Henry W. West, an able and successful physician of Yates Center, Kan., has been a practitioner in that city for over thirty years, and well fitted by natural gifts and education for the profession in which he has so long and honorably been engaged. He was born in Lancaster, Ky., Aug. 27, 1856, to Tyra H. and Elizabeth F. (Beaumont) West, native Kentuckians. The father was a farmer by occupation, and spent his entire life in his native state, where he died in 1905. He was a Republican in politics and a stanch Union man during the Civil war, having served as a member of the Kentucky Home Guards during that conflict. His father was an early settler in Kentucky, as was Dr. West's maternal grandfather, Wesley Beaumont, who also was a farmer and spent the remainder of his life in Kentucky.

Dr. Henry W. West was reared in Kentucky and received a common school education in that state. He early decided upon the profession of medicine as his life's line of endeavor. Though his parents were worthy and reputable people, they did not possess the means to provide for their son's professional training, and with that strength of determination and force of character which have marked his subsequent career, he set about to earn the funds for his medical training, which he did by teaching school. In 1878 he entered the Louisville Medical College, in which institution he graduated in 1880. A desire to practice his profession in a field not overcrowded led him to Kansas that same year. He located at Yates Center, where he established himself as a general practitioner, and for two years was associated with Dr. E. W. Harradon. Since then he has been alone and has built up a large and lucrative practice. He has remained a diligent student and investigator and aims to keep fully abreast with the advance in his profession. He is president of the Woodson County Medical Society, and also sustains membership in the Kansas State Medical Society and in the American Medical Asociation.[sic]

In 1883 Dr. West married Mary E. Schuler, a daughter of A. J. Bair, of Warsaw, Ind., who was a prominent merchant in that city for a number of years and died there. Dr. and Mrs. West have three children: Bessie is a teacher in the public schools of Yates Center; Cora is a graduate of the Yates Center High School; and Harry A. has spent two years at the University of Kansas, preparing for the profession of medicine. Dr. West is a progressive and energetic man in business, as well as in professional life, and has acquired considerable property, consisting of valuable farm lands and city real estate. In politics he is a Republican and fraternally is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, in which order he has filled all the offices. He and his family are members of the Christian church and are regarded as a family of exceptionally high character.