Lue Bert Welch (1925)

WELCH, MARSTON, SANDS

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler, Volunteer (email)
Date: 11/24/2014 at 14:27:58

Earlham Echo – Earlham, Iowa
July 23, 1925

Dexter Man Dies as Auto Overturns

Bert Welch, brother of S. C. Welch of Earlham, and well known in this community and Dexter, was instantly killed Sunday evening when the Ford car which he was driving turned over, pinning Mr. Welch down and breaking his neck.

Mr. Welch had been seen at Dexfield Park but a few minutes before the accident and it is supposed that he was returning to his work on a farm south of Dexter when the accident occurred. The car and Mr. Welch’s body were found about a mile and a half south of Dexter at the foot of a hill near a culvert. Just how the accident happened will probably never be known. It may be that a tire blew out at the foot of the hill overturning the car. The hill where the accident occurred is not a steep one, but steep enough to warrant the driver of a car speeding up his engine enough to take the grade. As Mr. Welch crossed the culvert the car may have been traveling at a high rate of speed, striking a bump and cramping the front wheels so as to cause the blowout and throw the car into the ditch.

Mr. Welch was a widower and leaves to morn his loss a son Harvey, 18 years old, and brothers S. C. Welch of Earlham, P. W. Welch, of Des Moines, Mart Welch of Knoxville, and a sister Mrs. Donn Marston.
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Earlham Echo – Earlham, Iowa
July 23, 1925

Life is beautiful. Life is welcome. We welcome spring because it comes bringing life. Life here at best is but a span; a few days of pleasure and pain; a few days of tear and joy and sorrow. And then comes Death. Death to the Christian is but a gate opening into a larger and more beautiful life. A life that is all joys and blessedness—life without an end.

Death comes to some as a release from long and weary days of toil and suffering and to others as a sudden and unexpected summons while we are in the midst of the enjoyment of life or busy with the duties and cares. And as such it came to Lue Bert Welch on July 19, 1925, at Dexter, Iowa, and it leaves us asking, “Why? Why?”

Lue Bert, one of eight children born to Albert and Clarissa Welch, was born at Dexter, Iowa, on January 18, 1869. Here he received his education in the Dexter schools, grew to manhood and spent all but five years of his life.

He was married to Mary Sands on May 20, 1895, which was the beginning of a companionship that deepened and ripened with the passing of twenty-six years. But on January 12, 1921, the wife was called from his side and the home, and Bert with the only child and son Harvey, was left to travel the rest of the way in loneliness.

Bert was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church and remained a member until his death.

He was a kind husband and father and a good neighbor. He lived a clean, upright life.

At the close of the Sabbath Day, for the coming week, he met death while enroute to his place of labor suddenly and unexpectedly—and some would say, alone. But he was not alone. Our Father who watches over us all was there and we can trust His love and care.

Lue Bert Welch had 56 years, 6 months and one day to live in our midst and make a place for himself in the love and confidence of his neighbors and relatives.

In his death he leaves a son Harvey, the mother, three brothers, Mart of Knoxville, Iowa, S. C. of Earlham, and P. W. of Des Moines, one sister Mrs. Dona Marston of Des Moines and many other relatives.

Wm. Stanley, James Hammond, C. W. Houck, Len Moore, Glenn Griswold and Loren Gowin acted as pall bearers. Funeral services were held at the Methodist Church at Dexter Tuesday. Interment was in Dexter Cemetery.