Nephew of Thomas Renshaw West and Grandson of Thomas West.
Note the last paragraph about the eldest Thomas.
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 1857 to 1861, and was one of the few
ministers 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 1860 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 of 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.
