SAMUEL FRANKLIN WELCH -- 118th INFANTRYMOVED TO ILLINOIS FROM ESSEX - Samuel Franklin Welch's greatgrandfather, Bazaleel Richardson, spent 14 days in 1780 in Col. EbenezerAllen's Vermont Militia. He was called out on alarms in March and Mayand received over ₤3 for his service and transportation. Samuel's timeto serve his country came when he was 18 and enlisted in the 118thInfantry in September 1864. The young mechanic, as he styled himself,received \$500 for enlisting.In August and September 1864, the 118th was still recruiting inPlattsburgh. Between March an the end of July of that year, over 300casualties had been incurred and the 25 men who had enlisted were sentstraight to Virginia and the battlefields along the James River betweenPetersburg and Richmond.The first battle for the newly-enlisted men was at Chaffin's Farm onOctober 29th where one of his comrades were wounded. At Second FairOaks a month later, two of the new men were captured. Samuel managed toremain unscathed until after the Fall of Petersburg and was mustered outwith his company on June 13, 1865.Samuel came home to Essex to live with his parents and by 1870 had movedto Marseilles, IL, a manufacturing community about 75 miles southwest ofChicago. He married Adaline Thompson in 1870 and when she died, hemarried Lulu Marshall. When his mother, Mary Winslow, died in 1879, hisfather, Abram moved to Illinois. By 1910, Samuel was a superintendent ofa factory in Aurora, IL, a few miles closer to Chicago. He died in 1923and was buried under the same stone as his first wife in the Spring LakeCemetery in Aurora. Lulu died in 1939 and was buried in the same plot.
