Edwin Welch, Jr.
Edwin Welch Jr. was born to Edwin Welch Sr. and Annie Welch on February 19th, 1895 in Kings, Brooklyn, New York. Edwin was the only boy of the couple’s six children. The family lived in Brooklyn Ward 17, at 638 Leonard St. While we do not have a picture of Edwin, he was tall, slender, and on the fairer side, with brown eyes and black hair. On June 5th, 1917, Edwin with no job or dependents enlisted in the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).
On September 5th, 1917, Edwin married Emily Jordan Kaltenbach. Emily, at the time, lived in Teaneck on Congress Ave with her parents. They had a son, Edwin Welch.
Edwin was formally inducted into the AEF on September 21st, 1917, and was assigned to the 302nd Engineers Regiment of the 77th Infantry Division. He started his training in Camp Upton, NY and was made part of Company E. The regiment even got to join the Division in the march down Fifth Avenue in New York City in honor of President Washington’s birthday, with the engineers at the head of the column.
In the middle of the night of March 28th or 29th, the 302nd took the R.M.S. Carmania from Manhattan and docked in Liverpool early in the morning of April 12th. On April 14th, after crossing the strait of Dover and landing in Calais, France, the Regiment moved south into France, before breaking off in all directions. Overseas, Edwin’s tasks included opening roads and supply lines, constructing the bridges, creating obstacles for the enemy, making trenches, and fighting at the front. He, along with the Regiment, fought and worked in the Baccarat and Vesle Sectors of the Western Front, including fighting in the Argonne Forest during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
On November 7th, 1918, the regiment under direct fire, was building a footbridge across the Meuse River. Four days before the Armistice, Pvt. Edwin Welch Jr. was hit. He was most likely buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. On March 26th, 1921, Edwin’s remains were reinterred into the National Plot at the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.
Ancestry.com
- New York, New York, Birth Index, 1878-1909
- 1900 United States Federal Census
- New York, State Census, 1905
- 1910 United States Federal Census
- New York, State Census, 1915
- U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
- U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939 (3/29/1918)
- New York, New York, Marriage Index 1866-1937
- New York, Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919
- U.S., National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962
- U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca. 1775-2006
- 1920 United States Federal Census of Emily Welch (wife)
- 1930 United States Federal Census of Emily Vogt (wife)
Genealogy Center
Find A Grave Website
- Pvt Edwin Welch, Jr
- Pvt. Edwin Welch Jr., who was killed in action on the day the war ended, Nov. 11, 1918, as a member of the 302 Engineers, will be buried in the National Plot at the Cypress Hills Cemetery next Saturday. The funeral services will be in charge of the Greenpoint Post of the American Legion and the Corp. R. V. Nolte Post of the Veterans of Forgien Wars who will accord the body full military honors. From: FUNERAL SERVICES HELD FOR BROOKLYN WORLD WAR HEROES Military Honors Accorded Veterans Whose Bodies Were Returned To U. S. on Somme. - Brooklyn Eagle Monday March 21, 1921