My Genealogy Hound

HENRY WELCH, farmer; P. 0. Downs; one of the early pioneers of McLean Co.; born in Northampton Co., Penn., Nov. 14, 1816; his father was born in the same county, in 1791; he emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio the spring of 1817, and in December, 1822, emigrated to Vigo Co., Ind., where he followed farming until his decease, which occurred in February, 1835. He was married in Pennsylvania, to Susan Jacoby; she was born in Pennsylvania, in 1792; her grandparents emigrated to America with William Penn, and settled in his colony; Mrs. Welch died in August, 1862; they were the parents of eight sons and three daughters, of whom four sons and one daughter are now living — William, born Jan. 25, 1815; Henry, Nov. 14, 1816; Albert, Oct. 22, 1822; Jeremiah, July, 1825, and Eliza Jane, about 1828. Henry Welch came to McLean Co. in the spring of 1835, a poor boy; he has suffered all the privations and hardships of frontier life, and has, by his hard labor and correct business habits, placed himself among the large land-holders and successful farmers and stock-raisers of McLean Co.; to accomplish this has been a life of labor; for many years, he followed the prairie-plow, drawn by five yoke of oxen; he did not confine his breaking to Illinois, as hundreds of acres in Wisconsin have been broken by his labor; he has driven his hogs to Chicago on foot, camping out by night; he has also driven his teams to Chicago loaded with wheat, for which he realized 48 cents per bushel; in 1836, he hauled a load of goods from Pekin to Bloomington, then to Dixon; he had two wagons, drawn by four yoke of cattle each; one wagon carried a ton, the others one and a half tons. He has a vivid recollection of the sudden change in 1836; the day had been mild, and the ground was covered with slush of snow and water, when, suddenly, a roar was heard in the west; and the change in the atmosphere was so great that everything froze up instantly; Mr. Welch says that, when the wind-storm came, his pigs huddled together in the pen to keep warm, but several of them carelessly allowed their tails to drop into the slush, and were frozen fast; the next morning, his attention was called to the sty by the squealing of the pigs, and, upon going there, found some half dozen in the above position; he loosened them by cutting their tails with his knife. His marriage with Minerva Colwell was celebrated upon the 24th of November, 1842; they were the parents of eight children — Sarah J., born April 12, 1845, died Sept. 10, 1847; William Lee, Feb. 11, 1847, died Jan. 9, 1871; James Adams, Jan. 6, 1849 ; Susan Ann, Sept. 24, 1850; Eliza M., Oct. 8, 1853; Alfred J., July 5, 1855; George H., June 13, 1858; Minerva E., June 6, 1866. Mr. Welch is among the large land-holders of McLean Co., being possessed of upward of fourteen hundred acres of land, with six sets of farm buildings.