, Elizabeth, born August 29, 1925, in Moore, Idaho, passed away less than two years later on August 11, 1927, and she was buried in the Los River Cemetery in Moore, Butte, Idaho.

Their brother, Floyd Daniel West, born August 22, 1927, also served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He passed away on June 19, 2007, and was buried in the Gem Memorial Gardens, in Burley, Cassia, Idaho.

Their brother, Melvin John West, born June 6, 1929, in Rupert, Minidoka County, Idaho, married Ruth Allene Cook, who was born July 30, 1933. Melvin passed away February 28, 1982, and Ruth June 11, 2001 and they are both buried in the Paul Cemetery in Paul, Minidoka, Idaho. They had four children, Mike, Allene, Kay Lee and Ellen, according to their joint headstone, which also depicts a tractor, so perhaps Melvin was also a farmer.

Betsey's daughter Sarah Anna West Crandall, born April 16, 1869, in Parowan, Iron, Utah, passed away on December 13, 1901, in Canyon County, Idaho, at the fairly young age of only 32 years old. She married David Delos Crandall on October 15, 1886, in Logan, Cache, Utah. They had Nellie Jane, Ernest Delos, Horace Anderson, Edward Thompson, Maud, and Bessie. Sarah was buried in Emmet, Idaho (cemetery unknown), and David, born November 14, 1858, in Springville, Utah, passed away on March 16, 1944, in Provo, Utah. He was buried in the Springville City Cemetery, Plot: Block 72, Lot 3, Position 6. They have a joint headstone there which says they were married October 15, 1896, but date is off by 10 years, and they were actually married in 1886.

Their first daughter, Nellie Jane, was born June 9, 1887, in Hungtington, Emery, Utah, and she married John Burt, who was born December 29, 1887, in Springville, Utah. They had at least three children, Taylor C., in 1913, Marjorie, in 1919, and Anna Nadine, in 1930. John Taylor Burt, passed away September 15, 1956, in Springville. Nellie passed away from a heart attack on November 28, 1968, also in Springville, and they are both buried in the Evergreen Cemetery there. Their son Taylor, passed away at the age of 81 in Mapleton, Utah, of cancer. He married Harriett Lee December 28, 1933, in Farmington, Utah. They had four children, Rodney, Kent, Bryan, and Susan, eighteen grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren.

Their daughter, Marjorie, passed away November 22, 1932, in Springville, at the young age of only 13 years old. She was buried with her parents in Springville. Her sister, Anna Nadine Burt, was born October 13, 1930, in Springville, Utah, and she married Henry Werner Bismark, born April 10, 1923, in Arkansas. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and made his living as a trucker, working for Rio Grand and Garrett Truck Lines. He received two one million miler pins with no accidents. They had three daughters, Cathy, Margie and Charlotte, 5 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

Anna Nadine Burt was active in the church, loved plays and was involved in the community producing and enjoying the talent that Springville had to offer. She also was active in the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and gave a lesson four days before she entered the hospital. Anna was also a substitute teacher at Grant School and taught reading at the school for many years. She also worked at the BYU Bookstore as a cashier and loved to be around and meet the students and faculty. She loved flowers and springtime, warm weather and yard sales. Henry passed away on May 9, 2011, in Springville, and his wife followed him about a year and a half later on October 20, 2012, in Provo.

Sarah and David's son Edward Thompson Crandall, born January 15, 1887, married Helen Roylance in August, 1924. I don't know if they had any children. Edward passed away September 10, 1971, in Springville, Utah, and was buried in the Springville City Cemetery, and Helen, born February 16, 1902, passed away January 1, 1993, in Spanish Fork, Utah, and was buried with her husband in Springville.

• Updated from Find A Grave Memorial via sister Sarah McGregor (born Fish) by SmartCopy: Jun 13 2015, 13:09:41 UTC

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• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 31 2016, 3:23:01 UTC