Durant West and Narcissa Hurst - descendants |
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In the late 1870's this family moved from Alabama to western Arkansas. There were 3 children in the family. Becky Davenport writes this about the family (children and parents):
Martha married G. N. Croom. G. N. was a doctor or owned a drug store. He went by the title of Doctor. From about 1840 to about 1875 the West family was living in Coffee or Dale County, Alabama. They lived on the county line and one year appeared in the Coffee County census and another year they were in the Dale County census.I seem to remember passing through a place south of Lavaca on Highway 22 that was marked as Burns by a road sign. It seems that the main thing at the Burns community was a fairly large cemetary -- large considering that few people live in the area now. (Charles Young)Between 1875 and 1978 they moved to Lavaca, Sebastian County, Arkansas. G. N. and Martha Elizabeth arrived in Sebastian County about the same time that her parents did. (Her parents were Durant L. and Narcissa Hurst West). For a while Martha and G. N. lived in a little community in Sebastian County that was called, I think, Burns. No longer there.
Before 1890, G. N. left Martha and their children, (I was told that he deserted them and I found him, I believe, in the 1900 census in Memphis, Tennessee. I spoke with a grand daughter of Martha Elizabeth who lives in Van Buren and she said that Martha and the children had a very hard time after the father left. She was living in Fort Smith and raising her children. Martha was very close to her brother, my g grandfather, Walter Durant West, Sr. and he helped them financially and they visited back and forth often. Walter and sister Emma lived in Lavaca, Arkansas. Narcissa, Emma, Walter and Walter's wife Alice Cline West are buried in the cemetery at Lavaca.