| William Welch
lived all of his early life, from 1858 to 1900, in the
Hazel Creek area of western North Carolina.
He married Louise Elizabeth Bradshaw and had a wonderful
family he loved and enjoyed very much.
In 1898 a terrible
tragedy occurred when typhoid fever swept through the
Hazel Creek area and Louise, his wife, and 4 of their
children, all succumbed to the disease within a few
months of each other. William
became depressed and withdrawn after losing so much of
his family and often sat and just stared into the
distance. His youngest daughter, Vida, would
climb into his lap and talk to him. She
would demand attention and, if she didn't think
he was listening to her, she would grab his nose and
pull his head down to make him listen.
This would tickle him and he would become more like his
"old self".
Two years after
the family deaths, William took the 4 remaining
children, his daughters Nora, Ellen, Olive and Vida, and
moved to Georgia. While in Georgia, he
married again to Rachel Proctor who was the widow of one
of his cousins. Then they moved to
Grand Prairie, Texas, in 1901. William
later divorced his 2nd wife and moved to Haskell, Texas,
in 1907.
Here, in Haskell,
he lived until his death - sometimes in a house of his
own and sometimes with one of his daughters who also
lived in the county, Nora or Olive. At
one time he partnered with another man in running a
service station. Vida also lived in Haskell
County. Ellen married Joe Reed and
lived in Grand Prairie, Texas. William was
living with Nora when he passed away in 1941.
Father, as he was
called, told wonderful stories and wrote interesting
letters to his daughters and grandchildren.
Olive's daughter, Beryl Montgomery Cathey, said he
should have been a writer because he could make the
stories so interesting.
He wrote a
description of the Hazel Creek area of North Carolina,
an area he loved, as follows:
|
Hazel Creek
"Blind Homer sang of Trojan wars and
heroes, Horace of Love, Dante of
Infernal regions, Melton of Paradise.
Now if I had the genius of all those old
Masters combined, a harp with a thousand
strings and all the earth for an
audience, I would sing with all my heart
and soul about Old Hazel Creek. I would
proclaim all her beauties and rugged
grandeurs to the remotest generations.
If I were a sculptor and had the power
to chisel my thoughts on marble, I would
search all the quarries of the earth for
the purest white stone and somewhere in
an enchanted land, where the skies are
the bluest, the water the purest, the
birds sing the sweetest far into the
soft mellow moonlight night, I would
begin a work of love and duty.
I would bid the cold marble to speak
for me as I plied the chisel to its side
until the surface took the shape I
wished and at last Old Hazel Creek stood
revealed in all her beauty, ready to
give of her pure cold water of her many
springs to bless the drinker with joy
and health. I would make a
base on which the spirit of my dreams
would stand, and around its rim I would
carve the figures of many dear faces,
with their hands raised to beckon all
humanity to come see. For of all the
streams, she is the purest."
(written by William Welch)
|
Gravestone of William Welch
at Highland Cemetery in Stamford |
|
William Welch family stories and photos furnished
by his Great Granddaughter, Elizabeth Maxson ©
2007
|
