KENTUCKY: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 4th ed., 
1887 Boyle Co.

GEORGE WINSTON WELSH was born in Lincoln County, Ky., September 9, 1809.
His grandfather on the paternal side was James Welsh, a native of  the
North of Ireland, who married a representative of the prominent (Scotch)
Douglass family and immigrated to this country at a period somewhat
antedating the Revolutionary war. He established himself in the
neighborhood of Harrisburg, Penn., where he passed his days in the
peaceful pursuit of agriculture.  He had a large family of children all 
of whom removed to Kentucky early in life and became identified with 
the pioneer growth and development of that now prosperous State.  
Thomas, Joseph, and John located at Stanford, Lincoln County, about 
1790 and engaged in mercantile pursuits.  James, about the same period, 
settled at Lexington, whence he removed to Jefferson County, where he 
died; Edward passed his life at Lexington engaged in teaching; William 
became a tanner and resided in Barren County and Andrew engaged in 
farming operations in Jefferson County.  Two daughters married; one 
into the Darby family and the other the Guthrie family and also became 
identified with the early settlement of Kentucky.  Of these sons, John 
was the father of the subject of this sketch; for his first wife he 
married Sarah, daughter of William Withers, who ended his days near the 
mouth of the Salt River.  Of this union were born two daughters; Sarah, 
who married John Merrifield of Bloomfield, Ky., and Nancy, who became 
the wife, first of William Stewart of Bedford, Penn., and secondly of 
Asa Combs of Nelson County, Ky.  For his second wife John Welsh 
espoused Pamelia, daughter of George Lee, of Lincoln County, Ky., and
a member of one of the pioneer families of that section.  It is related
of this lady that she used to take her turn standing guard in the 
blockhouse that formed the citadel of safety against Indian attacks in 
her younger days.  The result of this marriage was five children, of 
whom four attained years of maturity, viz: Joseph, who died in Georgia; 
Elizabeth, widow of James Nichols and mother of Joseph W. Nichols, 
cashier of the Farmers and Drovers Bank of Louisville; George Winston; 
and John Welsh, who has been dead for many years.  The father of this 
family, having pursued the occupation of a merchant and latterly a 
farmer in Lincoln County, finally removed to Hardin County, where he 
died in 1823 at the age of fifty-four, surviving his wife ten years.  
The opening years of the life of George Winston Welsh were passed in 
Lincoln County and upon the removal of his parents to Hardin County he 
accompanied them.  His opportunities for obtaining an education in that 
undeveloped country were at that time very limited, his entire book 
training having been received within the short period of eighteen 
months.  After the death of his father, in 1823, he returned to Lincoln 
County and soon after engaged in the business of a cabinet-maker, a 
vocation which he abandoned soon after and opened a general store in 
that county.  In the spring of 1832 he went on horseback to Palmyra, 
Mo., where he engaged in trade for a time, passing the winter of that 
year in Tallahassee, Fla., whither he also went on horseback.  Soon 
after he began farming in Illinois where he remained until 1836, when,
being unable to outgrow the attachments and memories of his native
county, he returned and opened a store at Hustonville, Ky.  There he 
remained in trade until February, 1852, when he transferred his 
enterprises to Danville, Ky., where he has continued in active business 
since.  Mr. Welsh has now attained the ripe age of seventy-eight years 
but is still in possession of all his faculties.  For a period of fifty 
years past no citizen in this locality has been so closely identified 
with the moral, religious, commercial and material growth of this 
section nor more uniformly enjoyed  the respect and confidence of his 
friends and associates.  Politically he was originally a Henry Clay 
Whig, and has remained faithful to the traditions and principles of 
that party and of its natural successor, the Republican party, 
throughout a long life.  During the trying period of the civil war, 
which was so closely associated with his section and State, he remained 
true to the Union cause and murmured not, though the issue of the 
Emancipation Proclamation deprived him of much of what he had been 
taught to believe was his rightful property.  He never aspired to 
public position and has uniformly declined many flattering offers of 
preferment in that direction.  With the business life of Danville no 
man has been more intimately identified for forty years and many of the
worthy institutions  and business enterprises of that place were either
conceived and founded by him or received from him the most liberal
encouragement and support.  He was the chief organizer of the First
National Bank of Danville in 1865 and president of that institution for
fifteen years.  He was one of the organizers of the Farmers National
Bank of Danville in 1879 and is at present holding the office of 
vice-president.  For a quarter of a century he has been a member of the 
board of directors of Centre College, Danville, and of the Theological 
Seminary, and is the president of the board of directors of the female 
college in that place, of which he was one of the founders in 1859 and 
of which he has been a liberal patron since.  It was largely through 
his energy and activity that the right of way was obtained for the 
Cincinnati Southern Railroad through to Danville, which has done so 
much for the social and material development of that town, and it is 
not too much to say that Mr. Welsh has always lent liberal encouragement
to all movements of a progressive and elevating character in his 
locality and in a generous and unostentatious way assisted them all.  
Now, in the evening of his life, it is deemed but fitting and right 
that some permanent record should be made of his life-work and
character on behalf of his family and numerous friends.  Mr. Welsh was
married in November, 1834, to Mary, daughter of Capt. James Breath, of
Madison County, Ill., formerly of New York.  The golden wedding of the
couple was fitly celebrated in 1884 and they are still in the enjoyment
of a happy married life.  Of the eleven children born to them, seven 
reached mature years: Elizabeth, wife of Camillus W. Metcalf, of 
Atlanta, Ga.; Adeline, wife of G. E. Wiseman of Danville, Ky.;George W.,
Jr., for ten years a merchant in Danville and now cashier of the 
Farmers National Bank of that place; John Edward, engaged in mining in 
Colorado; Mary Louise (deceased), who became the wife of John Greenway 
of Lexington, Ky.; James B., engaged in mercantile life at Kansas City, 
Mo., and William L. Welsh who is in trade at Danville, Ky.

Welsh Douglass Darby Guthrie Withers Merrifield Stewart Combs Lee 
Nichols Breath Metcalf Wiseman Greenway
=
Lincoln-KY Jefferson-KY Barren-KY Nelson-KY Hardin-KY Madison-IL GA MO 
CO FL NY PA Ireland

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