Mother West

The Baptist Home for Missionaries Children at 1136 Centre St. was managed by Martha “Mattie” West.

The saying “The Good We Do Lives On” exemplifies the life of Martha “Mattie” West, mother of Ralph O’Neal West.

Mattie West was affectionately known as “Mother West” to the charges in the Baptist Home for Missionaries Children.

Martha G. West was born in was born in 1887, and lived in Washington D.C. She was married to Robert R. West, auditor of the Panama Canal Company. When he died of Yellow Fever in Panama in 1907, she moved to Newton with 3 of her children including Ralph.

She assumed the post of matron of the Baptist Home for Missionaries Children at 1136 Centre St. from 1907-1928. She mentored and cared for over 150 children ranging from kindergarten through high school age. She was so loved that her former students often visited her in Newton and in retirement for advice and counsel. She and her children were members of First Baptist for over 20 years.

After her son Ralph’s death in World War I, she travelled with the Gold Star Mothers under government auspices to Paris to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She later traveled to China, Japan, Philippines, and Honolulu visiting family and former students of the Missionaries Home. She retired to her daughter’s home in Springfield MA and died in 1944.

Her oldest son, Robert, named his son Ralph O’Neal West. He went to Harvard as his uncle had dreamed of doing, and had a long career as an educator. He died in Wellesley in 2010. There exists a Mother West Memorial Donor Advised Fund as part of the NH Charitable Foundation. Mother West’s goodness did live on, deepening and widening.