Joseph A. West, a most prominent citizen of Mier, Richland township, Grant county, Indiana, and a well-known dealer in real estate, including town lots and farm property, also a dealer in live stock and merchandise, has been a resident of Grant county since 1852. He is a native of Champaign county, Ohio, was born April 16, 1850, and is a son of Nathaniel and Mary A. (Knapp) West, the former of whom was born in Kentucky and the latter in Ohio.

        Nathaniel West was reared in Kentucky and was a live-stock dealer and drover, but removed to Ohio, in which state he was married. He was in the habit of coming to Indiana and buying stock and driving it to Champaign county, Ohio, but in 1852, came to Indiana to remain; built a log cabin in the woods at what is now Marion, and engaged extensively in stock dealing. He did not live long, however, after coming to Indiana, as his death occurred in 1855, but his widow still resides in Mier, at the somewhat advanced age of eighty-two years. To the marriage of Nathaniel West and Mary A. Knapp were born five children; viz.:    Sarah E., married to a Mr. Lillard, a farmer of Marion; James M., who enlisted at LaRue, Ohio, in 1861, in the Ninty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for the three months' service, and at the expiration of his term of enlistment veteranized in the same company; served until the close of the war, and died in Marion, although his home after the Civil war, was in Wells county, Indiana; William R., resides at Sycamore, Indiana; Taylor enlisted, at the age of fourteen years in 1863, in the Fifth Indiana Cavalry, served until the war closed, and died in Mier, in 1876; the remaining child is Joseph A., the subject of this sketch.

        Joseph A. West was reared and educated in Grant county and began business on his own account by farming and dealing in stock buying and selling horses and cattle in Illinois and elsewhere, going, indeed as far southwest as Shreveport, Louisiana, and driving his purchases as far as Topeka, Kansas, being at times as long as four months on the road; he has also dealt in stock in Texas, and has driven it across the Indian Territory many times. In 1881 he located at Mier, Grant county, Indiana, and has since been engaged in various kinds of trading, as is indicated at the opening of this sketch.

        Mr. West was united in marriage in Sims township, Grant county, in 1880, to Miss Jane Zirkle, a native of the township and a daughter of Willis and Amanda Zirkle, who came from Ohio in an early day and opened up a large farm of fully three hundred acres, on which Mr. Zirkle died in 1881; his widow is now a resident of Swayzee, Grant county.

        The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. West has been blessed with three children, born in the following order: Vesta, Frank and Glenn. In politics Mr. West is a Democrat. As a business man he has made his way through the world by his own keen knowledge of men and things, and by his quick perception of buisness opportunities as they have presented themselves. He has risen to opulence and influence, and is one of the respected residents of his township.