Founding Families
Ebenezer West |  Waite Carr West  |  Increase Jones |  Hannah Bowen Jones  |  William Hill | Elizabeth Hill 
Edward Talbot  |  Sarah "Sally" Martin Talbot  |  ​Absalom P Morse  | Lydia Tallman Morse 
Alfred P White | Huldah Symonds White  |  ​Robert Shaw  |  Jane Talbot Stiles Shaw
Historic maps showing Newport Rhode Island, Vershire Vermont, and Minerva New York, the three communities where Waite Carr West lived during her lifetime.
Waite Carr West’s Journey Newport, Rhode Island → Vershire, Vermont → Minerva, New York The places that shaped the life of one of Minerva’s earliest settlers

Waite Carr West
Minerva's First Founding Mother
Minerva, New York

Arrival in Minerva

​Waite Carr West arrived in Minerva around 1800 at the age of fifty-eight.
​
That fact alone sets her apart from many of the women who followed. She was not young, and the only thing awaiting her was wilderness.

Waite had already lived a full life.

A Newport Beginning

​Born in the early 1740s in Newport, Rhode Island, she grew up in one of the busiest ports in colonial America. Her father, William Carr, was a shipbuilder, part of a thriving maritime economy filled with merchants, sailors, and craftsmen. Newport was a bustling town where shops were close at hand and community life revolved around the harbor.

Marriage and Family

​Waite married Ebenezer West in 1760 after he returned from service in the French and Indian War. The young couple purchased a small lot in Newport measuring just 25 by 100 feet. There they began their family, welcoming five children in eight years: William, Nathan, twins Joseph and John, and Ebenezer Jr.

War and Hardship

​Their early years together were soon overshadowed by the Revolutionary War. Ebenezer enlisted again when the war began, leaving Waite to care for the children alone. In 1777 their son William also entered service as a fifer at the age of fourteen.
Newport was occupied by British forces during this period, and Waite faced the strain of war while raising her family in a town controlled by the very army her family was fighting against.
Despite the hardship, Waite kept her household together until her husband and sons returned.

Leaving Newport

Following the war, Newport’s economy struggled to recover. Trade slowed, businesses closed, and many residents left the city. Around 1782 Waite and Ebenezer sold their remaining property and moved to the Goshen–Litchfield area of Connecticut.
After only a short time there, the family moved again, this time to Vershire, Vermont.

Building a Life in Vershire

​Vermont was then an independent republic and Vershire was a newly established settlement. The West family purchased one hundred acres of land and began building a new life.
Ebenezer became deeply involved in the civic life of the town, serving as Selectman, Town Clerk, Treasurer, Surveyor of Highways, and representative to the Vermont General Assembly. While Ebenezer held public offices, Waite supported the household and family as their sons grew to adulthood and began lives of their own.
The West family remained in Vershire for roughly seventeen years. By then Ebenezer had built a successful civic career, their farm was established, and their children were nearby. It might have seemed like the end of their journey.

The Move to Minerva

Instead, they moved again.
Around 1800 the couple purchased 414 acres of land in the Dominick Patent, in Lots 16, 25, and 26, in what would later become Minerva. At nearly sixty years old, Waite once again left a settled community behind and followed her husband into wilderness.
The Minerva–Olmstedville area was still largely unsettled, and the town itself would not be chartered until 1817. The West land extended from 14th Road to Mountain View and included property now owned by the Labar family, where Morningside Camps operates today.

Family and Community

All five West sons eventually followed their parents to Minerva. Nathan and Ebenezer Jr. became charter members of the Baptist Church, and Nathan was appointed one of the town’s first assessors at Minerva’s initial town meeting in 1817.
Today there are still Wests living, working, going to school, and carving out a life in an area that continues to present challenges to the families who live here.

Timeline:
​Waite Carr West

⚓ ​c. 1742–1744
Born in Newport, Rhode Island, the daughter of shipbuilder William Carr. Newport was one of the busiest port towns in colonial America.
⚓ February 23, 1760
Married Ebenezer West in Newport.
⚓ 1761–1768
Five sons born in Newport:
William, Nathan, Joseph, John, and Ebenezer Jr.
⚔​ 1776
Ebenezer entered service in the Continental Army.
Waite remained in Newport caring for the family.
⚔ 1777
Son William joined the war as a fifer at age fourteen.
⚔  1778
Ebenezer returned home while Newport remained under British occupation.
⚔  1779
Son Joseph entered military service.
1778–1782
Family relocated to the Goshen–Litchfield area of Connecticut.
🌲 1783
Moved to Vershire, Vermont, then part of the independent Vermont Republic.
🌲1783–c.1800
Family lived in Vershire about seventeen years while Ebenezer served in several town offices and represented the town in the Vermont Legislature.
🏡 c.1800
Waite and Ebenezer moved to the Dominick Patent in what would later become Minerva, New York.
1800–1822
Their five sons eventually joined them in Minerva and helped build the early community.
1822
Waite Carr West died at about age eighty.
She is believed to be buried in the Minerva Baptist Cemetery.

A Life of Resilience

​Waite Carr West was no longer the young woman who had left Newport. She had lived through wars, failing economies, and the challenge of rebuilding her life several times. Hardship and resilience were already part of who she was.
Waite and Ebenezer both died in 1822. She was eighty and he was ninety. They had lived long enough to see the settlement they joined grow into the Town of Minerva

Remembering Waite

It is believed they are buried in the Minerva Baptist Cemetery, although their original gravestones have not survived.
Ebenezer is honored in Founders Park as Minerva’s first settler.
Waite Carr West, like many founding women, is mentioned only briefly in historical records. In the Minerva history book she appears only as the grandmother of Ithamar West.
Yet she was the first of Minerva’s founding women.
She is not forgotten.
​

Sources

  • ANCESTORS & Descendants of: Ebenezer West of Rhode Island
  • Descendants of Ebenezer West of Minerva, NY
  • Donahue, Noelle S. - Letter regarding the West family, Town of Minerva Historian, September 3, 1986.
  • GAZETTEER OF TOWNS - GAZETTEER OF ORANGE COUNTY, VT. 1762-1888. HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF VERSHIRE
  • Genealogical records and documentation for the West and Carr families can be viewed in the author's public research tree for Waite Carr West on Ancestry.com 
  • Minerva Historical Society Archives.
  • Minerva 1817–1967: A History of a Town in Essex County, N.Y.
  • Minerva Historical Society, 1967.
  • Minerva Established 1817: A History of a Town in Essex County, N.Y., 1986–2017
  • Minerva Historical Society, 2019.
  • Waite (Carr) West (1744 - aft. 1822) - WikiTree