Service to State & Church

From the "Biographical Sketch of Chauncey W. West" by Joseph A. West.

In the spring of 1863 Chauncey W. West was a member of the legislative convention of the inchoate State of Deseret which drafted a constitution and sent Hons. Wm. H. Hooper and George Q. Cannon, senators, as a delagation to ask for the admission of Utah into the Union as a state; and at the April conference, 1863, Elder West was selected to go to England and take charge of the European Mission, in the absence of George q. Cannon, then its president.

He left Ogden April 21, 1862, in company with Hon. William H. Hooper, and traveled, under cavalry escort, to the frontier. Upon leaving Ogden, the people of Weber County turned out en masse to bid him goodbye. The artillery fired a salute and bands of music heading civic and military organizations accompanied him some distance upon his journey. This public demonstration of esteem for one whose brief sojourn of six years among them had so won the hearts of his fellow-citizens, was only equaled by the right royal welcome that met him on his return sixteen months later.

At Washington he was introduced to President Abraham Lincoln and other distinguished statesmen, and on the 21st of June he sailed on the steamer "City of Washington" for Liverpool, arriving there on the morning of the 4th of July. He immediately entered upon the duties of his calling as president of the European Mission and so continued until President Cannon's return. He visited all the leading conferences of the British Isles and traveled extensively in Europe, preaching the gospel wherever opportunity offered. Upon the return of President Cannon he assisted him generally with the affairs of the mission until released to return home in the fall of 1864."