Preceded by George Bliss Spouse Flora Uhl (m. 1896) Governor Salmon P. Chase Resting place Wooster Cemetery Succeeded by James Monroe | Preceded by Thomas H. Ford Name Martin Welker Resigned March 3, 1871 Appointed by Ulysses S. Grant Role Politician | |
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Born April 25, 1819
Knox County, Ohio ( 1819-04-25 ) Died March 15, 1902, Wooster, Ohio, United States Political party Whig Party, Republican Party | ||
Preceded by Charles Taylor Sherman | ||
Martin Welker (April 25, 1819 – March 15, 1902) was a lawyer, politician, and judge from Ohio. Welker served three terms as a Republican member of the House of Representative, winning election in 1864, 1866, and 1868. Following his retirement from Congress, Welker was appointed a federal judge for the Northern District of Ohio by President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant in 1873, remaining in that post until his retirement in 1889.
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Early years
Martin Welker was born in Knox County, Ohio on April 25, 1819. His father was an émigré from Germany and an early European pioneer in Ohio.
Martin left the family farm at the age of 14 to take a job as a clerk in a store in Millersburg, Ohio. He later studied law in the same town, eventually gaining admission to the bar in 1840 at the age of 21 and commenced legal practice in Millersburg.
In 1846, Welker was appointed clerk of the Holmes County Court of Common Pleas, serving in that position until 1851.
Ohio state politics
In 1848, Welker was the Whig nominee for the Congress, but lost in the largely Democratic district. In 1850, he again was offered the nomination, but declined it. In January, 1851, he re-entered private practice. He served as judge of the sixth district of the Ohio Courts of Appeal from 1852 to 1857. He moved to Wooster, Ohio, in 1857.
He served as the fourth Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and President of the Ohio Senate in the Fifty-third General Assembly in 1858 and 1859 under Governor Salmon P. Chase. He declined to be a candidate for re-nomination in 1859.
Civil War years
With the outbreak of the American Civil War, on May 14, 1861, Welker was appointed judge-advocate of the second brigade of the Ohio Volunteer Militia at rank of major, and served with General Jacob Dolson Cox. Welker was appointed as an aide-de-camp, with rank of colonel to the Governor of Ohio on August 10, 1861. He then served as Judge Advocate General of the State of Ohio for the balance of 1861, and was the superintendent of drafting under Governor Tod, commencing August 15, 1862. He served as assistant adjutant general in 1862.
As the war waned, Welker enlisted on February 16, 1865 in the Union Army as a private in Company I, 188th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out September 21, 1865.
Congressman
While Welker was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1862 to the 38th Congress. Welker was elected as a Republican to the 39th in 1864. He was re-elected to the 40th in 1866 and the 41st Congresses in 1868, thus serving in Washington, DC from March 4, 1865 until March 3, 1871.
Welker was not a candidate for renomination to the 42nd Congress in 1870.
Federal judge
President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Welker to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in 1873. He served until 1889, when he retired.
He was a professor of political science and international law at Wooster College from 1873 to 1890. He then served as president of the Wooster National Bank and vice president of the Wayne County Fair Board, and member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He died on March 15, 1902, in Wooster and is interred at Wooster Cemetery.
Welker married Maria Armour of Millersburg March 4, 1841. After she died, he married Flora Uhl of Cleveland January 16, 1896.