Joseph A. West

JOSEPH ALVA WEST Former Assistant General Secretary and Assistant General Superintendent Y. M. M. I. A. JOSEPH ALVA WEST In the passing of Joseph Alva West, Ogden, April 17, 1926, the Church lost a faithful worker; the State, a leading citizen; and the Mutual Improvement Associations, a true friend. About two years before the Y. M. M. I. A. was generally or- ganized, in 1875, a young people's association was established in Ogden City by Elder Franklin D. Richards of the Council of the Twelve, April 20, 1873. This society continued under the guidance of President Richards until it was more fully organized, with a full set of officers, on June 15, 1877, when Joseph A. West was chosen president, with David Kay and Moroni Poulter as counselors; Ephraim T. Meyers and Robert T. Harris, secretaries; Willard Farr, treasurer;

804 IMPROVEMENT ERA and William James, librarian. President West, during this period, held weekly meetings' with the young people, provided prominent men as lecturers, interesting programs, socials and entertainments, also en- couraged testimony, oratory and essay writing; and on November 7 issued The Amateur, the first local Y. M. M. I. A. paper published in the Church, with himself as editor. It ran for two years, and was supplanted in October, 1879, by The Contributor, a general magazine for the societies of the whole Church, which in turn was succeeded in November, 1897, by the Improvement Era. On Sunday, the 21st day of April, 1878, following the organiza- tion, May, 1877, of the Weber stake by President Brigham Young, a special meeting of the young men of Ogden and Weber county was held in the tabernacle, for the purpose of selecting a stake central committee to preside over the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations throughout! the stake which then consisted of the whole of Weber county. Elder Junius F. Wells, president of the Territorial Central Committee, stated the object of the meeting and gave an address on "Mutual Improvement," remarking that the duties of the board about to be organized would be to have; a general supervision of all the associations in the county, and be the medium through which any instruction the authorities of the Church should wish to impart might be readily conveyed to each society. At this meeting Joseph A. West was chosen superintendent, with A. C. Brown and L. A- Herrick, counselors; Washington Jenkins and C. C. Richards, secre- taries; Z. Ballantyne, treasurer. This was the first central board organization of the Y. M. M. I. A. in the Weber stake. Following this organization, the old association, which had heretofore been or- ganized in Ogden, was divided into four, one in each of the city wards, and officers chosen for them. The members of the Central Committee of Salt Lake at this time also traveled to various settlements in the county and organized associations throughout the Weber stake. This practically marked the beginning of the Y. M. M. I. A. in Weber stake, embracing then the whole county. April, 1928, could well be chosen as the 50th anniversary of the organization, and could appro- priately be selected by the Weber, North Weber, Ogden, and Mount Ogden stakes, as the date for a grand union celebration in honor of the event. The work was thereafter followed up by President Joseph A. West and his associates in Weber county until January 15, 1882, when circumstances compelled him to resign the position of superintendent of the Young Men of the stake, and a new stake organization was effected at a quarterly conference held in Ogden on that date. Presi- dent Wilford Woodruff, Elders Joseph F. Smith, Moses Thatcher and Junius F. Wells were present on the occasion, all of whom commended highly the excellent work that Superintendent West had done in thp Association during the time of his- incumbency. The second Central

JOSEPH A. WEST 805 Committee was then chosen: Edward H. Anderson, Superintendent Alonzo Herrick and Zechariah Ballantyne, counselors; Angus T. Wright and Alma D. Chambers, secretaries; John L. Wilson, treasurer. Later Joseph A. West was appointed Assistant General Superin- tendent and was associated with Elder Junius F. Wells in the dis- tribution of The Contributor, also assistant to General Secretary Nephi W. Clayton, and continued his labors in the general organization until 1892. From that time on, until his death, he took great interest in the organization, and contributed freely from time to time for its publications. We have not space here more than merely to name a few of the activities in which he engaged. He took great interest in the early militia organization, and was appointed Major of Cavalry in the Fall of 1870. In 1878, he purchased the Ogden Junction and made it a lively morning paper and later established the Leader in Logan. He was largely responsible for the building of the Ogden City water works, supplying the city with water from the Ogden river. He became a pro- ficient civil engineer, and was Deputy Territorial Surveyor; surveyor of Ogden and Weber county; engineer in charge) of construction on the LTtah Central, Utah Northern, and headed expeditions as chief engineer for projecting lines of railways in many parts of the West. In 1890 he built the Sumpter Valley railway, for which he was chief engineer, and became secretary and general superintendent. ,He was ordained a High Priest in 1877, and waa a member of the Weber stake High Council. He filled a mission to England in 1882. He worked persistently and constantly in the quorums of the Priest- hood. He was a member of the Territorial legislature in 1885. In 1914 he retired from the practice of his profession as civil engineer, and afterwards spent his time in writing, and in laboring in local Church work, and in the temples for his kindred dead. A number of his articles have appeared in the Improvement Era, and in other publications. Elder West's ancestors settled in New England in the sixteenth century. His father was Bishop Chauncy W. West, and his mother was Mary Hoagland. He was born in Salt Lake City on September 12, 1851. He possessed lively initiative and splendid vision, was active and alert, enthusiastic for new and improved movements, a man of wide interest, high ideals, refined character and public spirit. He has a large family of men and women of high standing in the community in which they live, all well educated. Joseph A. West was a gentleman of culture, a leader among men, a genuine Latter-day Saint, a wonderful father, faithful and enterprising. His struggles and labors and leadership among the young people and in the building up of northern Utah, Idaho and Oregon, will long be remembered. He was an inspiration to the workers about him, and helped many young men who have since become prominent both in Church and State. — A