George M. West
Published: 2015-08-05
Total Pages: 76
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Excerpt from William West of Scituate, R. I: Farmer, Soldier, Statesman My purpose in collecting data and putting forth this memoir of William West, of Scituate, R. I., is that a forgotten loyal citizen of that State may receive such recognition as his patriotic and zealous work entitles him to, and incidentally to complete an unwritten chapter of family history. One cannot read of the many services rendered his State by William West without being surprised that there is no public record of his death, his burial place, or aside from the works of Beeman and Walker, of his life in Scituate. This little memoir, though fragmentary and lacking in literary style, seeks to set forth all the facts that the author could discover relative to William West's life, and is issued with the hope that it will incite Rhode Island's historians and scholars to more fully investigate his history and complete the work here begun. The writer has spent some twenty-five years in securing the facts herein set forth, having visited the West homestead in Scituate. searched the records there, and talked with some of the oldest Scituate inhabitants; carefully examined the Colonial Records of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, as well as their Vital Records and Town Histories; the records at Washington relative to Rhode Island in the Revolutionary War. and the Pension Records for that State in that war; examined the Census Records for the State for 1771 and 1790; looked through a large number of contemporary State newspapers; corresponded with all the descendants of William West that could be found, and obtained from them family records; read numerous books on early New England and Rhode Island history; and received much valuable information from J. N. Arnold. Rhode Island's historian; Miss Georgiana Guild, genealogist, of Providence; Byron O. Angell and Cyrus Walker, of Scituate, and C. S. Pierce, genealogist, of Springfield. Mass.. to all of whom the thanks of the author are hereby extended. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.