Chester Howard West is believed to be the only World War I Medal of Honor recipient buried in West Virginia.

Born in Colorado in 1888, West joined the Army in 1917. In France, on September 26, 1918, his unit came under machine gun fire in thick fog. West ran through enemy fire and killed the gunners in hand-to-hand combat, saving his company from harm.

After the war, he lived in Mason County. In 1935, he was shot and killed during a dispute, possibly over the former gun of Confederate General John McCausland. West was first buried in a local cemetery, but in 2018 his remains were moved to the Donel C. Kinnard Veterans Cemetery near Charleston.