Class of 1903

Birth: Mar. 9, 1885
Death: Dec. 2, 1973

Parents:
Benjamin Franklin Welsh (1858-1890)
Mary Ella Barrier (1861-1928)

Sibling:
Annie Welsh Long (1881-1919)

Spouse: Roy Webster

Burial:
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Cemetery
Mount Pleasant, Cabarrus County, North Carolina, USA

Source: www.findagrave.com, # 150956379.

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The Concord Times (Concord, NC), 3 Jul 1913, p. 1.

MARRIAGE IN MT. PLEASANT
Miss Emma [sic] Welsh Becomes the Bride of Mr. Roy Webster

Mt. Pleasant, July 3. – Married last night at 10 o’clock at the home of the bride, Miss Elma Welsh and Mr. Roy Webster, Rev. R. A. Goodman officiating. This is the simple story of a very quiet home wedding, but it is the culmination of a pretty romance and carries with it a genuine surprise for the friends of these popular young people. Thirty minutes before the ceremony a few nearby friends were invited to the home of Miss Welsh where promptly on the hour the words were pronounced that joined the fortunes of two lives.

The bride is one of Mt. Pleasant’s most successful and popular young ladies, the daughter of Mrs. M. E. Welsh. Mr. Webster, formerly a member of the faculty of the Collegiate Institute, is a young lawyer of Gaffney, S. C., and is fast rising in his profession.

Mr. and Mrs. Webster are expecting to leave for their home in Gaffney, S. C., today.

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Unidentified newspaper

MRS. ELMA WELSH WEBSTER

MT. PLEASANT, N.C.: Mrs. Elma Welsh Webster, age 88, of Mt. Pleasant, N.C. passed away Sunday, Dec. 2, 1973 in a Charlotte nursing center. She was born March 9, 1886 in Lancaster, S. C., daughter of the late Benjamin and Mary Barrier Welsh. She was a former school teacher. Funeral services will be Tuesday, Dec. 4, 1973 at 3 p.m. in the Lutheran Church of The Holy Trinity, Mt. Pleasant. Pastor Donald Deal officiating. Burial in the church cemetery. Her husband, the late Major Roy Webster, died Oct. 1973. She is survived by one brother, Dennis B. Welsh of Miami, Fla. The body will remain at Gordon Penninger Funeral Home until taken to the church at the funeral hour.

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The following narrative is from Ben Callahan, Eastern Cabarrus Historical Society, 28 Nov 2017.

She was the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Welsh and Mary Ella Barrier. B. F. Welsh came from a prominent SC family and entered NC College in 1874 and had quite a college “career.” He was disciplined for “going on the roof and singing” and just after the school opened in 1875 he was put on probation for possessing a knife. He was later expelled but not before he apparently met his future wife, Mary Barrier. Mary was the daughter of a very prominent MP resident, Daniel Barrier, and the niece of NC College benefactor, Mathias Barrier. George F. McAllister’s sister married Mary’s brother, Daniel Dixon Barrier.

In 1880 Benjamin was living in Lancaster, SC and was the editor of the “Review,” Mary and Benjamin were married in Lexington, SC in 1881. They had three children in Lexington between 1881 and 1889. Elma was born in 1885. Apparently Benjamin continued his wildness and killed a man in SC in 1885. In 1888, he was jailed in SC for assaulting Mary (his parents testified against him!). In 1890 Benjamin was jailed in Lancaster, SC for robbery and placed in jail. He died of delirium tremors in jail on 19 Nov 1890.

Mary and her children moved to MP sometime after 1890 and Mary operated a boarding house (either in the old Dreher house or in the house where Scott Barringer now lives). The 1900 census states that Elma was “in school” in 1900 but she began teaching public school in 1904 and continued into the 1930’s. She married Roy Webster in Mount Pleasant in 1913. She was the Principal at Mount Pleasant Graded school in 1918. Roy was also from SC but taught at MPCI in 1907 where he probably met Elma. He taught at MPCI until 1930 and then moved to MPHS where he was Principal and taught History until 1955. The couple never had any children and were one of MP’s most well known and oddest couples. They lived across the street from me in the 1950’s. Another great MP story.