[p. 970] a prosperous farmer and a veteran of the Civil War, is a well-known resident of Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. He was born in Germany March 13, 1832, and is a son of Ernest Wellhausen who was a farmer in the old country and the owner of sixty-five acres of land.
Henry Wellhausen was the youngest of a family of ten children born to his parents, is the sole survivor of the family, and the only one to come to America except one sister. He was but two weeks old when his father died, and two years old at the time of his mother's death. He attended the public schools of Germany, but was thrown upon his own resources at a very tender age, and all that he possesses in this world came through a long and hard struggle. He has earned a handsome competency, and is a self-made man in every sense of the term. He crossed the Atlantic to America when he was twenty-two years of age, and in 1857 became a resident of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, buying a small farm in Wayne Township. As he was without means, it was necessary to earn the purchase price out of the returns from the farm, which was wholly unimproved, a task which only the pioneer knows about. He made a clearing for a small house which he built, and then set about cultivating the land as it was cleared. He finally paid for it, then sold out and purechased his present farm of fifty five and one-half acres in Slippery Rock Township. He also now owns an additional tract of fifty acres northeast of his home place. He has always engaged in general farming, except for two years in which he was employed in the iron works at Pittsburg, and he now is classed among the substantial residents of his township. In 1864 Mr. Wellhausen enlisted in the Eighty-third Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war, participating in a number of engagements.
Mr. Wellhausen was united in marriage with Hannah Rock, who died in December, 1904, leaving two sons: William, who married Maggie Houk and has four children, Charles W., Reed C., Mary Ella and Alfred; and Charles, who married Lillie Shumaker, a daughter of Robert Shumaker. She died April 6, 1908. In politics Mr. Wellhausen is a Republican. In religious faith he is a member of the United Presbyterian Church.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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Updated: 11 Feb 2002