Preston County, West Virginia Biography of ULYSSES S. WELCH This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 552 Preston ULYSSES S. WELCH. Terra Alta in Preston County esteems Ulysses S. Welch as one of the most substantial of its citizens, not only as a business man but as one whose helpful interest and cooperation is extended to any of the affairs of the com- munity, particularly the schools. Mr. Welch, who for a number of years has operated the custom mill at Terra Alta, was born at Albright, Preston County, March 23, 1867. His remote American ancestors were Welsh people. His father was Samuel E. Welch, whose brothers and sisters were T. Jefferson, Jacob, Joseph, Mrs. Jacob Feather, Mrs. Harry Feather and Mrs. Josephus Childs, all now deceased. Samuel E. Welch was a Union soldier dur- ing the Civil war, being in a cavalry regiment under General Sheridan in the Valley of Virginia. The loss of a finger was the only important wound he received. At the close of active hostilities in the East he was sent with his regiment to the West, where he participated in several Indian campaigns. He was married while still in the army, and after the war he became a locomotive engineer. For some years he was on the Pittsburgh Division of the Baltimore & Ohio, and then made his headquarters at Kansas City and was in the service of the Kansas Division of the Union Pacific. He died in the spring of 1880, at the age of fifty years. Samuel E. Welch married Rachel L. Bishop, daughter of Samuel Bishop, who spent his life as a farmer in the Albright community of Preston County. She is now seventy-three years of age and living at Albright. Her children were Ulysses S., Frank D., of Cumber- land, Maryland, and Reed F., of Morgantown. Ulysses S. Welch was thirteen years of age when his father died. He had attended the common schools of Albright, and after the death of his father he moved to Terra Alta and began earning his bread as an employe of J. W. Rigg Son & Company in their woolen mills. He learned the carding business or trade in that factory. Leaving that firm, he became a partner in Freeland, Casseday & Company, millers, and was an active participant in the business until their mills burned. He then rebuilt the plant, took over the interests of his partners, and has ever since been doing business as a miller at Terra Alta. He has a forty barrel mill, and its operations have been carried on steadily for the grinding of feed of all kinds. One special product is buckwheat flour. Much of its output is shipped to markets outside the county, and in this and other ways the plant has proved a useful industry of the town. Mr. Welch is also a stockholder and director of the Terra Alta Bank. The two years he spent on the council was an era of prac- tical progress of municipal .improvement in Terra Alta, and during that time the first brick pavements were laid, the sewer system and city water system installed, and gas mains laid. Mr. Welch is now on his second term as a member of the Board of Education of Portland District. The most im- portant matter being considered by the board is the building of the new high school, and an architect has been requested to submit plans for that purpose. Mr. Welch grew up in the atmosphere of the dominant political party in Preston County and cast his first vote for James G. Blaine. About the time he reached his majority he joined the Terra Alta Lodge of Odd Fellows and is also a member of the Woodmen of the World. He was reared under Methodist influences, but is now a member of the Church of the Brethren. In Preston County, near Tunnelton, August 14, 1890, he married Miss Elizabeth Casseday, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Bucklew) Casseday. She was born near Tunnel- ton, youngest of twelve children, the others surviving being James, Mrs. Harriet Fike and John B. Mr. and Mrs. Welch have one daughter, Iva M. She is a talented young woman and a very capable educator. She is a graduate of the Uni- versity of West Virginia, is now an instructor in the Terra Alta High School, and is continuing her advanced studies during the summer vacations in Columbia University at New York.