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Show • • • History of Thomas Robert Green Welch and Harriet Nash Welch Thomas Robert Green Welch was born July 10, 1835 in Shepton, Mallet, England. He received a good education for his time and after his school days, he was apprenticed at the dry good business. This he mastered and went to Brighton, a seaport resort, to work. Harriet Nash was born April 17, 1831 at Horsted Kains, England. Harriet, being the eldest of 13 children had to work away from home at any early age to help support the family. She had wonderful training as a housekeeper and cook in the families of the rich. She had very little schooling. She secured a nice position with a Jewish family in the beautiful seashore city of Brighton, about fifty miles from her home in London At age 22 she began investigating the Gospel and was baptized October 1, 1853. About the same time, Thomas accepted the gospel and was baptized September 24, 1854. Thomas and Harriet met and began courting and were married August 27, 1855. In July 25, 1856 a son blessed their home, whom they named Thomas Friday. The spirit of gathering touched their hearts and they began saving for their passage to join the Saints in America. On Saturday, March 28, 1857 they sailed from Liverpool, England on the ship "George Washington". After 3 weeks on the ocean they arrived in Boston, then on to Iowa City to be fitted out for the trip across the plains. Here they learned they could not bring all the household items with them that they brought from England, so many had to be eliminated. When they came to Harri~ dishes she pleaded to take them along for her new home in Zion. " You can take them but you'll have to walk", she was told. So she gathered her young son in her arms and set out walking while Thomas drove a team of oxen with their heavy loaded wagon. They came in Captain Jesse B. Martin's company. Harriet walked all the way and waded every stream except the Platte River, which the company crossed on a ferry boat. She carried her one-year old child on her back almost the entire distance. After a trek of 1,300 miles they arrived in their new home in Zion on September 12, 1857. At last they were with the Saints. Their dream of being sealed as a family was accomplished on April 25, 1860 when they went to the Endowment house and was sealed by President Brigham Young. They came into Weber Valley in 1860 and lived the winter in a log cabin owned by Jesse C. Little. Food was very scarce and they lived mainly on boiled wheat. The next surruner Thomas and a friend William Hemming put part of a sack of wheat on their backs and walked over the mountains from Morgan to Farmington to get wheat ground to make bread. There was not, nor has there ever been a road over these mountains and he was gone so long that his children thought he would never come back home. In 1862 a town was built at the mouth of Monday Town Hollow, which was owned by T. R. G. Welch and donated by him for the town. A post office was established and Thomas was appointed postmaster by Abraham Lincoln 1863. He served until 1868 at a salary of $8.00 a year. Monday Town was so named because it was Monday when the first settlers moved there. Thomas and Harriet lived at Welch's comer until some time in 1866 when they moved into the town that Thomas helped establish, Morgan, Utah, where they were to spend the rest of their lives. As time went on and they came in contact with other settlers he was loving called T. R.G. T.R.G. And Richard Fry contracted for a portion of the Union Pacific Railroad. T. R. G. was the book-keeper of the company. This was the source of much needed revenue. They were the parents of nine children, three of them dying in infancy. • • • T. R..G. Served in many capacities. Assessor and collector for Morgan County from 1867 to 1874, road commissioner from 1869 to 1872. City recorder from 1868 to 1884. County Superintendent of Schools for 6 years, fruit tree and bee inspector for 2 years, and a member of the Committee on Municipal Laws for 16 years. He was a staunch Republican and was a State committeeman from Morgan County from 1892 to 1898. He was an officer of the Third House in the State Legislature of 1896. They were both actively engaged in the Church affairs. Harriet was chosen treasurer of the first Morgan City Branch Relief Society which was organized by President Brigham Young. When the Stake Primary was organized in 1880, she was chosen president. It was during this period that her heart was touched and she heard her beloved Primary children singing. "Open The Door to the Children." At this time she Lord inspired her to help emigrant children belonging to the Church to have the opportunity to come to Zion. With her Primary children including her own grandchildren, she went into the fields as Ruth of old, where she gathered the grain trampled under the horses' hoof and the binder wheels. The revenue from this was used to bring many children converts from other lands to Zion. Besides having nine children, she took in many unfortunate children and raised three of them as her own. She was to continue as Stake Primary President until her passing. T. R. G. Welch was an educated man for his time filling many positions of trust. He was respected and loved by all who knew him. He was an excellent provider and after the first few years of hardship always had plenty for his family to eat and wear. He was very exemplary in his habit and never used bad language. He was a gentleman in very deed. Harriet was a kindly mother, but during some of those early years she told her sons she was going to sell them to the rag man because their clothes were so worn. It was after they moved to Morgan that Harriet got her stove after she had cooked with a bake kettle over a fireplace for seven years. Their home on the main street of Morgan City was neat and the grounds were kept in fine condition. Many General Authorities stayed at their home when they came to Morgan. Harriet was sick for number of years before death came on September 24, 1894. She was 63 years old. She was so beloved by children and all that she was literally buried in a grave of flowers brought from all over Morgan. Two years after Harriet's death T. R. G. Welch married again. To a widow named Mary Jane Cook Toomer. He was released from his call as Tithing Clerk and in 1906 after 29 years of service was released from the Stake High Council. He had lived in Morgan for sixty-five years and in ever sense of the word he was a founder pioneer and most of all a father. Death came following a heart attack when he was 81 years old. He was reunited with his wife he loved so dearly and whom he had not seen for 22 years. And now the remains of both of them lay side by side in the South Morgan Cemetery. Emma Loo Welch Bell a great grand daughter. November 11, 2006 06n,e.. $· ;e., in formahol\. a-Isa -±ueui.;heJ '\>y--:&qbel/e lJ0lc1t &--fka,.s wr-·,~A I cr3't • • • I Thomas Robert Green Welch My father, Thomas Robert Green Welch, was the son of Robert Welch, who was born May 11 , 1805, at Shepton Mallet, Somersetshire, England, and Isabella Friday, who was born March 27, 1815, at Shepton Mallet, also. Father was born July 10, 1835, at Shepton. He received a good education for his time and after his school days he apprenticed at the Dry Goods Business; this he mastered and went to Brighton, a seaside resort, to work. While there he came in contact with Mormon Elders and accepted the gospel in 1854. He was baptized by Elder William Driver, who after coming to America lived in Ogden. My mother, Harriet Nash, had previously accepted the gospel. My father and mother were married August 27, 1855. On July 25, 1856, a son was born; they gave him the name of Thomas Friday. On March 28, 1857, they set sail for America on the ship George Washington, with 817 Saints on board, under the direction of James P. Park. They came to Boston and from there by rail to the place of fitting out for the trip across the plains. They arrived in Salt Lake City, September 12, 1857, under the leadership of Jesse B. Martin. Father joined the Nauvoo Legion and went to Echo Canyon to assist in keeping the soldiers out of Utah and Mother went south with the "Move," as it was called. After coming back from Echo Canyon, Father went south and found his wife and they returned to Salt Lake City. In 1860, Father went up into Weber Valley to work for Jesse C. Little, who was Bishop Hunter's Counselor. He left Mother in the city, where on October 4, 1860, Charley was born. When he was six weeks old, Father took Mother up in the valley where he had worked and they first lived in what was afterward called Littleton. Later they moved onto the farm known as Welch's Corner where they lived until 1866 when they moved to Morgan. He was associated with Richard Fry on a contract for a portion of the Union Pacific Railroad. He was the bookkeeper of that company. He was postmaster at Morgan from 1863 to 1868, at a salary of eight dollars per year. He was tithing clerk from 1864 to 1900, clerk and recorder of Morgan County from 1864 to 1871. He also served as Assessor and Collector of the County from 1867 to 1874 and County Road Commissioner from 1869 to 1872. He was County Superintendent of Schools for six years. He drew the plans and supervised the construction of the City and County Building; was fruit tree and bee inspector for two years; was City Recorder from 1868 to 1884; was a member of the Committee on Municipal Laws for sixteen years. He was a staunch Republican in politics and was a State Committeeman from Morgan County from 1892 to 1898. He was an officer of the Third House in the State Legislature of 1896. In religious affairs he was a committeeman with W.W. Cluff to select the officers for the Morgan Stake of Zion which was organized July 1, 1877. He was Sunday School Superintendent of the South Morgan Ward in early days. He was a member of the State Board of Education and Director and Secretary for six years; was secretary of the Church Association of the Morgan Stake from 1886 to 1894. He was President of the Elders Quorum from 1874 to 1877. He was a member of the High Council of the Morgan Stake of Zion from 1877 to 1906 . • • • On September 25, 1894 his wife, Harriet Nash Welch, died and two years later he married a widow, Mary Jane Toomer. He was the father of nine children and at his death had 35 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. He died of heart failure at the age of eighty-one years. He was an educated man for his times and filled many positions of trust. He was respected and loved by all who knew him. He was an excellent provider and after the first few years of hardship always had plenty for his family to eat and wear. He was very exemplary in his habits and never used bad language of any kind. I never remember of hearing him swear in any manner, for he was a gentleman in every deed. His home on the main street in Morgan City was always the neatest in the whole county and the grounds surrounding it were kept in fine condition. He planted beautiful lawns, flowers, roses and trees and had them growing about his ground before other home-makers thought it could be done. Whenever any of the General Authorities of the Church came to Morgan, they always stayed at his home or paid him a visit. His wife, Harriet Nash Welch, was a Primary officer for twenty years. Father was a member of the High Council of the Morgan Stake of Zion for twenty-nine years and kept the tithing books for thirty-five years. He died as he had lived, firm in the Faith which he had espoused in a foreign land in the days of his youth, for which he had sacrificed the society of all his relatives, for none of his kindred as far as I know, have ever joined the Church. He was buried in the South Morgan Cemetery by the side of his first wife, who had preceded him in death by twenty-two years. Written in 1934 by Isabelle Welch Butters t.red ·.+ 9iv-e.11 .,.~ ai--+~c-l-.e.. !:: rrn,, .... ()._ Lo"'- Be. II f- • • • |
