Jesse A. West (1868 – 1953)
Jesse A. West came to Dawson prior to 1900 and worked as a miner until 1904 when he left for Fairbanks. He returned to Dawson in 1906 and worked at his trade of boiler maker until 1914. In that year, he established a boiler-making business and worked at it until his death at age 85.1)
His business did not have a foundry. In the early years he specialized in portable steel boilers. He bought raw sheet steel and rolled it into shape. The boilers were portable because of a special tube inside to hold the fire. By 1915/16, West was manufacturing boilers and repairing them and refitting them as well. He also made pressed air tanks for hydraulicking and built scrapers for the dredges.2)
He bought the Machine shop in 1929 when diesel-driven machinery appeared. He was the only person in town able to repair the steam heating plant in St. Mary's Hospital and the steam printing plant in the Dawson Daily News building. When he died, he was inspecting a pump in the vicinity of Shaw's sawmill. During his time, he was one of a kind in Dawson.3)