Claiborne Larkin West

Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Little to nothing is known of Claiborne West's early life besides his birth year and state. At the age of twenty-four he moved to Louisiana and married Anna Garner, traveling to Texas in 1831. He was elected the delegate of Jefferson County to represent the municipality at the Convention of 1836 to discuss the coming secession and war with Mexico, signing the Texas Declaration of Independence there. He returned to his home and helped the cause by providing supplies to the soldiers, later enlisting in Benjamin Hardin's company from July to October 1836. He represented Jefferson County in the Texas Congress from 1836 to 1837, moving afterwards to Montgomery County. When his wife passed away in March of 1837, he worked his farm until he remarried, this time to Prudence Kimbell. He moved again in 1850 to Guadalupe County, remarrying Florinda Day after his second wife passed in 1861. He spent his later years working his farm with his nine children before he died in September of 1866.

Claiborne West, political leader and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, was born in Tennessee about 1800. He moved to Louisiana and married Anna Garner in 1824. The Wests came to Texas seven years later. West represented the Liberty District at the Convention of 1832 and served as a member of that body's subcommittee for safety and vigilance for the district of Cow Bayou. In 1835 he served in the Consultation from the Liberty Municipality. Upon the formation of the General Council West was selected to represent the Jefferson Municipality. At the Convention of 1836 he signed the declaration of independence from Mexico.

During the Runaway Scrape West returned to Southeast Texas, where he furnished provisions to soldiers prior to the battle of San Jacinto. He subsequently enlisted in a company under Benjamin Franklin Hardin and served from July 1 to October 7, 1836. He was elected by Jefferson County voters to the House of the First Congress of the Republic of Texas in 1836–37. After serving as postmaster for the hamlet of Jefferson, West moved to Montgomery County, where 1840 tax rolls include six slaves, four horses, and fifty cattle among his possessions.

His wife died on March 3, 1847; shortly thereafter, West married Mrs. Prudence Kimbell, widow of George C. Kimbell. By 1850 the Wests had moved to Guadalupe County, where his estate included $3,000 in real property and nine slaves. After his second wife's death in 1861, West was married for a third time, to Mrs. Florinda McCulloch Day. West was a Mason and the father of nine children by his first marriage. He died on September 10, 1866.