Alvin West and Mamie Fox West. Al was born 6 November 1872 in Centerville, Idaho He died 30 July 1954 at Mackay, Idaho at the age of 81 years.
Alvin “Al” West and Mamie Fox West were married 7 July 1897 in Challis, Idaho
Mamie was born 5 November 1877 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She died 17 January 1965 in the Jerome Rest Home, Idaho at the age of 87 years.
Both Al and Mamie are buried in Mt. McCaleb Cemetery in Mackay,
Idaho.
They had 2 daughters: Laura Lucille West Ivie born 17 Nov 1897 at Challis, Idaho. She
married Lee Ivie in 1918. They had
one son, Lester Ivie in 1919. Laura
died December 26 Dec 1920 from complications of childbirth 9 months after the
birth of Lester Ivie in Mackay, Idaho.
Jean Lucille West born 28 February 1919 at Dickey,
Idaho and died 12 February 1920 of pneumonia. Both daughters are buried at Mt.
McCaleb Cemetery in Mackay, Idaho.
Mamie Fox West born 11 May 1877 to George and Margaret Fox. Margaret came
over to marry a man and he died. She, then, married George Fox. They settled in
Pennsylvania. Their first son died of diphtheria and is buried in Pennsylvania.
They may have had children before they came west. George Fox was a
Mason. Together Margaret Fox and George Fox had 9 children:
1 Son died of diphtheria
2 Margaret “Maggie” Fox Nickerson
(Nancy and Trudy Nickerson’s grandmother) Maggie married Frank D. Nickerson
whose mother was Jessie McClure. Frank and Maggie Nickerson had two daughters,
Trudy and Nancy Nickerson
3
Mamie Fox West
4 Arthur Fox
5 Lena Fox (Grandmother of Dene Milwarot
?)
6 Amelia Fox Brenchley (died in 1901 or
1902)
7 Frank Fox
8 Dora Fox Phillips
9 Ida Fox Wyatt born in 1891 and died
in November 1993 at 102 years of age
Al West, 81, life time resident of Idaho and
Custer County Pioneer, passed away Friday near the Rural Electric Association (REA) building just blocks from his home at 504 Elm in Mackay with a heart attack. He was watching workers put up the slab roof on the REA
building. His sudden passing came as a shock to his family and friends as he
had maintained unusual health and vigor for a man of his age.
He was born 6 November 1872 at Centerville, Idaho in
the Boise Basin, the son of William W. West and Nannie Sampson West. In 1879 he
came to Custer County with his father. His father was the first man to drive a
team and wagon into the rough Bonanza Camp which was then in the throes of a
big mining strike. In the fall of 1884, the senior Mr. William W. West moved
his family to Challis, Idaho and it was here that Al received his early
education and grew to young manhood.
Al was united in marriage to Mamie Fox in Challis on 7
July 1897.
They lived in Challis during the first year of their marriage. Here,
daughter, Laura Lucille West was born. Al ran a pack train to the Mountain King
Mine at Sea Foam. The second year after his marriage, he leased a ranch below
Challis and in April 1899 they moved to a ranch at Dickey, Idaho (Bascom’s
place). This place got its name from J.P. Dickey, who established the first
Post Office in the Thousand Spring Valley, north of Mackay, Idaho.
The land around the Post Office, when Mr. and Mrs.
West first moved was a typical sage brush scene. They took charge of the Stage
Station for the Anderson Brothers of Montana and kept the station for 20 years,
until that mode of transportation became obsolete. They also held a financial interest in the Custer Stage Company for eight years. The Mackay, Challis,
and Clayton stage along with Ike Hardman and Louis Hansen. Hansen lived where
Reed Nielson place and ran a car dealership.
In the meantime, Mr. and Mrs. Al West carried on the
work of development of the ranch which changed the sage brush into green meadows and made
their ranch one of the most prosperous in the valley.
Mamie Fox West cooked for many passengers and stage
drivers and tender through those years. And in the fall, large herds of cattle
were driven to Mackay from Challis and the Pahsimeroi via Dickey for an
overnight stop. The men and cattle were fed supper and breakfast. The cattle
either fed on pasture or were fed hay.
In 1939, the West’s moved from their Dickey ranch into
Mackay in the stone house on the corner of College and Elm. They spent the winters in San Francisco, California with Cassie and
Texas. They lived for one year in the Carr residence before buying the home on
the Elm Street and College Ave. Besides retaining ownership of the ranch, Mr.
Al West was an agent for the Texaco Company.
The greatest tragedy in their lives was the death of
their two daughters. Jean Lucille was born 28 February 1919 and died 12
February 1920 of pneumonia. Laura Lucille West Ivie died 26 December 1920. They
passed away within 10 months of each other. Jean passed away at the age of
eleven months, fifteen days and Laura, who was married to Lee Ivie and the
mother of one son, Lester Ivie – died at the age of 22 years from the effects
of Lester’s childbirth.
FROM the Bunnie (Ines) Smith Collection
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