Benjamin F. Welty
Benjamin F. Welty, a leading attorney of Lima, member of the well-known firm of Welty & Downing and prosecuting attorney of Allen County, was born August 9, 1870, a short distance from Bluffton, Ohio. His parents, Frederick and Catherine (Steiner) Welty, are engaged in agricultural pursuits and own a farm near Bluffton. They had a large family of 17 children, of whom 13 are living.
Having finished the common school course, Mr. Welty entered college and completed the scientific course, later taking up the law course and graduating from the University of Michigan two years later, in 1896. He came at once to the county seat of Allen County and opened an office, being associated at first with Mr. Huber, but afterwards forming a partnership with Mr. Downing, which firm has proved to be a strong combination, achieving success and lasting popularity. Being a young man of decision and energy Mr. Welty has taken a keen interest in the management of county and municipal affairs, and has been prominent in the councils of the Democratic Party for several years. When the call came for troops to serve in the Spanish-American War, he was enrolled as a member of Company C, Second Regiment Ohio Infantry, U. S. Volunteers. At the present time he is commissary, with rank as captain, of the Second Regiment Infantry, Ohio National Guard.
Mr. Welty was secretary of the Democratic Executive Committee in 1898, and for several years has been the efficient city attorney of Bluffton, having been elected to the office in 1897, and remaining in that capacity until the office was changed from an elective to an appointed one, since which time he has been employed by the village.
Mr. Welty married Cora Gottschack, whose father, Andrew Gottschack, was county treasure of Adams County, Indiana, and a prosperous druggist of that county.
From History of Allen County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, Edited by Charles C. Miller. Richmond & Arnold, Publishers, Chicago, 1906