Sarah Walker is my Great Great Great Great Grandmother on my father's side of the family: Richard Easton (1938) -> Ray Easton (1911) ->Eva Jane Barton (1879) -> John Hunter Barton (1858) -> Sarah Esther West (1829) -> Samuel Walker West (1804) -> Sarah Walker

Sarah Walker, was born February 26, 1780, in Greenville, South Carolina, to Samuel Walker and Phoebe Green. Sarah married John West in 1799 when she was about 19 years old and he was about 23 years old. John West was the son of Isaac West and Susanna Anderson West, and was born October 28, 1776, also in Greenville, South Carolina. John and Sarah's first child, a son born in 1800, did not survive. Their next child, Susan, was born in 1801 in Greenville, South Carolina, then their son, Samuel Walker West , was born in 1804 after the family had moved from South Carolina to Dickson, Tennessee. Their next son, Isaac, was born in 1806, daughter, Phoebe, in 1808, Lucinda, in 1811, Malinda, in 1814, Diana, in 1816, John Carrol West in 1818, Sara Ann in 1820, and Solomon Linn West in 1823.

On January 2, 1808, a deed was given for land from James McClelland to John West for 92-1/2 acres for $185.00 and another deed was given from James McClelland to John West, both of Dickson, Tennessee, for $185 cash in hand for a 90-1/2 acre tract beginning at the SW corner of James McClelland's corner. The deed was written in April of 1808, and registered June 7, 1808.

John West was selected to serve on the Grand Jury in Dickson, Tennessee on September 2, 1811, as was a Mr. Henry West. On June 28, 1816, a deed was given from Anderson West to William Houston Sr., both of Dickson county, for $600 for a tract lying on the west fork of Jones Creek.

In October of 1816 in Dickson, Tennessee, John West was listed as administrator of his father's estate: Elisha Simmons and wife Polly vs. John, Anderson and Polly West, administrators and administrix of Isaac West. On July 8, 1817, in Dickson, Tennessee, John West was summoned as a juror for the next court to be held in October.

On January 15, 1818, John West purchased from Isaac West, Jr., 92-1/2 acres including a plantation where Isaac West Jr. lived at the time which adjoined James McClellan's property line. This purchase was witnessed by Anderson West and Samuel Sparks.

On August 20, 1818, in Dickson, Tennessee, John was a witness along with Sally West to the will of James McClelland. John West was listed in the 1820 census for Dickson, Tennessee, with a total of 10 free white persons in his family along with 7 black slaves. By this time they had acquired at least 300 acres, and possibly more land.

On November 1, 1822, in Dickson, Tennessee, John West purchased from Jane and John McClelland, 58-1/2 acres of the west fork of Jones Creek adjacent to Nelson McClelland and a small piece of land John West bought from Nelson which was witnessed by William and Thomas McClelland.

John and Sarah's son, Isaac, born in 1806, passed away in 1824, at the age of only 18 years old. Then sadly, John West passed away at the age of only 50 years old in October of 1826, in Dickson, Tennessee. Sarah and her son, Samuel West, were appointed to administer the estate of John West. A bond of $1,000 was posted with John Sanders and Thomas McClelland as sureties. John West's estate property was filed by Samuel West and Sally West, administrators, with buyers being Sary West, Samuel West, John C. West and Sally West.

John and Sarah's daughter, Susan, married John Sanders (1798-1848), probably about 1820 in Dickson, Tennessee. Their son, Samuel Walker West married Margaret Cooper January 29, 1829, in Chalk Level, Benton, Tennessee. Daughter Lucinda West married Elias Stringer September 18, 1831, in Dickson, Tennessee, however, she may have passed away not long after their marriage. Daughter Malinda West married Norman Goodrich about 1835 in Dickson, Tennessee. Son John Carrol West married Lucretia Shoat August 19, 1839 in Dickson, Tennessee. They had 11 children before he passed away the year after their last son was born in 1858. Daughter Sarah Ann West married Henry Walker September 10, 1839, in Calloway, Kentucky, but she may have passed away shortly after their marriage. I don't know if son Solomon Lin West ever married, but he was living with his older brother, John Carrol West in the 1850 census record shown below.

In the 1850 U.S. Federal Census for District 2, Graves County, Kentucky, Sarah West, 70, was living with her son, John Carrol West, 34, and his wife, Lucrecia Shoat West, 34, and their children, Sarah, 8, Martha, 7, John, 6, Daniel, 4, and James, 3 years old. Also living in their home was Thaddeus Blockley, 14, probably Lucrecia's son from a previous marriage, and Solomon West, 27, John's brother. John was working as a farmer, and his real estate was valued at $300.

John and Lucrecia were born in Tennessee, Sarah and Martha in Kentucky, John, James, and Daniel in Illinois, John's mother, Sarah, in South Carolina, his brother, Solomon in Tennessee. Sarah may have passed away not long after the census was taken that year. According to Ancestry.com, she died after 1850 possibly in Wadsbaron, Calloway County, Kentucky.

John's older brother, Samuel Walker West, and his wife, Margaret Cooper West, had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints while living in Tennessee in about 1834. After the death of John and Samuel's father, their mother, Sarah, persuaded Samuel to leave Tennessee and join her and her family in Kentucky, which may be where she moved after the death of her husband in 1826. Samuel moved to Kentucky with his wife and children in about 1840, and lived there for a couple of years. But by 1844 they were living in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, with other members of the Mormon Church.

John Carrol West must have joined his brother Samuel in Nauvoo, because three of his children were born there, John, Jr., in 1844, Daniel, in 1846, and James in 1847. Samuel and Margaret's youngest daughter, Nancy Malinda West, was born there in March of 1844. When John left Illinois and returned to Kentucky is unknown, but it may have been about 1849 or 1850, when Samuel and his family left Illinois for Utah to join the rest of the Saints in the Great Salt Lake Valley.

In the 1850 census, Samuel, Margaret, and their family were living in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, in preparation for their departure to Utah. Considering that John and Lucretia's 6th daughter, June West, was born in Kentucky in 1851, it seems likely that they left Illinois about 1849 or 1850 to return to Kentucky.

However, by about 1852, John, Lucretia and their family had moved to Arkansas since their son Samuel Alex West was born there in June that year, and their 4 additional children born after Samuel Alex West were all born in Arkansas. Sadly, the year after their 11th child was born in 1857, John Carrol West, passed away on July 25, 1858, in Dallas, Arkansas, at the age of 40 years old. How his wife, Lucretia, was able to support all those children on her own is unbelievable, especially since her oldest son, John Jr., would have been only about 14 years old at the time of his father's death.

Samuel Walker West and his wife Margaret Cooper had 10 children, 3 daughters marrying into the Smith family of the founders of the Mormon Church. Samuel became a polygamist and married his plural wife, Christiana Johansen in 1858, and they had 6 children, the last of whom was born just 4 years before Samuel passed away in 1873. He was 69 years old when he passed away in Washington, Utah.

About five years later in either 1878 or 1879, Margaret, moved with her daughter, Nancy Malinda West Rollins, and her husband, John Henry Rollins, Sr., to Snowflake, Arizona. Margaret passed away there in 1882. She had worked as a "doctress" before her death, according to the 1880 census.

Nancy and John Henry Rollins had 11 children, four of whom died young. Nancy's husband, John, also passed away young at the age of 46 years old in 1887. Nancy lived another 30 years after her husband's death and passed away on May 18, 1917, while living in Safford, Graham County, Arizona. She raised two of her grandchildren until at least 1910 when she was still working as a farm laborer even at her advanced age and the kidney cancer which ultimately took her life. Nancy was a remarkable woman, as were her ancestors.