My Genealogy Hound

O. D. Weldon, local editor and business manager of the Fort Smith Weekly Elevator, was born near Cleveland, Ohio, September 23, 1847, and is a son of Oliver and Augusta A. (Smith) Weldon. Oliver Weldon was a native of Connecticut, and a clock-maker by trade, though in his younger days he followed the life of a sailor. He was one of the inventors of the spring clock. During his early married life he lived in Connecticut, but being of a roving disposition moved to Ohio, and thence to the State of Michigan. In 1854 he traveled extensively as a peddler, and, with two horses and watch dogs as companions, made his way from Michigan to the line of the Indian Territory, and here set up a store in a log hut and engaged in trading with the Indians. While at this point he became interested in lead mine discoveries, and sent for his family, who traveled the entire distance from Dewajack, Mich., to Polk County, Ark., in a two-horse wagon, being about eight weeks on the road, his son-in-law, A. L. Strong, accompanying them. After living in Polk County about one year he drifted to Fort Smith, where he died in 1872. Augusta A. (Smith) Weldon is still living, is seventy-six years of age, and a resident of Fort Smith, so well preserved that a casual observer would not take her to be more than fifty-five or sixty. She was the mother of seven children, O. D. Weldon being her youngest child and only son, five of whom she survives. The paternal grandmother of the subject of this sketch was twelve years of age at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and lived to be one hundred years old. She was one of twelve who organized the first Baptist Church in the then town of Hartford, Conn. O. D. Weldon began learning the printer’s trade in 1861, just at the breaking out of the war, in the office of the Thirty-fifth Parallel, a weekly paper edited and published by Gen. A. G. Mayers at Fort Smith. This paper only survived a short time after the beginning of hostilities between the North and South. Weldon remained in the Confederate lines until 1863, when the Federals, under command of Gen. Blunt captured the place, and occupied it until after the close of hostilities. During the war he learned the butcher’s trade, and assisted in slaughtering beef for the army. In 1866 he again went to work at the printing business in the office of the Fort Smith Herald, owned by Judge John F. Wheeler, and from that time engaged alternately in the butchering and printing business until 1877, having spent one year at fort McKavett, on the Texas frontier, furnishing beef to the soldiers under command of Gen. Clitz. He has been constantly connected with his present paper for ten years, and previous to that was connected with the New Era, the late v. Dell being editor and proprietor. He was first married to Miss Elona Haag, of Fort Smith, and one child, Lorena A., was the result of this union. Mrs. Weldon died in 1876, and in 1880 Mr. Weldon married Miss Lue Brown, who bore him three children, one now living, Jimmie. One child, John Carnall, died at the age of two years, and Ollie D., at the age of five months. Mr. Weldon is the regular correspondent at Fort Smith for the New York Herald, Chicago Times, Globe Democrat, Fort Worth Tex., Gazette and Little Rock Ark., Gazette, and occasionally writes for other papers. He is a Democrat in his political views, and his wife and eldest child are members of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Weldon is a member of the Ladies’ Aid Society, and was educated at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Their daughters, Lorena and Jimmie, are members of “The Little Helpers” society.