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Basil Franklin Welty |
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Margaret Elizabeth Cook |
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Basil Franklin Welty (Ignatius, Cordelia) was born either May 17 or
18, 1898 in Elco, Illinois BA34; his death certificate
stated that he was born on May 17, 1898 in Illinois, but a World War I draft
registration card dated September 12, 1918 stated that his birth occurred on
May 18, 1898 US14. The World War II draft registration card stated that he
was born on May 17, 1898 in Elco, Illinois SE12. The World War I draft registration card
stated that he had a medium build and a medium height, was of Senath, Missouri,
and listed his wife as Ruth Welta and his employer as
“Riley Richards Randls” US14. He probably never saw
battle because the war ended that November. His marriage to Ruth Randol
occurred on July 8, 1917 in Dunklin County, Missouri, and was officiated by
C.M. Wallace MI17. Ignatious was
required to give his consent to this marriage, for Basil was under the age of
twenty-one at the time: “I.N Welty father of B.F. Welty was present and gave
his consent to his marriage. also stated that Ruth Randol was 19 years old and
that her parents consented to her marriage” MI17.
David Marian (or
Marrion US27) Welty was born in Sikeston OB3 or Dunklin County US27,
Missouri to Basil and Ruth Welty OB3, US27 on
July 28, 1918 OB3, US26, US27.
His mother’s maiden name was recorded as “Reynolds” in
his obituary OB3, but as “Randal” on
his Social Security application US27.
David married Imogene Higgins on June 10, 1939, and he died at age eighty-eight
OB3 on November 15, 2006 OB3, US26, SU20 at
South Haven Community Hospital in South Haven, Michigan OB3. David M. Welty and his wife (“Imi…u
G”) and two-year-old son (“Baby L”) lived in Independence Township, Dunklin
County, Missouri in 1940 UN18. David was twenty-one years old
and he stated that he lived in the same place on April 1, 1935 UN18.
According to her Dunklin County, Missouri death
certificate, Ruth Pearl Welty, who was the wife of Basil and the daughter of
Richard Randal and Margrett Wood, died from influenza on December 18, 1918,
which was her twentieth birthday. Basil next married Maggie Cook on August 14,
1919 in Senath, Dunklin County, Missouri MI17,
MR1. J.P. Ricketts, a pastor of the Methodist
Church in Senath, officiated MI17.
The Welty family moved several times during the
twenties and the Great Depression. They lived in Arbyrd,
Dunklin County, Missouri in June 1920, then Manila, Mississippi County,
Arkansas in September 1922, back in Dunklin County in November 1924, in Byron,
Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin in July 1929, in Oakfield, Fond du Lac County in
October 1931 and January 1934, and in Independence Township, Dunklin County in
March 1936. Basil’s grandson, Bruce Welty, believed that in 1940, Basil was a
sharecropper for the Wright family in the Bootheel area of Missouri, which
seems reasonable, for two of Basil’s children were in Dunklin County, Missouri
(part of the Bootheel) at the time of the 1940 census. There were several Wright families in that region in 1940. Bruce stated
that in the early part of 1941, Basil and his son, Everett, hitchhiked from
Missouri to southwest Michigan to pick fruit. After they finished picking fruit
on Dave Friday’s farm, Mr. Friday hired them to work in his shop, and Bruce
believed that the remainder of Basil Welty’s family joined him in Michigan in
late autumn of 1941. Basil’s World War II draft registration card, dated
February 16, 1942, stated that he was five feet, nine-and-a-half inches,
weighed about 161 pounds, and had brown eyes, black hair, and a dark complexion
SE12. He had a scar under the right side of
his jaw SE12. At that time, he lived on Marion
Avenue in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan, and worked for David Friday SE12.
Basil F. Welty was enumerated in Hartford, Van Buren County,
Michigan in the 1950 US Census UN19.
At this time, he was fifty-one years old and was married to Maggie Welty, age
forty-eight UN19.
He stated that his birthplace was Illinois UN19. In 1950, Basil worked forty hours per
week in a tractor shop UN19.
According to census
reports, Basil was a farmer, but by the time of his death in 1971, he was a
machinist for a tractor company, and he lived at 131 Washington Avenue in
Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan. Two years after Maggie died, Basil
married Clara Adell Haughn
(Clara Clay MA16) on August 15, 1954 BA34; she died a few months before him on August 19, 1971 BA34. His stepchildren, who were the children
of George and Clara Clay, were Elberta P. Clay,
Calvin C. Clay, Mary E. Clay, and Harriett B. Clay; the Clay family resided in
Manila, Mississippi County, Arkansas in 1940 UN18. Elberta
married Roscoe Long, Mary married Chess Williams, and Harriett married Joe Cook
BA32.
His
death certificate, provided by the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Berrien
County, stated that Basil Franklin Welty died at age seventy-three at 3:00am on
December 20, 1971 at the Watervliet Community Hospital in Berrien County,
Michigan of a cerebrovascular accident, caused by cerebral sclerosis and
generalized arteriosclerosis. Funeral services for Basil were held at Calvin
Funeral Home, and he was buried at Maple Hill Cemetery BA32. Basil’s obituary,
in a very festive holiday edition of The Day Spring newspaper, read BA32:
HARTFORD- Basil Welty,
73, died Monday at Community hospital. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. tadoy [sic] (Wednesday) at the Calvin Funeral home.
The Rev. Ron Little, pastor of the Church of Christ, of which Welty was a
member, will officiate. Burial will be in Maple Hill cemetery. Welty was born
in Illinois. He is survived by four daughters, Mrs. Roscoe (Alberta) Long of
Benton Harbor, Mrs. Mrs. [sic] Elmer (Mildred) De May, St. Joseph; Mrs.
Chess (Mary) Williams and Mrs. Joe (Harriett) Cook, both of Arkansas; six sons,
David, Basil, Norman and Curtis, all of Hartford, Vernon of Battle Creek, and
Calvin Clay of Arkansas; several grandchldren [sic]
and great grandchildren, two brothers, and a sister.
The obituary which appeared in The News-Palladium stated BA34:
Basil Franklin Welty, 73, 131 Washington
street, Hartford, died this morning in Watervliet Community hospital. Mr. Welty
was born in Elco, Ill., May 17, 1898, the son of the
Rev. and Mrs. Ignatious
(Cordelia) Welty. He was a member of the Hartford Church of Christ.
On Aug. 15, 1954, in Benton Harbor, he was
married to the former Clara Adell Haughn.
She died Aug. 19, 1971. Survivors include four daughters, Mrs. Roscoe (Alberta)
Long of Benton Harbor, Mrs. Chess (Mary) Williams of West Memphis, Ark., Mrs.
Joe (Harriett) Cook of Marion, Ark., and Mrs. Elmer (Mildred) DeMay of St.
Joseph; six sons, Calvin Clay of Rogers, Ark., David, Basil, Norman and Curtis
of Harford, and Vernon of Battle Creek; several grandchildren and
great-grandchildren; two brothers, Nace Welty and the
Rev. Hersel Welty of St. Louis, Mo.; and a sister. Mrs. Mary Queen of St. Louis. Funeral services will be held
at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Calvin funeral home, Hartford, with the Rev. Ron
Little, pastor of the Church of Christ, officiating. Burial will be in Maple
Hill cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 7 p.m. today.
·
1900 US Census: lived in Elco,
Alexander County, Illinois.
·
1910 US Census: lived in Elco,
Alexander County, Illinois.
·
1930 US Census: lived in Byron, Fond du Lac County,
Wisconsin.
·
1950
US Census: lived in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan.
Margaret Elizabeth Cook (William,
Sena) “Maggie” was born on May 16, 1901 in Missouri to William Cook MR1, MI5 and Sena,
whose surname later became Lawrence RI11. Her death certificate stated that her mother’s
maiden surname was Brotherton MI5. The March 8, 1936 Dunklin County,
Missouri death certificate for her son, Earl Eugene Welty, indicated that
Maggie was born in Marble Hill, Missouri. Marble Hill, Bollinger County is
about forty-four miles northwest of Commerce, Scott County, where her parents
were enumerated in the 1900 US Census.
Maggie was the mother of William Everett, Mildred
Beatrice, Earl Eugene, Basil, Norman Wayne, Vernon Ray, and Curtis Gene Welty. William Everett Welty was
born on June 16, 1920 WI4, FL6, US26 in Arbyrd, Dunklin County, Missouri WI4, FL6 and married Mary Ann Getz WI4, MI23 on December 2, 1944 in Decatur, Van
Buren County, Michigan MI23.
William died at age fifty on September 28, 1970 FL6, WI4 at the Veterans’ Hospital in
Gainesville, Florida WI4 or
in Alachua, Florida FL6,
and was buried in Skyway Memorial Gardens WI4, a
cemetery located in Palmetto, Florida. Mildred
Beatrice DeMay, the daughter of Basil Welty and Maggie Cook, was born on
September 22, 1922 in Manila, Arkansas US27, MI30,
which is approximately twenty-one miles south of Senath, Missouri. She married
Elmer DeMay on September 21, 1928 MI30.
The marriage record for Mildred Beatrice Welty and Willie Elmer “Demay” stated that they were both younger than twenty-one
years old and resided in Kennett, Dunklin County, Missouri when they were
married by William Sanders on September 21, 1938 MI17. Mildred died at age eighty on October 8, 2002 in South Haven,
Michigan, and she was buried at Maple Hill Cemetery in Hartford MI30. According to his Dunklin County death certificate, Earl Eugene Welty was born on November
12, 1924 in Dunklin County, Missouri to B.F. Welty and Maggie Cook, and died in
Independence Township, Dunklin County on March 8, 1936 from a gastric
hemorrhage from “vericositu stomach blood vessels due
to colitis”, and he suffered from anemia. The word “vericositu”
likely meant varicosities or varices, which are swollen veins. Basil A.
Welty was born on July 7,
1929 MI6 in Byron, Wisconsin UN17.
Basil A. Welty married Mary Lou Disbrow on December 12, 1948 in Hartford, Van
Buren County, Michigan MI23. Norman Wayne Welty was born to Basil F.
Welty and Maggie E. Cook on October 28, 1931 in Oakfield, Wisconsin US27 and married Freda Alberta DeMay, the daughter of Jessie Lee
DeMay, on August 11, 1951 in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan MI23, WE21. Norman died on June 21, 1979 in
Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, Michigan MI20. Vernon Ray Welty was born to Basil F.
Welty and Maggie E. Cook on January 19, 1934 in Oakfield, Wisconsin US27. He married Eleanor Hekkema on
October 5, 1952 in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan MI23, and died on January 12, 1994 US27. Curtis Gene Welty,
the youngest son of Basil Welty and Maggie Cook, was born on March 21, 1939 CU10, CU24 in Kennett, Dunklin County, Missouri CU24 and married Betty Jane Maddox on May 17, 1958 CU10, CU24. He died on October 30, 2013, and his
funeral was held at the Calvin Funeral Home in Hartford, Michigan on November
3, 2013 CU10, CU24.
Despite
extensive searching, Basil and Margaret have not yet been found anywhere in the
1920 and 1940 censuses, but David, Everett, and Mildred Welty were located in Dunklin County, Missouri and Van Buren
County, Michigan in 1940, and the information they provided in this census was
helpful in determining the location of the Welty family in 1935 and in years
previous. Confirming the information of the 1930 census, David and Everett
stated that they were born in Missouri, and Mildred said that she was born in
Arkansas in about 1923.
Everett
Welty was nineteen years old in 1940, but he lived in Bangor Township, Van
Buren County, Michigan with the Robinson family as a hired man. He said that on
April 1, 1935, when he would have been almost fifteen, he lived in Oakfield,
Dodge County, Wisconsin. Mildred, Maggie’s seventeen-year-old daughter, was
married to Elmer “Demay”, and she was the mother of a
two-month-old son; the DeMay family lived in Kennett, Dunklin County, Missouri,
where Elmer worked on the malaria project; in April 1935 when she was twelve,
Mildred lived in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. None of the other members of Basil and
Margaret’s family were located in the 1940 census.
David,
Everett, and Mildred each provided a different response to the question “Where
did you live on April 1, 1935?”, and if their answers were accurate, then the
Welty family was fragmented when some of these
children were rather young. Mildred stated that she was in Fond du Lac, and so
she likely still lived in Byron, Fond du Lac County, which was the birthplace
of Basil A. Welty in 1929. Everett was perhaps mistaken about the county in
which Oakfield, Wisconsin is situated. Oakfield is about seven miles northwest
of Byron and is in Fond du Lac County. Because they were children in 1935,
their memories of where they lived on that precise date may have been hazy, but
it is also possible that the family moved from Byron to Oakfield during the course of that year. David, however, was sixteen
in 1935, and likely was not confused about where he lived five years
previously; he may have lived with a relative in Dunklin County, as both his
paternal grandparents lived in Dunklin County at that time.
At the time of the 1950 US Census, Maggie lived with her
husband, Basil F. Welty, and three of her sons, Norman, age eighteen, who was
born in Wisconsin, Vernon, age sixteen, who was born in Wisconsin, and Curtis,
age eleven, who was born in Missouri UN19.
She stated that her birthplace was Missouri UN19. Maggie died at 7:00am MR1 in her home at Hartford on
August 12, 1952 at the age of fifty-one MR1, MI4, MI5. Her funeral was held at 2:00pm at Full Gospel
Assembly Church and she was buried on August 15, 1952 at Maple Hill Cemetery.
Her obituary in The Hartford Day Spring
stated RI11:
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m.
tomorrow at the Full Gospel Assembly for Mrs. Maggie Elizabeth Welty, 51,
who died at her home at 7 a.m. Tuesday after an illness of six weeks. Burial
will be in Maple Hill cemetery and the Rev. Guy Udell
will officiate. She is survived by her husband, Basil; seven sons, David,
Everett, Basil A., Norman, Vernon and Curtis, all of
Hartford; one daughter, Mrs. Mildred DeMay of Benton Harbor, her mother, Sean
Lawrence, Missouri; two brothers and a sister. The body is at the Calvin
chapel.
A similar obituary in the News-Palladium
appeared on August 13, 1952 MR1:
Mrs. Maggie Elizabeth Welty, 51, wife of Basil Welty, died Tuesday at 7 a. m.
at her home on route 2, after six weeks’ illness. Funeral services are
scheduled for 2 p. m. Friday at the Full Gospel Assembly church on Townline
road between Hartford and Lawrence, with the Rev. Guy Udell
officiating. Burial will be in Maple Hill cemetery. Mrs.
Welty was born May 16, 1901, in Missouri, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William
Cook. She was married to Basil Welty, Aug. 14, 1919, in Missouri. They had
lived in this community 12 years. She is survived by her husband and the
following children: David, Everett, Basil A., Norman, Vernon
and Curtis, all of Hartford, and a daughter, Mrs. Mildred BeMay
[sic] of Benton Harbor. She also
leaves a sister, Mrs. Maude Fletcher, and two
brothers, Paul and Fred Patton, living in Missouri. There are nine grandchildren
and several nieces and nephews. The body is at the
Calvin funeral home.
·
1930 US Census: lived in Byron, Fond du Lac County,
Wisconsin.
·
1950
US Census: lived in Hartford, Van Buren County, Michigan.
