Charles Clark Welch was an American miner, railroad builder, and capitalist.
Background
Charles Clark Welch was of English, Scotch, and French descent. Among his ancestors on his father's side were Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower and Maj. John Mason of Connecticut. On the maternal side he came of French ancestry, the first American representative being one of the founders of Providence, R. I. His parents, Charles and Pamelia (La Valley or La Valle) Welch, lived on a farm in Jefferson County, N. Y. , at the time of their son's birth. On this farm and at the village school young Charles spent his childhood.
Education
At the age of fifteen he entered the academy at Watertown.
Career
After receiving some training at the academy at Watertown he took up teaching. Stories of gold discoveries lured him in 1850 to California, where he engaged for two years in placer and quartz mining in Placer County. Then Australian gold fields beckoned, and he sailed to Sydney. After mining for a year in New South Wales he returned to New York, via Cape Horn. Presently he moved westward, seeking business opportunities, and settled in Chicago in 1855. The succeeding five years were spent in the real estate and brokerage business. In 1860, lured by mining opportunities, he crossed the plains by stagecoach to Colorado, where he was to make his permanent home. Building on experience, gained in California and Australia, he engaged successfully in gold mining in Gilpin and Boulder counties, operating extensive properties. Then he branched out into other lines. He ran sawmills, operated a tannery and a fire brick plant at Golden, and constructed irrigation ditches. He crossed the plains between Denver and the Missouri River nineteen times during the stagecoach era. Becoming interested in railroads, he was one of the promoters of the Colorado Central Railroad, which was extended west from Golden to the mines and north to a connection with the Union Pacific at Cheyenne. He also built a portion of the Santa Fé line east of Pueblo, Colo. At Louisville, Boulder County, he sank a 200-foot shaft, found a ten-foot vein of coal, and opened and operated the "Welch Mine, " which became a large and steady producer. In 1878 he organized an irrigation company and built the Handy Ditch in Larimer County. In the country served by this canal he procured extensive acreage and became a large producer of grain. In 1880 he built the Welch Irrigation Ditch, constructing flumes in Clear Creek Canyon to bring water onto the bench lands northeast of Denver. In 1891 he was one of the promoters of the road that became the electric trolley line between Denver and Golden. In 1872 Welch was elected to the Colorado territorial legislature from Jefferson County. He introduced the bill for the establishment of the State School of Mines at Golden and donated the ground for the first building. For many years he served on the board of trustees of the institution. He died in Jacksonville, Fla. , where he had gone seeking a restoration of health; his body was returned to Colorado for burial.
Achievements
It is scarcely possible that there was a man in Colorado whose varied business and industrial affairs covered a wider range, or who had been more active in developing the material interests of the State than Mr. Welch.
Connections
On May 22, 1878, he married Rebecca Jeannette Darrow of Coldwater, Mich. , by whom he had two children.
