Another Methodist amongst Us – John Wesley Walch

I received several e-mails from Walch kin, two of which I would like to share with you now, both from the great granddaughters of John W. Walch. Their father, John Arnett Walch, died this April at the age of 92 in Seiling, Oklahoma. I talked to him by phone a few years ago. He was very helpful in providing family background information, including the fact that the family sometimes used the name Welch when they lived in New York. It was this tip that helped me locate them in census records. Jack also put me in contact via e-mail with his daughter Barbara Ann Walch of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, who provided more information.

I recently came across Jack's obituary on the Internet which prompted me to write to Barbara to assure that I still had a connection to this branch of the family. She e-mailed me back today as did her sister Mary Louise Walch of Charlotte, North Carolina. Mary Lou provided some additional information about her grandfather Earl Walch and her father Jack. I'll include it in brief biographies of them which will be subjects of future blogs. But for now I like to share a bit of Mary Lou's correspondence: “Our grandfather is Earl “Pop” Leslie Walch who lived in Cherokee Oklahoma… [And in regard to his father John W. Walch], I thought his name was John Wesley Walch, and that he was known as ‘Little Jack’. Curiously, our families are still Methodist, and it was very interesting to read all the Methodist connection." Mary Lou went on to say that she never thought there were any other Walch kin in the world so she found this history quite interesting.

Of course, we all know that John Wesley (1703-1791) was a famous Anglican minister and theologian, and an early leader in the Methodist movement, (See photo above). So, we now know that Elisabeth Charnock Walch did not name one but two of her sons after famous Methodist leaders.

One time I said that Fletcher was a name that we should keep in circulation in the family. Wesley is another one -- although Wesley Walch seems a bit too alliterated. In most branches of the family that combination would not occur, for with the passing of John Arnett Walch only one branch of the Walch family tree now bears the surname Walch, that branch being the descendents of William Fletcher Walch.

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I have one more blog to finish on the first generation of Kansas Walchs. I'll then turn my attention to the next generation of cousins, which is my grandfather's generation. I will then add a few miscellaneous biographies to complete the Walch family history. Hopefully some of you will help in this endeavor.

As we move closer to current generations I will be more cautious about personal information, given security problems created by the Internet. Of course any good conman or identity thief can learn almost anything about you from existing and readily available information on the Internet. But I don't want to add to it. So I will only use the maiden names of living Walch cousins in this phase of the history. If you want to communicate with any of them, e-mail me and I'll make the connection.