Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

You wouldn’t think of Clinton County as exactly a mecca for artists, but we’ve had some notable ones over the years. Some of them locally popular, some even world-famous. John Sloan, Annie Snyder, and Edyth Bossert come to mind. And at least one other, a guy I haven’t written about before: Paul Welch.

Paul Herbert Welch was born in Lock Haven on July 17, 1869 (Exactly one hundred years and a week before I was, not that that means anything.) He was the youngest child of four born to Edwin and Elizabeth Welch of 17 East Park Street, where he lived all his life—Sadly the house no longer stands.

At age fifteen, Welch took an interest in art. He began painting after being inspired by traveling artist L.A. Southwick. In 1892, Welch studied art in Paris, and came home to set up a studio of his own, creating his paintings.

Paul Welch’s art was beautiful, usually forests and rivers, and it had a haunting, shadowy quality to it. (This description courtesy of me, decidedly not any kind of art critic.) He painted for a few years, and then took a bike trip across Ireland. When he came home, he retired his paintbrushes and decided to essentially enter the nine-to-five grind.

He began a business of his own, framing pictures, doing upholstery, and making cabinets. All of them somewhat artistic ventures, really, so he hadn’t completely disconnected from art. He met Ada Mae Swisher, and in 1911, the two got married.

They had several children. One of them was Isabel Welch, who grew up to be the longest-lasting director of the Ross Library, serving from 1942 to 1984. The Pennsylvania Room at the library, where I get all this information in the first place, is named after her.

Paul Welch may have been the first Lock Haven artist to have a car. He got one in the early 1900s, not long after Dr. Thomas Brown Stewart bought the first car in Lock Haven about 1902. Welch gave artist Annie Snyder her first car ride.

Annie was born in Salona in 1852, and was largely self-taught—She began by using leftover barn paint on her mother’s spare boards. She was undeniably talented, creating beautiful photo-quality paintings of a variety of subjects. Annie had a studio across from the Fallon Hotel, and could often be seen walking around with her paintings under her arm, raffling them off. Welch spotted her one hot summer day walking at the top of Bellefonte Avenue, and stopped to offer her a ride.

Annie was hesitant, never having been in a car before. But she eventually climbed in, and rode to the bottom of the hill with him. She was terrified at the breathtaking speed of fifteen miles per hour, which these days, my bike can match.

He got back into painting in 1933, and continued to paint for another decade. His wife Ada died in 1942, and Welch’s eyesight began to fail not long after. The combination of these events caused him to once again retire from art, for good this time.

He continued to live at the Park Street house until his death on September 17, 1957. His daughter Isabel, at the time, moved out of the library where she’d been living and into the house, making her the first library director to live off-site. Welch was buried in Highland Cemetery, beside his wife.

Paul Welch’s art remains. His landscapes of local scenes are displayed in several buildings in Clinton County, a reminder of the man who created them.