Miss Harriet C. West

Harriet C. West was born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1861 to Abel Kingsbury West and his wife, the former Caroline E. Wood. Abel K. West was an early dry goods  merchant in Sandusky and operator of the West House hotel with his brother William T. West in the 1850s. After the death of her parents, Harriet  (also known as Hattie) resided with the family of her sister, Mary West Anderson. 

In the  1890s, Harriet C. West served as the secretary of the Library Building Fund Association. At the time of the Sandusky Library’s grand opening in July of 1901, Miss West was the treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Library Association, and was on the local reception committee when the Ohio Library Association held its seventh annual meeting at the Sandusky Library from October 1 to October 4, 1901.

On April 13, 1916, Miss Harriet C. West passed away at her sister's home on Wayne Street.  She had been ill with pneumonia. Funeral services were held at the Anderson residence on April 15, 1916, with the Rev. C. Argylle Keller officiating. Miss West had been a member of the First Presbyterian Church and the Martha Pitkin Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. An obituary which appeared in the April 13, 1916 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal stated about Miss West, “For years she had been an active member of the library board and a great worker for that institution.” Harriet C. West was buried in the West family lot in the North Ridge section of Oakland Cemetery.