WELSH, CALCASIEU PARISH, LA
Contributed by Margaret Rentrop Moore

Source: Southwest Louisiana Biographical & Historical by William
Henry Perrin; published 1891 page 159 - 160.


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    COUNTRY TOWNS - Welsh is a flourishing town on the Southern Pacific
Railroad, twenty-three
miles east of Lake Charles, and containing at present about three hundred
inhabitants, many of whom are Western people. The situation of the town is all
that could be desired, being half a mile from the Lacassine, a wooded Stream
flowing south to the gulf. With the exception of the Lacassine it is surrounded
by a vast expanse of prairie, reaching to the Mermentau River on the east, and o
the long leaf pine on the Calcasieu River on the north and west.
    The town of Welsh, surveyed and platted in 1884, did not begin to build up
rapidly until July, 1887.  In April, 1887,  the Messrs. Jasinsky and Reever, of
Guthrie county, Iowa, and George D. Moore, Mitchelville, of same State,
visited Welsh and, being captivated with its splendid location and superior
surroundings, purchased lands in and near town, and in July of the same year
there was witnessed a veritable boom in the construction of several good
business houses and residences. This town certainly has a bright future before
it, being in the midst of a splendid  agricultural country.
    The following are the shipments from this place: 13,840 barrels rough rice,
worth here $3.50 per barrel; 69,840 pounds of wool, worth 18 cents per pound:
954 tons of hay, worth here about $5.50 per ton; 1520 head beef cattle, worth
about $17.90 per head. Rice and hay are the principal farm products, though,
sugar cane, cotton, Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes, oats and corn are grown,
and it is only  question of a few years when many of these products will be
raised for export. The Welsh Crescent, edited by H. Duggett, attends to
advertising the interests of the town.
    About two hundred families of Western and Northern people have settled in
and around Welsh from almost every State in the Union from Texas to New York.
The town was incorporated in April, 1888, and Hon. Henry Welsh elected first
mayor, an honor appropriately conferred, he having been founder of the town. He
is a gentleman known and respected throughout Southwestern Louisiana, his
hospitable home having been for many years the principal stopping place foi-
travelers before the railroad was built.
    Welsh can boast of its location, good houses, a number of energetic public-
spirited business men and many worthy citizens. There are at present three good,
hotels, six general stores, one restaurant, livery stable, lumber yard, drug
store, market barber shop, two physicians and two real estate agents.