Chester H West

Biography

West was born in Fort Collins, Colorado on January 3, 1888 and later enlisted for World War I in California. After the war, he married Maggie Elizabeth Van Sickle of Southside on Christmas Day, 1932, and began working as a farm hand for Sam McCausland, the son of Civil War Confederate Gen. John McCausland. West died May 20, 1935, shot and murdered by Sam McCausland at West's home during an altercation. West later died at a hospital in Gallipolis, Ohio and McCausland was convicted of second-degree murder. West is buried at the Van Sickle Cemetery in Southside, West Virginia, but his grave-site was lost as the cemetery became part of the Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area in the 1970s. The first attempt to rediscover West's grave was 2012 by Jack Crutchfield of West Virginia Public Television’s “Obscurely Famous” series, however Crutchfield was unsuccessful. In 2015, the grave was successfully rediscovered in 2015 by Derrick Jackson, a Boy Scout who used the rediscovery of the grave as his Eagle Scout service project. Plans to reinter West's remains at the Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery in Dunbar, West Virginia are currently in progress.

Medal of Honor citation

Rank and organization: First Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company D, 363d Infantry, 91st Division. Place and date: Near Bois-de-Cheppy, France, September 26, 1918. Entered service at: Los Banos, Calif. Birth: Fort Collins, Colo. G.O. No.: 34, W.D., 1919.
Citation:

While making his way through a thick fog with his automatic rifle section, his advance was halted by direct and unusual machinegun fire from 2 guns. Without aid, he at once dashed through the fire and, attacking the nest, killed 2 of the gunners, 1 of whom was an officer. This prompt and decisive hand-to-hand encounter on his part enabled his company to advance farther without the loss of a man.