Esther Melvina, daughter of Dea. Henry and Esther Wells Crandall, was born in Cazenovia, N. Y., March 16, 1828. In youth she made a profession of religion and joined the DeRuyter church.
On July 2, 1850, she was married to Eld. Joel C. West, who was then teaching the school at Shiloh, N. J. God blessed them with six children: Clement Henry, Ella Melvina (Mrs. Ticknor), Elbert Wells, who died last January at Waseca, Minn.; Anna E. (Mrs. Burno, of Chicago), Mary J., who died at Milton at the age of twelve; and Arabella Jane, who died at DeRuyter in the joy and usefulness of young womanhood.
Eld. Joel C. West was such a fine singer, so intelligent and so gifted, that the Shiloh church called him to the gospel ministry, and he was ordained, and preached at Preston and Nile, N. Y., Trenton, Minn., and Milton, Wis., and spent the closing years at his old home in Shiloh, where he died a triumphant death in July 8, 1876.
In all these blessed labors and acceptable pastorates, Mrs. West was a noble helper and a devoted mother to the children, and since his death she has been tenderly and lovingly cared for by them, and died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Burno, in Chicago, March 29, 1898. L. R. S.
