Education
A native of Camden, South Carolina, West was educated at Jefferson College (Pennsylvania) and the College of South Carolina.
A native of Camden, South Carolina, West was educated at Jefferson College (Pennsylvania) and the College of South Carolina.
He read law under the mentorship of James Chesnut, Junior., and was admitted to the bar in 1850. West"s brother was John Camden West, a Waco writer and attorney. In 1859 West married Florence Randolph DuVal, daughter of Judge Thomas Howard DuVal and granddaughter of Florida Governor William Pope DuVal.
They had three sons, all lawyers, including Judge DuVal West, Woodrow Wilson"s personal emissary to Mexico.
West moved to Texas in 1851. In 1855 West was elected to the Texas House of Representatives and served one term.
After the war he resumed his practice with Hancock. In the 1870s he worked as one of the six establishing directors of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, and was a delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention in 1875.
He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas in December 1882 and resigned in September 1885.
He died in Austin and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.