My Genealogy Hound

Dr. David Walter Welch was born near Galatia, Ill., in 1848. He is the son of E. G. Welch and Nancy (Upchurch) Welch. The father was of an old Virginia family, but was raised at Murfreesboro, Tenn., and moved to Southern Illinois when quite a young man. Dr. Welch’s mother was born at Galatia, which was founded by her father, David Upchurch, lived there all her life and died in the same village at the age of eighty. The father died at the ripe age of eighty-eight in the same village. Dr. Welch, the oldest of twelve children, was reared on the farm near Galatia, attended the village schools in winter and later the Illinois State Normal at Normal. He taught school for fifteen years, three years in Shawneetown, Ill.; two as assistant superintendent of Evansville, Ind., schools; two as superintendent of Rockport schools, which he re-organized and graded, and two as superintendent of schools in Boonville, Ind. He read medicine at home of evenings and afterwards in the office and under the tuition of Dr. George B. Walker, dean of the faculty at Evansville, Ind. He graduated from the Evansville Medical College in 1886, having previously lived in the country northeast of Mt. Vernon, Ind., for four years. He located in Mt. Vernon in 1888, where he has since resided. Some years ago he took a post-graduate course in the Chicago Clinical College, and served four years on the board of pension examiners during the Harrison administration, being associated with the late Drs. Smith and Holton. He was married in 1868 to Miss Jennie R. Wright, of Cloverport, Ky. They have five sons and two daughters, all grown and married. He is in politics a Prohibitonist. There are just two planks in his political platform. He hates whisky and mud. He is the originator of the movement which resulted in building more than 200 miles of rock and gravel roads in Posey county. He met fierce opposition and defied it. Before that the county had not a foot of decent road. They have at this time more than 200 miles and are still building.