MILES WELSH : 1832, Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Kathy LaCombe-Tell Source; NOLA MAE ROSS; American Press Writer Publication Date: 07/14/1991; Page and Section: 3 IM Submitted July 2004 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Section IMC4 ×Category WELSH ×SlugLine HISTORICAL ×BeginCopy HD: SARAH JANE SIMMONS Wife of Henry Welsh HD: HENRY WELSH Son of Miles Welsh PX: Welsh City Auditorium, built in 1909 and demolished in 1951. The Masonic Hall now stands in its place PX: West South Street in Welsh, circa 1920: Miller Hardware and Furniture Co., the Masonic Hall and First National Bank PX: Welsh National Bank as it looked in about 1901. It is now Calcasieu Marine National Bank HD: Welsh began as the little town on the prairie When, in 1832, MILES WELSH first set foot in Louisiana's Lacassine Territory, he was greeted by mile after mile of tall, wavy prairie grass framed by borders of wildflowers. Welsh must have had visions of great herds of cattle, stopping on their way to the New Orleans markets. He'd always dreamed of being part of the great cattle drives from Texas to New Orleans. But he certainly did not know that this territory would someday be named for his young son, Henry Welsh, whom he'd brought with him. ''Miles Welsh, whose grandfather came from Wales, came to New Orleans about 1828 to recover from a fever in this milder climate,'' according to a brief history compiled for the 1988 Welsh Centennial. ''He married Mary Ann Clark in 1830 and they moved to Brulee, now Church Point, where their first child, Henry, was born.'' Not too long after Henry's birth, Miles Welsh moved his wife and son into what was then St. Landry Parish. He bought land from the U.S. Government for two and one-half cents an acre. About 27 years previously, the U.S. had paid France about 30 cents an acre for the same land. Miles Welsh built a daubed-log cabin at the spot, which later became known as Fulton Subdivision. It was to this home that Henry brought his wife, the former Sarah Jane Simmons of Sugartown, to live during the Civil War. At least four sons of Miles Welsh served in the Confederate Army. Henry of Co. B, 1st La. Heavy Artillery, was in the Battle of Shiloh. Jacob, who's credited as the real war hero of the family, enlisted in the Consolidated 18th La. and Yellow Jacket Battalion. He was captured, parolled and then returned to fight the Battle of Shiloh. Another son was killed at the Battle of Mansfield and a fourth died of typhoid fever during his service. In 1868, after Henry and Jacob returned from the war, Miles Welsh died. Henry replaced the old daubed house house with one made of lumber. He moved the daubed house to another part of the property so he could build the new home on the original spot. Building that second home went slowly, because all the millwork had to hauled by ox team from Lake Charles. That trip sometimes took two days, and the house took almost a year to build. But this house, built with 10 by 12 cypress beams, still stands today in the town of Welsh. It is owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Frank (Alice) Harris. ''We don't have to worry about hurricanes in this house,'' the Harrises say. ''It's so solid and well built.'' When the town of Welsh was created in 1880, it was named for Henry Welsh and no man so deserved the honor. His many gifts to the town included five acres for a railroad section house and for the rights-of-way. He even created the ''watering spot'' for the trains by building a dam, where he placed two big tanks and a windmill. Then he built a water well 12 feet square and 63 feet deep. The first train ran through in 1881. Henry Welsh also built the first store in Welsh, and later a second nearby in Pine Island. Even though Welsh was not ''book educated,'' he was ambitious and determined and helped many of his neighbors when they were in need. He was elected the first mayor of Welsh, drawing a salary of $25 a year. But he died in 1888, only eight years after the town was created. His son, C.D. Welsh, was elected clerk of court in 1892 and died the same year. The first aldermen of Welsh were C.D. Welsh, Alexander Verret, J.D. Kimball, Hosea Prentice and Jean Beaufort. They were paid $1.50 per meeting. Before the first train came through, even before Welsh was a town, there were settlers scattered in the area. Some were Acadians, some were left from the Spanish and French regimes and some were refugees from the Civil War. These people carried names like Fontenot, Verret, Romero, Arceneaux and Guillory. Later, the railroad brought in ''Iowa Gothic'' families, along with settlers from Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio and Illinois. These include Oscar Fulton, E.M. Powers, L.A. Hunter, Dr. John Cooper, Oren and Nathaniel Prentice, the Doans, Lawsons, Mongers, Goudreauxs and Roundtrees. John Roundtree was the first blacksmith in Welsh. E.M. Clark built the first rice canal system. Others were John Miller, Dr. Frank Miller, William Russell, Eugene Barnett, William Willard, P.G. Sheumaker, William Buckingham, James Kimball, James and William Cline, Albert Boucher, L.E. Robinson, who was mayor for a long time, and also the well-known Dr. Claude Martin. A.R. McBurney came from Illinois to Crowley in 1898 and moved to Welsh in 1900. He brought the first pure-bred Aberdeen Angus cattle to the area, a great boon to the economy. Not too much later, A.F. Day and Willie Day came along and added pure-bred Polled Herfords. Settlers from Germany's Rhineland came into the area about 1886. Peter Joseph Unkel came to America about 1878 and settled in Sterling, Ill. A few years later, he came to the Jennings area and settled near Lowery. Later, he homesteaded in Welsh but most of the family to a farm near Kinder. When Peter Joseph Unkel decided to build an irrigation canal system, he travelled to Italy to study pumps and wells before building his own system. The ''colorful character award'' goes to an old farmer, Hiram Moor, of Welsh. ''Because of his quiet ways and Vermont taciturnity,'' wrote Franklin Hildebrand in his book, ''As A Man Remembers,'' ''old Farmer Moor became quite a tradition. ''President Calvin Coolidge was his nephew. One time, when Coolidge came through Jennings on his way to California, he sent a wire to Hiram Moor, asking him to meet his train at Jennings and ride with him to Beaumont. ''Uncle Hiram Moor and his nephew, President Coolidge, chatted as much as two Vermonters could, as they rode to Beaumont. It occurred to me that farmer Hiram Moore dropped the E at the end of Moor because, being from Vermont, he found it needless.'' Another well-known Welsh Citizen is Msgr. Jules Daigle, who at age 91, is completing his second book about the Louisiana Cajun language. His first book, ''A Dictionary of the Cajun Language,'' is over 640 pages. ''For 230 years we kept almost no written record of the Cajun language,'' says Daigle. ''I want to record it before it is lost completely. My second book will also have over 600 pages and will be named ''Cajun Self-Taught.'' The town which carries Henry Welsh's name has had a healthy and strong 103-year heritage. But the real beginning of Welsh was nearly 160 years ago, the day that Miles Welsh discovered the beauty of this land and decided to call it home.