John/Martin Fausold Biography

M. L. Fausold, ex-county auditor of Westmoreland and a prominent citizen of Unity township, is a son of Hon. John and Ellen (Freeman) Fausold and was born in Mt. Pleasant township, Westmoreland County, PA., June 26 1853. The Fausolds are of German extraction. Casper Fausold (grandfather) emigrated from Germany to Bedford County, PA., from which he removed in 18l8 to Mt. Pleasant township. He kept a hotel on the old "Clay Pike" and his farm is still known as the Fausold place. He was a shoemaker by trade and a Lutheran in religious belief. He married a Miss Shaffer of Berks County, PA., by whom he had three children, one son and two daughters. This son was Hon, John Fausold, who was born in Bedford County, PA., December 23, 1808. He came with his parents to Mt. Pleasant township and at twenty years of age became a member of the Donegal Evangelical Church. He was a farmer by occupation but served in public life for fifty-five years. He was sequestrator of the Mt. Pleasant and Somerset turnpike' served creditably as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1846, 1847-1856, and 1857 and was appointed revenue commissioner in 1863 for the judicial district of Westmoreland, Indiana and Armstrong counties. He served as a school director for twenty-one years and held the office of Justice of the Peace for the last thirty-one years of his life. As a public official he commanded alike the respect of his political friends and foes. In 1853 he

married Ellen Freeman, who died in 1863. They had seven children, of whom two sons and two daughters are living.

Hon. John Fausold died November 14, 1884, aged seventy-six years, and a vast concourse of people were gathered to witness the entombment of his remains in Ridge church cemetery. An impressive and able funeral discourse upon that sad occasion was delivered by Rev. A. D. Potts, A. M. Eloquent extracts from this sermon and a fuller history of Hon. John Fausold, one of Westmoreland County's most prominent men, will be found in the sketch of H. F. Fausold, of Mount Pleasant township.

(from H. F. Fausold's sketch)

In 1846 he was elected to the state legislature and served in that capacity for five terms. In 1855 he was nominated for one of those terms of service, when the Democratic part of Westmoreland county, in order to save itself from threatened destruction by Know-Nothingism, selected Henry D. Foster, Harrison P. Laird and John Fausold as their nominees for the legislature. Their choice proved a wise one, as all three of their candidates were elected that year and re-elected in 1856. Mr. Fausold's record as a legislator was without blot or stain, for he was able, industrious, conscientious and highly useful member of the legislature during his term of service. For twenty-one years he had served as school director in his district, where he was the first and only man in 1836 to vote for the adoption of the free school system, and for the last thirty-one years of his life had served as Justice of the Peace. His magisterial decisions when appealed from were always sustained by the courts. Mrs. Ellen Fausold was a daughter of Samuel Freeman. He was a farmer, a democrat and a member of the M. E. Church. He married Slvira Shauntz and reared a family of ten daughters and two sons.

 

Roger S. Welty, an enterprising business man, a prominent justice and a leading Democrat of Mt. Pleasant township, is a son of George and Eliza (Baughman) Welty, and was born in Mt. Pleasant township, Westmoreland County, PA. January 2, 1854. His great-grandfather was a native of Germany and settles at an early day near Greensburg, where he worked some at his trade of glove-making. His son, John Welty (grandfather), was engaged in the mercantile business at pleasant unity for many years. He was a democrat ' served for several years as

Justice of the peace in unity township and was a member and elder of the reformed church. He married a miss lose, by whom he had six children and of whom one was George Welty (father), who was born at pleasant unity in 1823. He was a tanner by trade, built the old Welty tannery in Mt. Pleasant township and operated it until his death, which occurred February 3, i884. He owned a good farm, was a Democrat, served as school director of Mt. Pleasant township and was a member of the Reformed Church. He married Eliza Baughman, a daughter of Jacob Baughman, who was a farmer and speculator and was a member of the old pioneer Baughman family of this county, their children are: Rev. Jacob, who received an academic education, took a full theological course, married Mary Slater, of Mt. Pleasant, was ordained as a minister of the Reformed Church but afterward became a Presbyterian and now is pastor of the Presbyterian church of Moberly, Mo.;

Louisa, wife of W. H. Mcbeth, merchant and postmaster at McBeth, this county; Roger S., Rose, married to Rev. A. M.

Keifer, a minister of the Reformed Church at Greenville, PA.; Lucien D., married Belle Schaeffer and is engaged in the lumber business; Samuel, who married Caroline Pearce and is in the lumber business; and Clara m., wife of Samuel G. Shaeffer" a grocer of East End, Pittsburgh, PA.

Roger S. Welty attended the common schools of his native township, he learned the trade of tanner, which he followed until 1884 when he engaged in his present business of farming and lumbering. He owns forty acres of good farming land besides a timbered track of one hundred acres. He also owns and operates a portable saw-mill and furnishes several coke- works with lumber supplies. He is an unswerving Democrat and was nominated by his party in 1884 for the legislature but was defeated with the rest of the dDemocratic county ticket at the fall election. In the same year he was appointed Justice of the Peace and elected in 1885 for a term of five years. He is a member of the Order of Chosen Friends and Reformed Church.

December 3, 1874, Roger S. Welty married Mary Fausold a daughter of hon. John Fausold (see sketch of H. F. Fausold. Their children are Ellen, born Sept. 25, 1875; Lucy, born Aug 9 1877; Ruth, born Dec 7, 1878; Benton, born Oct. 6, 1886; Martha, born July 4, 1882; George, born May 4.1 1884; Morris, born March 4, 1886, and Pauline, born April 8, 1888.

In 1886 Roger S. Welty wrote a work entitled "Rent, Wages and Capital" which was published by the Laporte Printing Company. In it he shows that all the elements that constitute the state are inter-dependent and may and must advance.

 

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