BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, BELMONT COUNTY, OHIO

"History of the Upper Ohio Valley" Vol. II, 1890.

Presented by Linda Fluharty from hard copies provided
by Mary Staley & Phyllis Slater.


Pages 685-686.

HENRY C. WELDAY

Henry C. Welday, a capitalist of St. Clairsville, and one of the heaviest
stockholders of the bank of St. Clairsville, was born in Jefferson county,
in 1823, the son of Henry and Nancy (Smith) Welday. His father was born in
Pennsylvania, and came to Ohio at ten years of age, in 1802, with his
father, Abram Welday. The latter, a native of Germany, came to Pennsylvania
about time of the close of the war of the revolution, and remained there
until he came into Ohio, hauling his goods in wagons, and cutting their
way through the woods, settling upon land in Jefferson county, they
cleared a piece of ground for their log hut, which was afterward replaced
with a hewed log house. The seven children, five of whom were boys, took
an active part in this work of settlement. Henry, the father of the subject
of this mention, shared in this labor, and received the limited education
that was available. He was naturally bright in mind, however, and in follow-
ing his trade of carpenter, he would go into the woods and hew out the
timber, and make everything fit for its place by mental calculation. He was
a soldier in the war of 1812, and afterward drew a pension and received a
land warrant, the land which he secured with the same afterward being sold
to a lawyer at Cadiz. He died at the age of eighty-four years, Henry C.
Welday was reared on the farm and given a common school education, which
he improved upon with a commercial course at the Iron City college,
Pittsburgh, He studied much at home, and beginning at nineteen years of
age, taught two terms of school. Afterward he began farming on his father's
land, and in 1850 bought the farm, upon which he remained five years. His
father then gave him $5,000. He sold his farm and traveled two years in the
east and west in 1857-8. In 1864 he assisted in the organization of the
bank of St. Clairsville, and built the entire block in which that institution
is situated. On May 4, 1848, Mr. Welday was married to Elizabeth Scott,
daughter of Rev. Andrew and Jane Scott. Her father was a Methodist Episcopal
minister for many years, and also represented the county of Jefferson in
the legislature in the session of 1848-9. About 1867 he died of cancer.
Mr. Welday and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which
he is steward and trustee.