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SYLVESTER H. WELCH, M.D.
Vol. 3, p. 983-84

The medical profession of Woods County is ably and worthily
represented at Dacoma by Dr. Sylvester H. Welch, who has been engaged
in practice here since 1905 and has attracted to himself a
representative practice trough the possession of more than ordinary
talent. Like many other members of the Oklahoma medical fraternity,
Doctor Welch attained his own education, and the success which he has
gained has been entirely the result of his own efforts.

Doctor Welch was born January 28, 1883, on a farm in Allen County,
Kentucky, and is a son of Anthony and Mary L. (READ) Welch, and a
grandson of Sylvester H. and Martha L. (READ) Welch. His grandfather,
a native of Indiana, moved in young manhood to Kentucky, where he was
married to a native of that state, and engaged in agricultural
pursuits, subsequently becoming the largest slaveholder in Allen
County and the owner of a large plantation. Anthony Welch was born at
Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky, January 30, 1854, and has been
engaged in farming all of his life in Kentucky, where he still
resides. he was married in 1878 to Mary L. Read, who was born August
26, 1854, on a plantation in Allen county, Kentucky, a daughter of
James A. and Jane (BERRY) Read, natives of Culpeper County, Virginia.
They have four children: Nellie, born February 19, 1879, who married
in 1897 Bernard GIGGS, a merchant of Scottsville, Kentucky, and has
two children, Thelma Sylvester and Gladys; Jack, who was born August
26, 1881, is single, and is assisting his father in his agricultural
operations; Dr. Sylvester H.; and Olivia, born March 5, 1886, lives
with her parents.

Sylvester H. Welch received his early education in the public
schools of Allen County, Kentucky, and in 1901 graduated from the
Portland (Tennessee) High School. In the same year he began the study
of medicine at Vanderilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, where he
paid for his tuition and expenses by working as college janitor, and
graduated with the class of 1905. So proficient was he in his studies
that he won the honors of a hospital appointment but because of
failing health did not accept this offer, although he easily passed
the examination of the State Board of Health of Kentucky. Looking for
a suitable location in the West he moved to New Mexico, but
conditions in that state did not appeal to him and in 1905 he came to
Oklahoma and located at Dacoma, where he subsequently passed the
examination of the state medical examining board, and was awarded the
third best grade in a class of twenty-two applicants for state
licenses. He has since built up a large and representative
professional business, and has advanced steadily to a leading
position among medical practitioners of Woods County. He is also the
owner of a flourishing drug business at Dacoma. Doctor Welch is a
member of the Woods County Medical Society, the Oklahoma State
Medical Society and the American medical Association. The high esteem
in which he is held by his fellow-practitioners has been evidenced by
his election to presidency of the county organization. Fraternally,
he is affiliated with the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. In all movements that have
made for better citizenship and better municipal conditions he has
played an active part.

On October 5, 1910, Doctor Welch was married to Miss Mabel Ann
AUSTIN, who was born January 10, 1889, on a farm in Pratt County,
Kansas, a daughter of Frank R. Austin, a native of Illinois, a
pioneer of the Cherokee Strip, where he settled at the opening,
September 16, 1893, and now a prosperous farmer of Alfalfa County,
Oklahoma. Doctor and Mrs. Welch are the parents of a son and a
daughter: Austin Read, born July 10, 1911; and Mary Winnifred, born
August 8, 1913.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Earline Sparks Barger, December 16, 1998.