Thomas M. West

Thomas M. West was born in Jackson County, Ala., August 19, 1828, and is

one of thirteen surviving members of a family of sixteen children born to the

marriage of Jonathan R. West and Nancy Mcintire, who were also natives of

Jackson County, Ala. They came to Arkansas about 1830, and here the father

was ordained a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and preached the

Gospel throughout Northwest Arkansas and Southwest Missouri for forty years.

He was presiding elder of the Arkansas Conference from 185'7 to 1861, and was

one of the few mmisters of his doctrine who adhered to the old church when the

Southern members withdrew. He was a strong Union man during the war, and

was so persecuted on account of his belief that in 1863 he was compelled to leave

home and go to Kansas. He died at the home of his son-in-law, Franklin Johnson,

at Carthage, Mo., in 1874. His wife was a daughter of Rev. John Mcintire,

of Alabama, and was a noble and self-sacrificing mother. She was of a very energetic

disposition, and for years spun and wove the clothing for her large family

of children. Her death occurred at the home of her son, Thomas M., in Bourbon

County, Kas., in 1863. Thomas M. West grew to manhood in Washington

County, Ark., and, being the eldest son, took charge of his father's farm, and

consequently received but little education. In 1850 he was married to Miss

Alpha C. Cook,. a native of Sevier County, Tenn., born in 1840, and a daughter

of Samuel Cook, and in 1862 removed to Bourbon County, Kas., where he remained

until 1866, when he returned to Washington County, and located on the

farm where he now lives. He owns a good farm of ninety-three acres on Clear

Creek bottom, and has a comfortable and pleasant home. His family consists of

the following children: Jonathan C., Samuel C., Lemuel E., Rebecca E., Arthur

M. and John T. H. Mr. West is a stanch Republican; is a member of Lodge

No. 101, A. F. & A. M., at Cincinnati, Ark., and a member 0f the Methodist

Episcopal Church. His paternal grandfather, Thomas West, was the youngest

of six sons, and when a young boy was bound out until he was twenty-one

years old. He then married and located in Jackson County, Ala., and in 1830

moved to Washington County, Ark., locating near the Indian Territory, on a

farm. He reared six sons and two daughters in Alabama, and died March 31,

1860, at the advanced age of one hundred years.