Rev. Robert Caldwell Welch and Mary Cowden
Husband Rev. Robert Caldwell Welch 1 2 3
Born: 19 Aug 1838 - Washington Co, PA 4 Christened: Died: 22 Dec 1868 - Taylorstown, Washington Co, PA 4 Buried: - Washington Cemetery, Washington, Washington Co, PA
Father: John Welch (1800-1870) 5 6 Mother: Elizabeth Woodburn (1801/1802-1873) 5 7
Marriage: 10 Nov 1864 3
Wife Mary Cowden 8 9
Born: 11 Mar 1838 9 Christened: Died: 26 Oct 1899 - Allegheny, Allegheny Co, PA 3 Cause of Death: Pneumonia Buried: - Washington Cemetery, Washington, Washington Co, PA
Father: John Cowden (1789-1854/1855) 2 10 11 Mother: Mary Kelso (1796-1883/1883) 2 8 11
Children
1 M Robert Lincoln Welch 8 12
Born: 16 Oct 1865 - Canonsburg, Washington Co, PA 12 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Annie Eleanor Weir ( - ) 12 Marr: 27 Mar 1890 - Washington, Washington Co, PA 13
2 M John Cowden Welch 8 12
Born: 10 Aug 1867 - Taylorstown, Washington Co, PA 12 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Pauline Barbara Herzog (1870- ) 14 Marr: 9 May 1900 12
3 M James Marcus Welch 8 12
Born: 4 Jul 1869 - Canonsburg, Washington Co, PA 15 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Martha Gwynn McLaughlin ( - ) 12 Marr: 2 Jun 1899 12
General Notes: Husband - Rev. Robert Caldwell Welch
At the time of his marriage he was a 2nd Lieutenant of Co. C, 22nd Regt. Penna. Volunteer Cavalry, stationed then at Romney, West Virginia. He had completed his college course and had attended one year at the United Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, which he had left at the time of his enlistment. His wife spent part of the winter of 1864 in camp at Romney. After the end of the war he was soon licensed to preach and was settled as pastor of the U. P. church at North Buffalo, Washington County, Pennsylvania, and resided at Taylorstown, where he died four years after his marriage and after a ministry of two years.
He was graduated from Jefferson college, at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1860, ranking fifth among 60, the first honor being divided among four. Most of his expenses were paid by teaching school or working on the farm of his older brother, James. His diary of those years reveals a strict economy, a conscientious application to study and to duty, and also literary and social aspirations. He entered the Theological Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church, at Allegheny, traveling by stage on the various occasions necessary. After one year's study he enlisted in Captain George T. Work's cavalry company, called the Winfield Hussars, which was recruited in his home neighborhood, and on the 6th of September, 1862, he was elected second lieutenant of the company. The Winfield Hussars were attached to the 22d Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, the Ringold Battalion, as Company C. The term of service at their enlistment was three years or the war. March 3, 1865, Robert C. Welch was elected first lieutenant and on May 8th, 1865, at the close of the Civil War, he was honorably discharged.
He resumed his interrupted theological studies. In view of the frequent chaplain services in which he had experience, and inasmuch as he had made up many of his studies, one year of further preparation was regarded, by the members of his presbytery, as sufficient to qualify him for the ministry. He was ordained on the 14th of May, 1867, by Chartiers Presbytery and was settled as pastor over the congregation of North Buffalo, Washington County, Pennsylvania, under the care of the same presbytery. He resided at Taylorstown, a distance of three miles from this church.In December of 1868 he was entertained at dinner by William Hodgens, one of his esteemed members. While there a young man came, requesting him to go with him to perform a wedding ceremony. Although feeling somewhat unwell at the time he complied with the request and thereby suffered exposure which brought on a cold. Being physically weakened by his recent army life, the attack developed quickly into pneumonia, from which he was unable to rally, and he died after two weeks sickness.
In appearance he was tall and slender and very straight, of a fair complexion and with golden red hair, and gray eyes. His height was six feet two inches. As a minister he was much beloved by his congregation and esteemed by his presbyterial brethren. From some of his discourses it appears his style was earnest and persuasive, adorned with poetic imagination and enforced by both piety and purpose.
From Mrs. Jane Harsha, his sister, the following incidents of his boyhood were learned: "When he was eight years of age he went upon an errand to McConnel's Mills, a village two miles distant. He was attacked by a dog, but, by climbing upon a fence, he escaped injury, although he was much terrified and as a result of this he was for some months thereafter, nervously affected with something like St. Vitus' Dance. He outgrew all this and was soon going to school with the rest of the children." "He was a quick-tempered little lad, perhaps that was because he was the only red-headed one in the family, but his mother's whippings cured him of his temper very quickly. That he was indeed a nice boy you may well put down in black and white,'' said sister Jane. "He was a school mate with Bob Nesbit and one afternoon they were trying to break a pair of young calves for oxen. On returning home he said to his mother, 'Why, Mam, Bob would say bad words at them every little while. He said `Dod dern 'em.' ' "Bob and his brother Tom made from some old lead, bits that they pretended would pass for pennies at the store. They used some of the kitchen cutlery for the purpose of minting their coin. The girls having much hard work to do that day, set out the dinner on the table without a cloth being laid. Whereupon Aunt Jane had this admonition for her sister, 'There, Lizzie, you didn't wipe the table, for that is Rob's bare foot mark, where he has been climbing up to get a knife from the shelf.' Another testimony of his boyhood was: "Little Rob used to be the most impulsive and wrathy of all of us, which is to be wondered at since he became the most gentle. Many a time when he was being whipped (for in those days they believed in the rod of correction, and mother did most of the whipping herself,) I have snatched him away from mother, for I could not bear to see the little fellow switched." His sister Margaret Welch Beatty said that she once met a man who had been an officer in the Confederate service and whose station was in the Cumberland Mountains. He told how he and Lieutenant Welch had dodged and chased each other many a time when upon their scouting or foraging expeditions. They called Lt. Welch the "Red Headed Woodpecker" and preserved a wholesome caution when near his company or camp.
In the vacation after his graduation from college, he went with his brother-in-law, William G. Fee, to the oil regions, which were then occasioning great excitement and attracting many to the rough hills of northwestern Pennsylvania. He remained two months on Oil Creek and felt much improved in health by the strenuous outdoor life. He neither made nor lost a fortune, only receiving wages enough to pay expenses and leave a little surplus for consolation.
"Diaries for the years 1860 to 1865, kept by my father, are in my possession. Both that which is written and that which may be inferred between the lines have been interesting to me. The year 1860 is his senior year in college. In it he states that his whole college and academic expenses, including books, board, clothes and tuition, were $545.00; which seems remarkably little for a complete education such as famous old Jefferson College conferred on her many honored alumni. He was an ardent member of Franklin Literary Society, also of the Society of Inquiry (religious and moral), also a member and collector for the Lyceum and a prominent member of the Phi Gamma Delta secret fraternity. He was evidently a faithful attendant upon church and prayer-meeting and was likewise exceedingly careful of his reputation and his honor. He mentions seeing, for the first time, a game of cards. He was very fond of calling upon several of the ladies who were students at the Olome Institute in Canonsburg. He kept up a correspondence with several ladies, which appears, from his comments, to have been of a literary ideal and ethical character. Those ante-bellum days were charged with classic sentiment which in my own college experience of the generation following would have been deemed bosh or bombast. Not only was he a diligent student, but he appears to have been a great helper of others, being both sympathetic and generous. Mathematics was his preferred study. He read Scott's "Ivanhoe" with the remark, "The first novel in two and a half years." After the graduation exercises were over he said "good-bye" to his friends and walked to his home in the late evening, five rugged, meditative miles for the young philosopher.
"He commenced theological study under Rev. Herron, pastor of his home church, and taught school through the winter. While at college he had some drill with Jefferson Home Guards, which he joined on May 11th, 1861, but his enlistment for army service was in '62. The work to which his army life brought him was largely scouting and foraging the Cumberland Mountains of Virginia. Their battalion was an out-guard for the army of the Potomac. He was employed as acting assistant quartermaster during almost all his service."
General Notes: Wife - Mary Cowden
As a student she was proficient, although of such fragile health that she was at times detained at home for a few weeks.
She resided in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after the death of her husband.
1 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 372, 601.
2 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 1315.
3 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 106.
4 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 155.
5 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 601.
6 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 162.
7 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 162, 187.
8 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 372.
9 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 97.
10 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 371.
11 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 68.
12 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 108.
13 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 145.
14 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 148.
15
Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 150.
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