Update: The West Family Crosses

In Sept of 2010 I posted a blog on the West Family Crosses. Thanks to my friend Theresa more information was found. 

CAPTAIN DIGBY B. WEST.

Captain Digby B. West, who became well known as one of the successful farmers of Arkansas, established his home in the vicinity of Berryville in 1889 and there resided to the time of his demise in 1902. He was fifty-six years of age when death called him, for his birth occurred in Ireland in 1846. He was a son of Dean West, who was a dean of the Episcopal church of Ardagh, Ireland, and later in Presteign, Wales. Digby B. West was the third in order of birth in a family of eight children.

He acquired a good education in an agricultural college at Cirencester, England, and was a magistrate in County Roscommon, Ireland, and also became captain of the Royal Longford Rifles of Ireland. He came to America in 1882, settling on a farm in Texas, and remained in that state for seven years, but his experience
there was anything but encouraging. His family were all sick and he lost considerable money while attempting to found a home in the Lone Star state. He had enough left to bring his family to Arkansas, when in 1889 he decided to try his fortune in this state and settled on a farm which he purchased near Berryville. Immediately he began to prosper and he continued to live on his farm throughout his remaining days, devoting his attention to the work of further improvement and development. In 1900 he set out a nice apple orchard of fifty acres and in 1920 Mrs. West shipped sixteen carloads of fine apples. It was in England, in 1868, that Mr. West was united in marriage to Miss Fanny Louisa Swindell, who was born in England, near London. She is a daughter of John S. and Mary Louisa (Bond) Swindell. Her father was a highly educated man, being a graduate of the Royal Engineers College of England, and he devoted his life to the profession of civil engineering. Mr. and Mrs. West became the parents of thirteen children, of whom eight are living: Francis married W. J. Jamison of Baltimore, and they are now living in Berryville. He has devoted his attention to the hotel and banking business and he also managed Deer Park Hotel, Maryland, in the summer seasons; Digby West, the second of the family, is mentioned elsewhere in this work; Sidney is an engineer on an ocean steamship and makes his home at San Francisco, California; Charles is a druggist of Minnesota; Fred is a railroad man, living at Eureka Springs, Arkansas; Heyrick C. follows farming in the vicinity of Berryville; Lucy is the wife of E. V. Wier, conducting a dry goods store in the vicinity of San Diego, California; John lives on his mother's farm and manages the orchard. All are members of the Episcopal church, but as there is no church of that denomination in Berryville, Mrs. West attends the Methodist Episcopal church and is pianist for the congregation. In politics Mr. West was an ardent democrat. Mrs. West lives in a comfortable home in Berryville. The family is most highly esteemed and Mr. West left to his wife and children not only a comfortable competence but also that priceless heritage of an untarnished name.

Citation: Centennial History of Arkansas Volume II Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company 1922

File at: http://www.files.usgwarchives.org/ar/carroll/bios/west4nbs.txt