Clark, Robert Carlton, Ph.D. "History of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Vol. 2.
Chicago: Chapman Publishing Company, 1927. p. 115-116.

ROBERT JAMES WELTON

   There is no one element which has a greater effect in upholding the financial
stability of a community than has a carefully organized and conservatively
conducted bank. Of such an institution Robert James Welton,
of Mount Angel, is the executive head and his well known probity is one of its
most valuable assets. Born in Minnesota in 1879, he is a son of M. J. and
Margaret E. (Leahy) Welton. His father became a railroad employe and was a
storekeeper at Maple Lake, Minnesota, of which he was also postmaster. In 1919
he journeyed to Oregon in company with his wife and is now conducting a store
and a service station at Lake Labisch, near Mount Angel.

   After the completion of his public school course Robert J. Welton learned
telegraphy and worked for a railroad in Minnesota. He was made station agent and
remained in his native state until 1905. For a year thereafter he was in the
employ of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company and in 1906 returned to the
United States. At Portland, Oregon, he became connected with the Southern
Pacific Railroad Company and was sent to Eugene and other places in the state.
He was relief agent at Salem in 1907 and later became telegrapher and station
agent at Hubbard. In 1911 he was transferred to Mount Angel and has since been
station agent for the Southern Pacific at this point, giving to the corporation
the services of an expert. In 1922 he joined Paul Fuchs, Joseph Faulhaber, Paul
Schmidt and N. M. Lauby in organizing the First National Bank and at that time a
modern building was erected as the home of the institution. Up-to-date equipment
was installed and the service is adapted to every need. Since the founding of
the bank, Mr. Welton has been president, wisely and successfully administering
its affairs, and the office of vice president is filled by Mr. Fuchs, while Mr.
Lauby discharges the duties of cashier. All are directors of the institution and
the other
members of the board are Joseph Faulhaber, Frank Hynes, C. H. Goschie and A. W.
Albright. The bank is connected with the Federal Reserve System and has a
capital stock of thirty thousand dollars. It has a surplus of six thousand
dollars and the total resources amount to two hundred and ninety-five thousand
dollars. The bank has become a helpful ally of the business firms of the
locality and is growing along constructive progressive lines.

   In 1915 Mr. Welton married Miss Louisa Scharbach, a native of Mount Angel and
a daughter of Peter and Margaret Scharbach, who migrated from Wisconsin to
Oregon. Mr. Scharbach was a prosperous rancher and owned the land on which Mount
Angel now stands. He was active in local affairs and one of the influential men
of this section of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Welton have five children: Robert
James Jr., Margaret, Rosalia, Michael and William. All were born in Mount Angel
and the two daughters are graduates of the local academy.

   Mr. Welton owns a small ranch adjoining the town and leases the place to the
Monitor Canning Company, which has two acres planted to cucumbers. He is a
charter member of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, with which he has been
affiliated for a quarter of a century, and he joined the Community Club at the
time of its organization. Every project for the growth and betterment of this
district receives his hearty endorsement and a useful, upright life of quiet
devotion to duty has established him high in public esteem. Mrs. Welton is
associated with the Catholic Daughters of America, in which she has held office,
and her home is a center of the social life of the community.

     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2016 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.