Martin Welker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin Welker (April 25, 1819 – March 15, 1902) was a U.S. Representative from Ohio.
Born in Knox County, Ohio, Welker attended the common schools. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1840 and commenced practice at Millersburg, Ohio. He served as clerk of the court of common pleas for Holmes County from 1846 to 1851. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Thirty-third Congress in 1852. He served as judge of the sixth judicial district of Ohio from 1852 to 1857. He moved to Wooster, Ohio, in 1857. Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, 1857 and 1858 on the ticket with Salmon P. Chase. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1858.
With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Welker was appointed as an aide-de-camp, with rank of colonel, to the Governor of Ohio, 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.
He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1862 to the Thirty-eighth Congress.
Welker was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Congresses (March 4, 1865-March 3, 1871). He was not a candidate for renomination to the Forty-second Congress in 1870. He was appointed United States judge for the northern district of Ohio by President Ulysses S. Grant, 1873 and served until 1889, when he retired. Professor of political science and international law at Wooster College from 1873 to 1890. He died on March 15, 1902, in Wooster, Ohio. He was interred in Wooster Cemetery.
