Philip Henry Welch

Background

Philip Henry Welch was born at Angelica, N. Y. , the son of Joseph B. Welch and his wife, Mary Collins.

Education

He passed through the public schools at Angelica.

Career

He was employed for twelve years by a New York hardware firm, spending two-thirds of his time on the road. He joined his brother in Oil City, Pa. , and from there sent petroleum reports to Bradstreet's. In 1882 Welch went to Rochester, N. Y. , to conduct a column called "The Present Hour" in the Post-Express, and thereafter he devoted himself consistently to journalistic humor. In 1883 he left Rochester to spend a few months conducting a column called "Accidentally Overheard" in the Philadelphia Call, and then (1884) joined the staff of the New York Sun, with which he remained until his death. He had found his own particular vehicle in the short humorous dialogue, usually consisting of a single question and answer; into these tiny paragraphs he packed his dry wit and his easy, good natured satire on the follies of the day. His jokes in the Sun seemed to have been referred to as "Queer Wrinkles, " but they appeared anonymously and without a column heading. At the same time that he was grinding out his weekly stint for the Sun, Welch was sending similar material to Puck, Life, Judge, the Epoch, the Times, Drake's Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and other periodicals. His jokes were borrowed and stolen all over the country. Week after week the jokes in the San Francisco Argonaut, which copied its material from other papers, would be all or nearly all from his pen, though ascribed to many different papers, including some for which Welch had never written in his life. In 1886 Welch was attacked by a cancer in the throat, and was forced to undergo an operation which left his voice impaired. In the summer of 1888 the trouble returned, this time in his chest. A second operation was unsuccessful, and the surgeons did not dare attempt a third. His friends and associates of this time were filled with the deepest admiration of Welch's fortitude and indomitable spirit during these months when he was slowly dying of cancer. He continued to turn off dozens of jokes a week, finally dictating them to his wife when he could no longer write them himself. He died in his fortieth year at his home in Brooklyn and was buried at Angelica.

Achievements

• Through the efforts of Edward Perkins Clark of the Evening Post and Alfred Corning Clark, a Welch Memorial Fund was raised to provide for the education of the children. Contributions came from all over the country, ranging in amount from $1 to $10, 000; notable contributors were Lowell, Whittier, Mark Twain, and Theodore Roosevelt. During Welch's life he had published only one book, The Tailor-Made Girl (1888), a collection of page-length dialogues reprinted from Puck, gently satirizing the contemporary well-to-do young lady. As part of the campaign to raise money for the fund, friends now compiled an anthology of his shorter and more characteristic dialogues under the title of Said in Fun (1889); illustrations were contributed by most of the well-known humorous illustrators of the day, including W. L. Sheppard, C. D. Gibson, and F. Opper.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Said in Fun (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Said in Fun The jokes used in this book are...)

  • The Tailor Made Girl, Her Friends, Her Fashions and Her Follies - Primary Source Edition

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Connections

He had been married to Margaret Welles Hamilton, daughter of Theodore and Emily (Welles) Hamilton, of Angelica. There were four children.

Father:

Joseph B. Welch

Mother:

Mary Collins

Spouse:

Margaret Welles Hamilton