Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-10-11
Ono Of Pioneer Family.

sers. He drummed at public meetings
before he was eight.
Ono Of Pioneer Family.
West comes from one Of those old
American families which eternally 60
west His people arrived in New Eng
land some time in colonial days. BY
1884 they had got as far as lockwood,
n. Y, where they were pioneers.
There Sanford drummed in the Polk
campaign, curling up to sleep on the
mems coats between the speeches.
BY the time Lincoln was running for
president the family had got to Illinois,
and young Sanford drummed through
that campaign too. The Thirteenth
Illinois infantry was the first that en-
listed for three years. West was ncv~
err out of commission one day of that
three years. nor did he miss one ell
gagement.
His hat was shot off his head at
Lookout Mountain, but not hair of
his head was touched At the first at.
tack on Vicksburg the sharpshooters
aimed at him when he was STOPPING
over and sent two bullets through the
wrinkles of his blouse, but didn't
scratch him.
It was his business to drum the boys
into the fight and then help carry the
wounded off the field on stretchers. At
Ringgod, Ga, they shot through the
leg the man who was handling the
stretcher with him. West carried him
off the field on his back, got another
man and went back for the fellow he
had left on the stretcher. He seemed
to bear charmed life.
By the time the war was over Hi
nois had grown too tame and civilized
for the West blood. West moved to
Nebraska and made his home there for
the most Of his life. 1t was while
ranching in Nebraska that he met the
wound that was due him in the war.
Wounded by Mule.
A Nebraska mule did what the Con-
federate shaypshooters were never able
to do. The creature kicked him on
the head in a way to blind one eye
for life. Twenty-eight pieces Of his
skull were removed from the wound,
and permanent indentation was made
on the left side of his head.
Still he drums with the same cheer
full vigor and seems as interested In
life as any boy. Nebraska grew too
civilized for him eventually, and he
made his way gradually westward un-
til he reached the Pacific. Being un-
able to proceed farther he stopped, dis
concerted, and has since fingered as
near the jumping off place as he could.
MARQUIS Lafayette Fowler, leader of
the Washington fife and drum corps,
is the old drummer boys side partner.
His given name betrays the Revolu-
tionary atmosphere that surrounded
his cradle. He had ancestors In the
Revolution and still possesses the coat
of one of them with its bell buttons.
An uncle was in the war of 1872 and
knew sharp fighting In and around De-
troit. His older brother was a tfer IN
the war with Mexico, and Mr.. Fowler
has his fife as we'll as the one which
he himself played in the civil war and
several silver flies that have been pre-
scented to him 40 a mark of honor.
He has played the fife for fifty-six
years. He played it in campaign meet
ings when Fremont ran for president
at Charlotte, Mich. He went to the
front with the Twentieth Michigan
There has never been a year since the
war that he has not had charge OF
fife and drum corps. somewhere. He
declares that in an experience Of fifty
years West is the best drummer he
over know =