| Notes |
- The large Welbon family -- 12 children actually made the trip with their parents.
They arrived in Detroit from England in the spring of 1854, after a harrowing three-month voyage by sailing vessel, becalmed for days at a time in the Atlantic.
Bread baked for the trip turned mouldy and fresh water ran dangerously low.
When the pale and drawn family faced the American immigration inspectors, their mother pinched the cheeks of 14-year old Isaac and 13-year old Henry, to put a healthy color into them and lessen the possibility the family would be rejected as sickly.
Once ashore, the Welbons proceeded by sailing vessel up the Hudson River to Albany, thence along the Erie Canal by mule-drawn barge to Buffalo, and finally by sail again to Detroit.
There they were met by the two oldest sons, who had preceded the rest of the family by a year to prepare the way.
Their first impression of Detroit was of a sea of mud, so different from the tidy lanes and hedgerows of Lincolnshire.
Disaster struck at once. In a few days one of the older sons was killed in an accident on what is now the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. A few weeks later a cholera epidemic took the lives of the father and another of the older sons. The family bravely re-grouped and struggled on, living on Croghan Street, now Monroe, on the near east-side, and worshipping faithfully at St. John's Episcopal Church, at Woodward and Vernor, then High Street.
Mrs. Welbon had learned midwifery in England and turned her hand to it again to help support the family. Life in the New World, with its sorrows and uncertainties, could not have seemed much better than the hard existence they had left as small tenant farmers in Lincolnshire, and more bitter experiences lay ahead.
But Isaac and Henry grew to young manhood and by 1860 were working as waiters aboard a Great Lakes passenger steamer where their older brother was the steward. Isaac was 24, 5 feet 6 inches in height, and had a light complexion with light hair and blue eyes.
Henry, a year younger, was 5 feet 8 ½ inches in height and had a light complexion with brown hair and brown eyes.
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Isaac Welbon
Residence: Detroit, Michigan
Service Record:
Enlisted as a Private on 29 September 1862 at the age of 22
Enlisted in Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment Michigan on 29 September 1862.
Reenlisted in Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment Michigan on 21 December 1863
Promoted to Full Corporal on 01 May 1865
Mustered out Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment Michigan on 08 July 1865 in Jeffersonville, IN
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Corporal Isaac Welbon continued on to the end of the Civil War, cooking for his teamsters at the 1st Division headquarters. He participated in the Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac in Washington, D.C., on May 23, 1865, and on the 25th of July, in Jackson, Michigan, was paid off and discharged, having been promoted at the very end to Sergeant.
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1870 census:
Welbon, Isaac, 32, M, W, Laborer, $1000 R.E./$300 Peronal, b. England
", Mary J., 20, F, W, Keeping House, b. Canada
", Mary, 5 months, F, W, b. Feb. 1870
9th Ward Detroit, Wayne Co., Michigan (Roll 715, Book 1, Pg. 308b).
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1880 census:
Isaac WELBON Self M Male W 41 ENG Works In Jewlery Store ENG ENG
Mary J. WELBON Wife M Female W 31 CAN Keeping House IRE IRE
Dolley WELBON Dau S Female W 10 MI At School ENG IRE
Frank G. WELBON Son S Male W 8 MI ENG IRE
Hugh H. WELBON Son S Male W 6 MI ENG IRE
Ira W. WELBON Son S Male W 1 MI ENG IRE
Minnie BLAMASTER Other S Female W 14 MI Servant GER GER
Census Place 12th Ward, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan
Family History Library Film 1254614
NA Film Number T9-0614
Page Number 482A
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Davis Uriah I | Born 1707
1839 - Yes, date unknown