| Notes |
- 1940 Census
Name: Charles E West
Respondent: Yes
Age: 67
Estimated birth year: abt 1873
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birthplace: Missouri
Marital Status: Divorced
Relation to Head of House: Head
Home in 1940: Pinellas, Florida
Map of Home in 1940: View Map
House Number: None
Farm: No
Inferred Residence in 1935: Decatur, Macon, Illinois
Residence in 1935: Decatur, Macon, Illinois
Resident on farm in 1935: No
Sheet Number: 62A
Number of Household in Order of Visitation: t
House Owned or Rented: Owned
Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 100
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: College, 4th year
Weeks Worked in 1939: 0
Income: 0
Income Other Sources: No
- Charles Edward West (1871-1947)
By Rob Lewis:
Born in Hannibal, Missouri October 2, 1871, Charles was raised in the Presbyterian church and accepted Christ at the age of 9 years.
His father died when he was young. He left home when he was nineteen, moving to Chicago, where he secured a job in the composing room of the Chicago Times.
After 5 years in Chicago, Charles E. West started his study of medicine, and graduated from the Chicago College of Homeopathic Medicine in 1898.
Charles married Ella Lee Marstiller (1869-1943) in 1895 in Chicago while he is attending the Chicago College of Homeopathic Medicine. A son, Rutherford Archie West, was born 6 Jan 1897. A daughter, Charlotte, was born in 1901.
In 1902 he graduated from the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat College.
The doctor was engaged in active practice in Elburn, Illinois three years, in Lincoln, Illinois eight years, and in Decatur, Illinois, six years.
In 1915, he decided to go to a little Nazerene church one Sunday. He was first one to the altar, and soon his soul has an experience that he had long been waiting for. He united with the Church of the Nazarene in 1916 and received a preacher's license the same year.
During WWI, Dr. West enlisted in the Medical Corps of the United States Army. He was commissioned First Lieutenant, August 15, 1917. First assignment, December 23, 1917, Camp Grant, Illinois. After five months at Camp Grant (near Rockford, Illinois) in hospital and army training, he was made First Lieutenant and he was assigned to Base Hospital Number 46, Camp Merritt, NJ June 3, 1918. The Base Hospital No. 46 unit departed for France on June 11, 1918. He was promoted to Captain February 17, 1919, and he accepeted his commission March 3, 1919. He was working with an operating team up near the front lines where he saw daily the worst side of war.
As the war was drawing to a close, while still in France, he sent an application for missionary appointment to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Church of the Nazarene.
The Board was in need of an experienced medical man to take charge of a proposed hospital in Africa. But at that time they were not able to line up the appropriate funds to do so.
The doctor returned to the United States in May 1919 and re-opened his office in Decatur, Illinois.
Early in 1921, the Foreign Missions Board felt justified in once more taking up Dr. West's case and appointing him medical missionary to Pigg's Peak Station, Swaziland, South Africa.
He spent several weeks in the summer of 1921, at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as well as taking some post-graduate work in Chicago, studying tropical diseases. Then after making satisfactory arrangements for his family, in August, 1921, he sailed for Swaziland, where he opened the Fitkin Memorial Hospital in the first little building at the Fitkin Memorial Station.
One of his co-laborers in Africa wrote of him:
''He can do almost anything; give pills, perform operations, extract teeth, make screen doors, erect buildings, make coffins, and conduct funerals, as well as preach the gospel and pray for the seekers."
It is during this time that he works with Ora Lovelace.
After four years of ministry in Africa, Dr. West was transferred to China (in 1925), to succeed Dr. Fitz who was on furlough. He was appointed the station at Tamingfu. The Bresee Memorial Hospital was opened the next year. Here the Dr. West was busy seeing from forty to sixty patients at the hospital daily; large clinics daily, many operations, classes for students, study of the language, and preaching to the missionaries on the station."
He returned to the United States in 1928 in time for the Nazerene General Assembly at Columbus, Ohio.
History is unknown as to the rest of Dr. West’s medical practice and Missionary work.
Our next record of him is the divorce from his wife Elle Lee Marstiller, filed in 1937 in Alachua County, Florida.
On 9 Jan 1945 he marries Ora Lovelace in Osceola County, Florida.
1945 Florida State Census shows them living in Intercession City, Florida, a Christian founded community , and location of the Intercession City Bible College, a Missionary training school.
He dies 12 Sep 1947 in Nampa, Canyon County, Idaho at the Nazarene Samaritan Hospital. His body is returned to his native Hannibal, Missouri and is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery.
- Find A Grave Memorial# 137832386
From "Messengers of the Cross in China", by Amy Hinshaw, pages 91-98.
CHARLES EDWARD WEST, M. D.
He made his entry into the world at Hannibal, Missouri, October 3,1871. From his earliest recollections little Charles Edward was religiously inclined and ambitious to achieve something worth while. Even when a small child, his conscience was very tender.Often when he had committed some childish error, he would cry about it in secret. Although his mother taught him about God; and he was reared in a Presbyterian Sunday school, he can remember hearing only one gospel sermon in his childhood. On that occasion he went to the altar and accepted Christ. He was then nine years of age, but since he received very little instruction, he did not make much progress in the Christian life.
While Charles West was still a lad his father died, leaving the boy to make his own way in the world and to struggle hard for an education. He left home when nineteen years old, landing first in Chicago where he soon secured a job in the composing room ofthe "Chicago Times." Here he learned the printing trade and had good success, spending his leisure time in the Y. M. C. A. which was at that time a very spiritual organization. When the young printer heard his first sermon on the new birth he gladly accepted Christ as his Savior with a clearer understanding than before.
After five years in Chicago, Charles E. West turned his attention to the study of medicine. He graduated from the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College in 1898, working his way through the entire course. Dr. West was married 12 Sep 1895 to Lee Ella Marstiller while attending medical college, In 1902 he graduated from the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat College. The doctor was engaged in active practice in Ellburn three years, in Lincoln, Illinois eight years, and in Decatur, Illinois, six years.
While in Chicago Dr. West attended Moody's church, but after moving to Illinois, he united with the Methodist church. While engaged in medical practice he was active in various departments of church work, Sunday school, Epworth League and Y. M. C. A. He was at one time president of the County Sunday School Association, also State President of the Epworth League. In all this time the young physician never heard a sermon on holiness as a second work of grace until 1915 when he chanced to drop into a little Nazarene church. He was the first one at the altar, and was soon in the possession af the precious experience for which his soul had long been yearning. He united with the Church of the Nazarene in 1916 and received a preacher's license the same year.
During all the years the doctor felt the Lord was calling him to the foreign field to minister as a medical missionary, but since he met with strong opposition at home, many years passed while he waited for an opportunity to obey the call.
Early in 1917 he enlisted in the Medical Corps of the United States Army. After five months at Camp Grant in hospital and army training, he was made First Lieutenant M. C. and sent to France where he was attached to Base Hospital No. 46, A. P. O. No. 731.Later he was made Captain. Here he lived through many interesting and thrilling experiences, working with an operating team up near the front lines where he saw daily the worst side of the world war --always a horrible nightmare. God blessed the consecrated surgeon while he ministered to the broken bodies of the boys in khaki, and no doubt hundreds of his patients were blessed spiritually because the Christly doctor was there.
Through all those scenes of carnage Dr. West was preserved without bodily injury, or even a day's sickness. He had always been a total abstainer from both alcohol and tobacco. Consequently even his nerves were so steady that in a shooting contest he made the best score (record) hitting the bull's eye twice and making eight good hits out of ten at 150 feet.
Dr. West felt that his experiences in the army were just what he needed to fit him for service on the foreign field. He realized as never before the nature of the hardships which missionaries are called to endure, and his heart was stirred with sympathy for them and with a desire for active service which should be the culmination of the "pull" from God which he had recognized all through the busy years of his medical practice. He had always felt that should he ever have the privilege of serving God on theforeign field those days would be "the happiest and most useful" of his life. When he realized that the war was drawing to a close, while still in France, he sent an application for missionary appointment to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Church ofthe Nazarene. His papers were received at Headquarters at a critical time when the Board was praying for an experienced medical man to take charge of the proposed hospital in Africa. They had several trained nurses on that field, but no doctor, and the
The Lord honored the prayer of faith early in 1921, when the Board felt justified in once more taking up Dr. West's case and appointing him medical missionary to Pigg's Peak Station, Swaziland, South Africa.
After spending several weeks, in the summer of 1921, at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the doctor took some post-graduate work in Chicago, studying tropical diseases. Then after making satisfactory arrangements for his family, in August, 1921, he sailed for Swaziland, where he opened the Fitkin Memorial Hospital in the first little building at the Fitkin Memorial Station.
The task of establishing a medical work on a pioneer field is not an easy one since much prejudice must be overcome, and equipment is of the crudest kind. But Dr. West found an experienced and competent helper in Lillian Cole (Short) who had been on the field several years in the capacity of a graduate nurse. God wonderfully blessed the labors of these consecrated workers who often performed their tasks under the most trying conditions. At one time, when they operated on a woman in her native kraal, the doctor knelt on the dirt floor while Miss Cole held a lighted candle in one hand and assisted with the other. The patient made a remarkable recovery, which caused much wonderment among the natives.
On another occasion the doctor traveled a long distance and crossed a stream swollen from heavy rains, with imminent danger of losing his life in the seething waters, to visit a chief who had been very hostile to the missionaries, but nevertheless, in thehour of his extremity sent for the white doctor.
The four years of Dr. West's ministry in Africa were crowded with similar instances of heroism. The Christly doctor in his wide hat became a familiar figure, riding through the bush veldt under the blazing sun, never too busy to heed a call for help, never too weary to travel uncounted miles over steep mountain trails, fording rivers and often braving the perils of the darkest night to answer the call of some lowly patient in a distant kraal.
Dr. West treated the missionaries, and also many other white patients, but the money received from these was always expended for the upkeep of the mission. At one time he brought a trench of flowing water to the missionaries' doors. One of his co-laborersin Africa wrote of him:
''He can do almost anything; give pills, perform operations, extract teeth, make screen doors, erect buildings, make coffins, and conduct funerals, as well as preach the gospel and pray
for the seekers."
After four years of wonderful ministry in Africa, Dr. West was transferred to China (in 1925), to succeed Dr. Fitz who was on furlough. He was delighted with the China missionaries and with the appointments of the station at Tamingfu. The Bresee Memorial Hospital was opened the next year. Here the new doctor was soon engaged in labors abundant, with "from forty to sixty patients at the hospital daily; large clinics daily, many operations, classes for students, study of the language, and preaching to the missionaries on the station."
In January, 1926, upon request from the Peking Union Medical College, the doctor went to Peking to assist in caring for 4,000 wounded soldiers of General Feng's Christian army, after the battle in and near Tientsen. The workers were kept within the city walls for more than a month, unable to get out.
Thus in China Dr. West experienced for the second time all the horrors of war.
After his return to Tamingfu the doctor was suddenly stricken with small-pox, and his life was despaired of. But the missionaries prayed earnestly, and the doctor prayed, finally promising the Lord ''If you will raise me up and make me well, I will be a man of prayer and intercession." The Lord heard the plea and miraculously restored the dying man to health. The doctor did not fail to pay his vows unto the Lord. He devoted himself to prayer, many hours daily. He learned that "it is one thing to get busy on the field at many things; it is quite another to get under the burden of the lost." Through the long summer months of 1926 the doctor prayed on alone, often exhorting his fellow missionaries with tears, but with little encouragement. But at last, one after another, they also began to pray, and to get under the burden until at last, in the winter of 1926-1927 the Holy Spirit came upon them in Pentecostal power. The result was the memorable revival which wrought such mighty changes in the lives of mi
Because of increasing danger from war conditions, the missionaries were soon ordered to Tientsen for their protection. This occurred while the revival was still in progress. But the Chinese brethren were so strong in faith and in the power of the Spirit that when the work was left entirely in their control, they were able to successfully function in every department, and thus the mission was remarkably preserved. Although other missions suffered serious loss, not a building in the Nazarene compound at Tamingfu was injured, and no loss of any consequence was reported. The Lord dispersed the Boxers who were planning to kill the missionaries, and He even furnished a train to take His chosen ones out of the danger zone. No train had been run for two weeks previous, and none were sent out for many weeks after.
While in Tientsen Dr. West was kept busy ministering along both medical and evangelistic lines, but since at that time there was no chance for a white doctor at the mission, he returned to the United States in 1928 in time for the General Assembly at Columbus, Ohio.
Since that time he has traveled quite extensively, giving missionary addresses at assemblies and in many Nazarene churches. For a time he opened an office in his home town, Decatur, Illinois, but in September, 1930, he was called to pastor a new church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The church was organized by his one-time co-laborer in China, Rev. A. J. Smith, who is now the District Superintendent of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan District. Needless to say. Dr. West's ministry is intensely evangelistic,and he is praying for a revival in that place like the one of 1927 in China.
- Passport Application
Name: Charles E West
Birth Date: 3 Oct 1872
Birth Place: Hannihal, MO
Age: 48
Passport Issue Date: 23 Aug 1921
Passport Includes a Photo: Yes
Residence: Decatur, Illinois
Father Name: Henry West
Father's Birth Location: England
Father's Residence: Deceased
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1871 - 1947 (75 years)
