John W. Walch of the Wichita & Western Railway

John W. Walch, the seventh child of Stephen Walch and Elisabeth Charnock, was born on the 27th of December 1854 in Connecticut and grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. In about 1877, John, 23, married Ella, 22, a native New Yorker. In 1880 after most of his siblings had gone to Kansas, John remained and is believed to be the “John Walsh” working as a machinist in the carpet mill and living at 6 Jones Place in Yonkers. John and Ella had three children in New York: Olive May in about 1878, Elizabeth Etta in 1879 and Mamie E. in 1882. Olive is believed to have died in early childhood.

John and Ella moved to Kansas sometime between July 1882 and the birth of their next child Eleanor "Elia" B. Walch on August 1885. The 1888 City Directory of Wichita list John living at 1030 S. Lawrence St. and working as a machinist for the Wichita & Western Railway. His grandson, Jack A Walch, said he heard that many of the Walch men worked for the railways at one time or another. This was indeed the height of railroad building throughout Kansas. The Wichita & Western Railway connected Wichita to Winfield, a route that John no doubt knew well given that his brother John lived there and he eventually would move there too.

It is not known if John participated in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. If he was still working for the W&W, federal law would have made him ineligible, a fact that many railway workers overlooked. There were many railroad men among the Sooners, the name given to the Oklahomans who occupied land ‘sooner’ than others who followed the law and Land Rush rules. It's a curious thing that Oklahomans are proud of their Sooner status. Without a euphemism, would they be equally proud of their college football team if they were known as the Oklahoman Cheaters?

It was said that John was a member of the Masonic Lodge, as were the Walch ancestors and Walch men at that time. Their membership in the Masons was apropos given that modern Freemason springs from the medieval stonemason guilds. Some say the ‘free’ part of Freemason referrers to the masons who worked with even-grained limestone, called freestone. Of course, Masonic membership was later open to non-stonemasons; and the focus shifted from trade secrets to ancient wisdom. But the Walchs, still ingrained in the practice of stonemasonry, most likely felt a deeper sense of belonging to the membership.

John died on May 18, 1893 in a railway accident at the early age of 38. He left his wife, Ella, 37, and five children ranging from about 11 to 3 years of age: Elizabeth, Maime, Elia, Artie, and Earl. Ella remarried about a year later to John W. Gilliland, who had at least 4 children of his own. The combined family lived at 602 South Street in Winfield. Ella died on November 28, 1910, just 13 days before her 57th birthday.

Both John and Ella were buried in the Union Cemetery in Winfield. Their grave marker is a large ornate stone obelisk with a carved ball on top. Given that John and Ella were not likely financially well-off, it is quite possible that Brother James had a hand in arranging for the obelisk if not directly fashioning it himself.

Incidentally, the Wichita & Western Railway Co. was sold in 1898 on foreclosure to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway five years after John's death.

I was able to track down a few of John's descendents but have not been able to find a photograph of him yet. The photograph above is a historic picture of a Wichita train depot.