WILLIAM J. WELBURN

William James Welburn

William James Welburn, the oldest child of George & Mary, was born circa 1834 in the farming community of Roxana. He was enumerated in the household of George Welburn in 1840 and by name makes his first and only census appearance in 1850.

On 2/16/1857 William wed widow (or divorcee) Hetty A. Hall-Melvin at the home of her father Charles Hall. The ceremony was presided over by a local white Baptist minister named Rev. Lemuel Hall. Hetty's daughter Mary A. (maiden name Hall or Melvin) Medford was born May 5, 1850.

There were 5 children born during the marriage:

• Maria Elizabeth Welburn (Nov. 1857)
• Hannah Kate Welburn-Drew-Hood-Bounds (April 1860)
• George Lane Welburn (July 1863)
• Hetty Welburn (c. 1863)
• William James Sherman Welburn (Feb. 1865)

On October 19, 1864, 3 years after the Civil War began, William J. Welburn was drafted into the Union army at Wilmington, Delaware. He served with Company H of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry. His CMSR described him as 28 years of age, 5'7" in height, with black complexion, hair & eyes. He was admitted to the Post Hospital at Brownsville, Texas with "febris remitt", or a remittent fever, and died 5 weeks later on August 23, 1865. He never met his youngest child William.

After learning of William's death, Hetty left her young children in the care of various Welburn & Hall relatives while she found domestic work in Philadelphia, PA. Mary, Maria, and even Hannah Kate eventually joined her. When Hetty returned to the Baltimore Hundred she was able to establish an estate that at one time was as large as 70 acres and was one of few Welburns at the time who had written a last will and testament. Hetty A. Hall-Melvin-Welburn died July 11, 1912. at the age of 76.