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WILLIAM M. WEST , farmer and stock raiser, section thirty, post office Virden, was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, on the 30th day of April, 1828; son of Elijah and Elizabeth (Henderson) West; father of English descent and native of Delaware, and mother of Maryland. They were married in Maryland, and emigrated to Kentucky in an early day. There was a family of ten children, nine of whom lived to be men and women. In 1833, with a four horse team, they started for Morgan county, Illinois, where they arrived in due course of time; camping on the prairies and cooking by the way. The first winter was spent in a log cabin, eighteen by twenty feet. The following spring they moved to Macoupin Point, where he kept a stage stand, being twelve miles from any other habitation; and in the spring following, came to Auburn, Sangamon County, Illinois, and located near Sugar creek, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land of a man named Abells. The improvements consisted of a log cabin and twelve acres which were under the plow; where he made a farm and lived until his death, which occurred July 8, 1840. His mother, surviving him some years, died in 1863. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and sincere Christians, and left a large family to mourn their loss. William M. was married in 1855, to Miss Hannah Landes, a daughter of David Landes, of Kentucky. She was born in Sangamon county, April 22, 1838. They have six living children, Cornelia, Flora, William H., Annie Lucretia and Mary. In 1852, he bought his present place of one hundred and sixty acres, which was in its wild state, and through his own exertion has brought it under a high state of cultivation, and it is valued at $75 per acre.