Inc. 1967
Military rites were held Thursday,December 20,1945 at Belle Vernon for Captain William D. "Bill" Welch,aged former pilot on the Monongahela River and one of the oldest,perhaps the oldest,of the few remaining veterans of the Civil War in the country. Captain Bill died Saturday, December 15,1945,in Cincinnati, where he had lived since the death of his third wife several years ago. Before that he and his wife lived on a house boat at Dunlevy. According to his friends it was hard to "pin Bill down" to his age,but his claims ranged from 113 to 116 years. He boasted he would take no "back seat" for any kind of pilot when he was 99. His claim of being the oldest licensed pilot on inland waters was based on 75 years of service on the Monongahela,Ohio and Mississippi rivers,during which he came reputedly to know "every lock, dam, shoal and snag between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. When his houseboat came to grief in Monongahela ice several winters ago and welfare authorities sought to move him and his wife from their shack on the bank,Welch was determined the "man and boy, I've lived on this river, and I won't leave her now." "No charity," he was adamant,"and no leavin' the river." And so captain bill came back to his first love, the Monongahela,says a story from Charleroi,where he was widely known.
Your condolences will be posted here.