So, for those of you in the future, looking back at this time, the United States has been slowly adjusting to the global pandemic of a virus called COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. I am sitting at home this week, waiting to find out whether I should plan on going back to work next week, and wondering how the rest of my final semester of school will be affected.
While I had semi-suspended posting in this blog, in favor of focusing my efforts on finishing my Bachelor's degree in music, I have found myself in the position of having time on my hands which is better spent doing family history research than worrying about the possible cancellation of my recital or other things I don't have control over. Hopefully, one day, we'll look back on this time with relief that things did not turn out too badly, considering the disruption to our lives.
That said, doing research and writing is something that I enjoy and it relaxes me, so I'm moving forward with the Montgomery family posts. Hopefully, you will enjoy the fruits of my labor!
Last time, we documented the tragic, early end of every member of Elvina Montgomery Huffman's family. Elvina was the eldest of three daughters of Jonathan and Sarah (Callin) Montgomery. This week, we'll start with the middle daughter, Huldah Montgomery Walker.
II. Huldah Montgomery (1829–1918)
Born on 7 March 1829 and raised in Olivesburg, Huldah was barely a year old when her mother, Sarah, died. She grew up with her sisters in the home of her father and step-mother, probably attending the school established on a property that her grandfather, Benjamin Montgomery, deeded to the village.
Huldah married Isaiah Walker (1821–1906) on 5 June 1849 in Richland County, and at first they lived in Jefferson Township. Isaiah was a young lawyer, born on 7 January 1821 to James Walker (1771–1844) and Lucinda Barrell (1784–1871) in Montville, Waldo County, Maine. The Walker family moved from Maine to Massachusetts, finally settling in Richland County in 1834.
Isaiah and Huldah had their first daughter in 1851, and in May of 1859, Isaiah moved his young family to Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana, where he established himself as a lawyer. He and Huldah raised both of their daughters in Rochester. Eventually, Isaiah retired and, in 1905, they moved to California, where both of their daughters' families lived.
Isaiah died from pneumonia on 5 November 1906 at the home of his youngest daughter, Polly, in Glendora, Los Angeles County, California. Huldah died on 30 December 1918 in Long Beach, Los Angeles County. She was 90 years old.
Isaiah and Huldah are buried in the Rochester I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Rochester, Indiana.
A. Clara A Walker (1851–1932) was born in September 1851 in Mansfield, Ohio. Her family moved to Rochester, Indiana, when she was about eight years old, and she grew up there. She married Cornelius Welch (1847–1934) on 12 November 1872 in Fulton County.
Cornelius, or "Con," was born to James and Sarah Welch on 5 September 1847 in Ontario, Canada. According to his obituary in the Rochester Sentinal, his parents died before he was nine, and he went to live with Andrew Oliver, then residing six miles south of Rochester. At 18, he enlisted in Company G of the 155th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers on 17 March 1865. The war ended less than a month later, but Con did well in the army; he was promoted to Corporal on 6 May 1865 and mustered out near Dover, Delaware, on 4 August 1865. He re-enlisted with the 23rd U. S. Regulars on 12 June 1867 and was stationed at Fort Boise, Boise, Idaho. At the end of this enlistment, he returned to Rochester, where he married Clara a few years later.
In 1880, Con ran a livery stable in Rochester, but sometime after that, he moved the family to a farm in Newcastle, which is where they were in 1900. Soon after that, the Walkers relocated to Glendora, Los Angeles County, California, leaving their sons Edwin and Oliver to run the family farm.
Con and Clara lived in Long Beach for many years. Clara died there on 24 June 1932, having been ill since the previous Christmas. Con died on 10 August 1934 at the age of 86, also in Long Beach.
1. Marguerite Beatrice "Maggie" Welch (1875–1962) was born on 17 October 1875 in Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana. She spent some time working as a bookkeeper in Chicago, where she appeared on the 1900 Census; she was in that city when her brother, Mont, died.
Maggie seems to have gone west when her parents did in 1905, and while it isn't clear where she was in 1910, by 1917, she was married to Frank McKeever Burnside (1877–1936) and lived with him in Seattle. Frank's origins aren't confirmed by the documents I've found, but I believe he was the son of Irish immigrants George Burnside (1848–1889) and Sarah Clark (1846–1912), was born on 1 May 1877 and raised in Pittsburg, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Maggie lost her mother in 1932, her father in 1934, and Frank on 28 December 1936 in Alameda, Alameda County, California. Maggie remained in their home on Santa Clara Avenue, again working as a bookkeeper. She died in Alameda on 29 March 1962.
2. James Montgomery "Mont" Welch (1878–1904) was born in Rochester on 5 December 1878. He was well thought of in his community, and after working for a time at the City Book Store in Rochester, he went first to Chicago, then to Pierceton, Indiana, and engaged in business for himself. Failing health forced him to abandon his business, and he returned to his parents’ home where he "died of lung trouble" - most likely succumbing to tuberculosis, as so many of his cousins had done.
3. Edwin Walker Welch (1882–1932) was born on 14 July 1882 in Rochester and grew up on the family farm. He was living in Chicago in 1904, when his brother Mont died, but came back to run the farm when his parents moved to California.
Edwin married Carrie M Daniel (1884–1985) on 19 October 1906 in Knox, Starke County, Indiana. Carrie was the daughter of William Smith Daniel (1860–1939) and Anna M Chapman (1862–1936), born 20 June 1884 in Paint Township, Highland County, Ohio. By 1910, Edwin and Carrie had settled in Smith, near Churubusco, Whitley County, Indiana, where Edwin worked as a jeweler. They had a little daughter there, named Margarite, possibly after Edwin's sister.
It isn't clear when they divorced, but in 1917, Edwin was living with his parents in Long Beach and working as a jeweler and watchmaker in that city. On 16 August 1922, he married his second wife, Harriet Ann Hodgin (1886–1950) in Los Angeles County, California. They lived on Lime Avenue until Edwin's death on 29 February 1932 in Long Beach.
Carrie married her second husband, Frederick William Berg (b. 1891), on 18 June 1919 in Chicago. Fred was one of a family of German immigrants, born on 27 September 1891 in Germany to Ludwig F Berg (1862–1935) and Augusta W Haacker (1860–1943). He married Carrie just a couple of months after returning from fighting in France as part of Company D, 415th Railroad Telegraph Battalion, Signal Corps.
Carrie and Fred kept house in Davis, Starke County, Indiana, where Fred worked as a telegraph operator for the railroad. I don't know when Fred died; the last record I have for him places the family in Lansing, Cook County, Illinois, where he was working for the Grand Trunk Railroad in 1942. Carrie Berg died in August 1985.
a. Margeret Ann "Margot" Welch (1908-1949) was born on 11 November 1908 in Churubusco, Whitley County, Indiana. Her parents, Edwin and Carrie, divorced when she was young, and she grew up in the home of her mother and step-father, Fred Berg. In 1933, she and Robert Henry Batzka (1906–1978) applied for a marriage license in Valparaiso, and their son, Norman, was born the following year.
Margeret and Robert were divorced around 1937, and Margeret (appearing in the marriage record as "Margot Batzka") remarried Andrew P Foley (1910–1994) on 23 December 1938 in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan. Robert and Norman went to live with Robert's parents in Starke County, Indiana, and Robert married Sarah Mildred Gusman (1918–1990) on 29 April 1941 in San Pierre, Starke County.
Margeret and Andrew lived in Petoskey, Emmett County, Michigan for many years. She died on 5 November 1949 at Ford Hospital in Detroit and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Petoskey. Andrew remarried and he eventually died on 10 April 1994 in Grosse Pointe, Wayne County, Michigan.
Robert Batzka retired from farming, and he and Sarah, by then a retired teacher, took a European trip in the summer of 1978. He died unexpectedly from a stroke on 8 July 1978 at the University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland. Sarah later remarried, and she died on 23 June 1990 in Markle, Wells County, Indiana.
i. Norman Robert Batzka (1934–2011) was born on 27 May 1934 in Indiana. His parents divorced when he was small, and by 1940, he and his father were living with his grandparents in rural Starke County, Indiana. He graduated from Mackenzie High School in Detroit, Michigan, in 1953.
Norman served in the U.S. Air Force as a staff sergeant in Korea. He married Mariann Coleman (1939–2006) about 1959. She was the daughter of Elmer W Coleman (1909–1995) and Gail M Coombe (1915–1997) born on 3 October 1939 in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan.
Mariann died on 15 May 2006 in Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan. Norman died in Lenawee County, Michigan, on 14 December 2011, and they are both buried in the Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly, Oakland County.
They were survived by their three children and nine grandchildren.
4. Oliver Raymond Welch (1886–1907) was born on 20 March 1886 in Talma, an unincorporated town in Fulton County, Indiana. He lived with his parents on the family farm until they moved to California around 1905, and then he ran the place himself.
Oliver married Anna Pearl Kenley (1888–1966) on 16 August 1904 in Tiosa, Fulton County. They had a baby daughter together, and Anna was pregnant with their son when Oliver began suffering from stomach problems which resulted in a fatal case of appendicitis. He died on 19 February 1907 at Woodlawn Hospital in Rochester. He is buried in the Rochester Oddfellows Cemetery.
Anna, the daughter of John Kenley (1856–1899) and Armilda "Millie" Ross (1860–1895), was born on 24 December 1888 in Plymouth, Marshall County, Indiana, which means she was 15 when she married Oliver and 16 when Audra was born. After Oliver died, she remarried a few years later on 1 July 1911 in Fulton County. Her second husband was Clarence Clement Ailer (1878–1928). They had a son together, named Clarence Herbert Ailer (1913–1968).
Clarence died on 28 February 1928 in South Bend, St Joseph County, Indiana, and Anna seems to have married a third time. She died on 29 July 1966 in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana, under the name Anna P. Beatty, and an "Anna Beatty" lived in Fort Wayne during the 1950s with Wilbert T. Beatty. She is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Mishawaka, St. Joseph County, Indiana.
a. Audra G Welch (1905–1997) was born on 11 January 1905 in Indiana (most likely in Fulton County), and she was barely two years old when her father died. She grew up in the home of her mother and step-father in Fulton County and according to other researchers (I have yet to locate any documents), she married Joseph Elmer Troyer (1906–1978) on 3 September 1926 in La Porte County, Indiana.
Audra and Joe had a son, Richard (1927-1994), and in 1930 they lived in Mishawaka, Indiana. However, they soon divorced. Joseph remarried in 1931, and Audra took Richard to Cleveland. There, she worked as a secretary and stenographer. Joe served in the military during World War II and divorced his second wife after the end of the war. He died on 12 March 1978 in Garden City, Wayne, Michigan.
Audra died in Cleveland on 5 Aug 1997 and was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Mishawaka, St. Joseph County, Indiana.
i. John Richard Troyer (1927–1994) was born on 6 June 1927 in Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana, and grew up in Cleveland with his mother. He was married in Orange County, California, in 1967. He died on 8 August 1994, in Orange County at the age of 67.
(I have not been able to find obituaries or documents that might tell us about Richard's family, or whether he left children and grandchildren behind.)
b. Oliver Kenley Welch (1907–1978) was born in Rochester, Fulton County, Indiana, on 24 August 1907 - six months after the death of his father. He grew up in Newcastle and ended up in Pontiac, Michigan, where he was working as a draftsman in 1940. He was in his late 30s or early 40s he married Effie May Chalmers (1912–2008), and they had a daughter who survives.
Effie was the daughter of William Lionel Chalmers (1875–1938) Stella May Shoemaker (1880–1970), born on 11 April 1912 in Huntington, Huntington County, Indiana. She graduated from Huntington High School in 1930 and became a nurse, working in Toledo in 1940.
Oliver died at age 71 on 16 November 1978 in Norwood Nursing Home at Huntington. Effie died much later on 27 February 2008 in North Manchester, Wabash, Indiana. They are survived by one daughter and two grandsons.
5. Marion Percival Welch (1889–1982) was born on 27 December 1889 and grew up in Newcastle, Fulton County, Indiana. He married Jessie C West (1890–1976) on 23 November 1910 in Glendora, Los Angeles, California. Jessie was the daughter of John Charles West (1856–1935) and Emma Frasia Cornel Hinman (1857–1943), born on 4 June 1890 in California.
Marion worked as a superintendent for the lumber yard in Blinn, California, and he and Jessie raised their son in Lomita, Los Angeles County, California. (Jessie's obituary from 1976 lists a daughter, as well, but I have yet to find any other evidence of a daughter in the available records.)
Jessie died on 31 March 1976 in Los Angeles County, and Marion died almost precisely six years later on 30 March 1982. They are buried next to each other in Green Hills Memorial Park, Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles County, California. According to Jessie's obituary, they were survived by three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
a. Wallace Marion Welch (1911-1977) was born on 11 October 1911 in Glendora, Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Lomita. He was working for his father's lumberyard when he was in his twenties.
Wallace married Laural Faye Hill (1918–1991) on 30 November 1936 in Yuma County, Arizona, and they had a son a few months later in February 1937. Faye was born on 10 December 1917 in Lebanon, Laclede County, Missouri, the daughter of Carlas Eldon Hill (1879–1980) and Laura E Gilmore (1885–1966). She grew up in Laclede County, and her family moved to California when she was in her teens.
The couple was not together for very long, however, as both Wallace and Faye were remarried to other people by 1940. Wallace married his second wife, Beth May Merryman (1916–1991), on 4 May 1939 in California. She was the daughter of William Ausian Merryman (1881–1964) and Dora Bell (b. 1887), born in Fort Dodge, Webster County, Iowa, on 10 May 1916. They also had a child (a daughter, still living), and were divorced before 1946. Beth lived in Lomita for 43 years and was a bookkeeper for the San Pedro (California) Postal Credit Union for 35 years. She died on 27 December 1991, survived by her daughter, step-daughter, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Wallace married his third wife on 9 October 1952 in Ventura County, California. She was Catherine Hanes Cleland, born 15 March 1914 in Crawford, Madison, Iowa, the youngest of 14 children born to Charles David Cleland (1864–1944) and Frances R Siedel (1864–1919). She grew up in Iowa and worked in Des Moines as a waitress in 1940, before eventually moving to California.
Catherine died in Los Angeles County on 1 November 1976, a resident of Sepulveda. Wallace died the following year on 15 December 1977 in Los Angeles. He was survived by his son and daughter.
i. Wallace Max Johnson (1937–2007) was born on 12 February 1937 in Thayer, Oregon County, Missouri, the son of Wallace Marion Welch and Laural Faye Hill. His parents were divorced when he was an infant, and Max was adopted by his step-father, Eugene Field Johnson (1909–1959), appearing under the name Johnson in his public records.
Max was married on 2 August 1961 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, to Annie Margaret Spivey (1938–2016). Annie was the daughter of the late Thelma and Burl Spivey of Charlotte, North Carolina, born on 12 February 1938. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, she lived in Rock Hill and Spartanburg, South Carolina prior to moving to Greer, Greenville, South Carolina.
In 1983, Max & Ann opened Travel Planners at Eastgate Village, which they operated for many years. Max died on 24 July 2007 in Greer. Ann died at her home on 9 June 2016. They were survived by their son, daughter, and four grandchildren.
6. Hulda A Welch (1892–1905) was born in Indiana in July 1892 and moved to California when she was small. She died at the home of her parents in Glendora, Los Angeles County, on 13 November 1905, when she was only 13 years of age. She is buried in Oakdale Memorial Park in Glendora.
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I hope this post found you and your family well, and if events proceed as expected, I should be able to tell you about the Walkers' other daughter, Mary Elvina, next week.As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.
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Until next time... Happy Hunting!
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