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BIOGRAPHY For the family of John Henry West and Sarah Elizabeth Haley
SARAH ELIZABETH HALEY was born on 20 March 1841in Todd County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Joshua W. Haley and Elizabeth C. Fergason.
JOHN HENRY WEST was born on 03 August 1840 in Sumner County, Tennessee, son of Isham Hodges West and Mary Ann Clay. We have some good information on his early life from his civil war questionaire. He states that as a child growing up in Calloway County Kentucky, he helped his father in the blacksmith shop. The country school he attended was about 2 miles from home and was only open 3 months of the year. “There were no free school in them days”. He attended school for a total of 12 months in his entire lifetime.
As a young adult, his occupation was a wagoneer hauling tobacco. Then, in September 1861, he enlisted in the Civil War and became part of the 33rd Tennessee Infantry, Company C. (See the write up “John’s Civil War Service” on his home page for a much more detailed summary of his military service). After he was parolled on 12 May 1865, he states that “when I got able in a short while I married.”
John and Sarah were married on 12 Jan 1868 in Calloway County, Kentucky. This is according to family tradition and other researchers. I have not yet found a copy of the actual marriage record. But according to their parents’ federal census records, they were both in Calloway County Kentucky in 1860 and 1870, so it is very logical to assume that they were married in Calloway County.
John states that after the civil war, he went back to his old trade of hauling tobacco. After their marriage, he went in to the mercantile business. Then in a few years after that he went into farming.
I have not yet located them in the 1870 federal census. But they show up in 1880 in Dickson County , Tennessee . He is listed as a laborer with his wife and children. Then sometime after 1880 they moved to Gibson County , Tennessee because their daughter Emma was married in Gibson County in 1884.
Sometime between 1884 and 1895 they moved to Dyer County Tennessee. There is no federal 1890 census available to narrow this date down any further, but their son James was married in Dyer County in 1895.
In the 1900 federal census, they are located in Dyer County . John is listed as a farmer and his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Fergason Haley, is living with them. In 1920, they are found living on Main Street South in Newbern. Then, just 2 months after the census taker came, on 01 March 1920 Sarah died, presumably at their house in Newbern. 3 short years later, on 06 July 1923, John died also in Newbern. Both are buried in the “ City Cemetery ” [ Fairview Cemetery ] Newbern, Dyer County.
They had 5 known children, all surnamed West:
Copyright 2005
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