John Welch (JW) was born in 1805 in Harrison County, Ohio. He taught for a few years at the local school, but left for Athens County in 1828. Once there he and his brother Thomas Welch bought the "Beebe Mill" in Rome township, Ohio. JW worked at the mill while studying law with Ohio University professor Joseph Dana. Admitted to the bar in 1833, JW worked as a prosecuting attorney and as a member of the state legislature until becoming a representative in Congress from 1851-52. In 1862 JW was appointed a judge to the common pleas court, where he stayed until being appointed to the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1865. During his lifetime he also served as Rome township clerk in 1832, a member of the State Senate from 1846-47, a Trustee of Ohio University starting in 1848, and was elected mayor of Nelsonville in 1868. He was also an outspoken participant at the 1878 Republican State Convention in Cincinnati, where he declared that the Republican Party wasn't dead, just "slumbering." He married his wife Martha Starr on June 13, 1830, and had five children. He died in 1891.
From the guide to the John Welch papers, 1838-1872, (Ohio University)
