The Welsh-Adler File

Found Photo Project #5

By Eilene Lyon

What might happen to your family photos if you do not pass them on before you die, or leave instructions in your will? They could wind up in the trash, or maybe scattered in a booth at a large antique mart in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

When I saw these scrapbook pages and loose images, some unidentified, and realized they all belonged to one family, I hastily snatched them all up. It cost a bit more than I usually allot for my little hobby. But it was very worthwhile to turn them over to a descendant who has recently begun her family history exploration.

Mary Heloise Welsh

The most notable portrait in the collection is a young woman, Mary Heloise Welsh, born in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, during the Civil War. She was the youngest of seven children born to Abner Welsh, a farmer and lumber supplier, and his wife, Mary Hart Kline.

Abner Welsh was a successful businessman and acquired substantial property in Columbia County, his lifelong home.¹ He clearly believed in educating his children. Mary Heloise graduated from high school in 1881. Her next older sibling, J. Perry Adler, was principal of the Bloomsburg Normal School.² Some of Abner and Mary’s grandchildren (women included) became physicians.

On August 27, 1890, Mary Heloise was united in marriage to Winfield Scott Adler. The return filed with Columbia County gives her occupation as “Lady” and his as “Dry Goods Merchant.”³ At the time, W. Scott was living in South Bend, Indiana. This is where he and Mary Heloise went after the wedding.

Winfield Scott Adler

Winfield Scott Adler was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1865. He had an older brother and a younger sister, Monroe and Isabella. His parents were born in Germany, and his father, Adolphus, owned a mercantile establishment.⁴

The senior Adlers, who were Jewish, arrived in Lancaster about 1860 where they joined the Shaarai Shomayim congregation. One of the founders of this congregation was Joseph Simon (~1712–1804), who is described as the first and last Colonial Jew in Lancaster. The cemetery he established, where the Adlers are buried, is the fourth oldest Jewish cemetery in America.⁵

Adolphus died in July 1885, a sad event brought about by gas poisoning at a hotel in Reading four months earlier.⁶ Only Rebecca, W. Scott’s mother, was there for her son’s wedding in 1890. W. Scott chose to be baptized in the Presbyterian Church in 1902.⁷

The Adler Boys

Mary Heloise and W. Scott Adler had three sons while living in South Bend, Indiana: Stuart W. (b. 1892), David B. (b. 1895), and Monroe L. (b. 1896).⁸ Around 1899, the family relocated to Manhattan, where W. Scott continued in the dry goods business.

In May 1901, Mary Heloise was visiting her widowed mother in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. She suddenly passed away of a short-term illness while there and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Orangeville, her childhood home.⁹

W. Scott, with three very young boys, soon remarried to Mary G. Worrell. They had two daughters, the first being named Mary Heloise. W. Scott Adler died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1944. He was laid to rest in Laurel Hill with Mary Heloise and one of their sons.¹⁰

Stuart W. Adler became a doctor. He lived for a time in Massachusetts, Illinois, New Mexico, and California. He died in California in 1987 at age 95.¹¹

David B. Adler also lived to 95, dying in Orlando, Florida in 1990.¹² He served in the Army and was an insurance salesman, living in New Jersey much of his career.

Monroe L. Adler unfortunately had a brief life. He died in Yonkers, New York, at the age of 14. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church and participated in various church activities and organizations. He died of food poisoning from ice cream cones.¹³ He was buried by his mother in Laurel Hill.

Feature image: The three sons of Mary Heloise Welsh and Winfield Scott Adler: David, Stuart, and Monroe. South Bend, Indiana, 1898.