California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


CHARLES M. WELCH, an honored agriculturist and stock-raiser owning two hundred and 
ninety-seven acres of land devoted to diversified farming, has worked his way from a small be- 
ginning, and is entitled to the credit due all deserving and persevering men. Mr. Welch is a 
native of California, being born near Waterford, Stanislaus county, October 25, 1868, a son of 
Charles E. and Sarah E. (Ramsey) Welch, California pioneers of 1852, the former a native of 
Maine, and the latter of Missouri. 

Philip Welch, the grandfather of Charles M., also was born in Maine, and was a man of pro- 
nounced courage and ambition, as were all of the California pioneers of 1849. Leaving a well- 
tilled and paying farm, he embarked on a steamer to the Isthmus of Panama, crossing which he re- 
embarked for San Francisco, finally locating in Tuolumne county, where he achieved fair success 
as a miner. Charles E., his son, in 1852 gathered together his belongings and joined his father on 
the, coast, journeying hither by the same route, and riding across the Isthmus on a mule. He 
also succeeded as a miner, and eventually settled near Waterford, Stanislaus county, where he 
owned a thousand acres of land, and rented the Hartley ranch of three thousand acres, for three 
years. He was married in Stanislaus county to Sarah E. Ramsey. He operated on a large scale 
in both stock and grain raising, leaving a competency to his family at the time of his death in 
San Francisco, at the age of fifty-seven. 

Educated in the public schools of Stanislaus county, and at the Stockton Business College, 
Charles M. Welch grew into a knowledge of general farming, of which his father had made a 
success. He assisted with the work of the home and Hartley ranches for three years. In 1900 
he went to Kings county and farmed a couple of years, and during that time purchased his present 
ranch of two hundred and ninety-seven acres, one hundred of which consists of rich bottom- 
land, and upon which he located in 1903. Already his ranch shows the effort which he is ex- 
pending upon it, and while he has the advantage of the work of former owners, his methods are 
more progressive, scientific, and practical, having behind them a younger brain and more vigorous 
physique. In 1898 Mr. Welch married Anna Feldhaus, daughter of John Feldhaus, and born 
in Merced county. Two children have been born into their home, Arlita and Lorina. Mr. Welch 
has never aspired to political office, although he is an active Democrat, having the greatest con- 
fidence in the tenets of his chosen party. He is gifted with an agreeable and jovial nature, a 
keen sympathy for those less fortunate than himself and a generous heart for the deserving and 
temporarily embarrassed. Mr. Welch is one of the popular and successful men of the vicinity 
of Snelling.