My Genealogy Hound

S. A. Weltmer, teacher and farmer, was born July 7, 1858, in Wayne County, Ohio, and is a son of Abraham and Catharine (Hull) Weltmer, natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. The latter’s father, George Hull, was a pioneer settler of Wayne County, Ohio, and was of Irish descent. Abraham Weltmer was of Dutch descent, his grandfather Weltmer being one of a large colony that emigrated from Holland to Central Pennsylvania about 1728. He came to Ohio about 1850, where he engaged in farming until 1865, when he moved to Morgan County, Mo., where he resided until 1881, then moving to Atchison County, Mo., where he died in 1882, at the age of sixty-nine years. He was fairly educated, was unassuming, conservative, and strictly honest. His wife is yet living. They were members of the Baptist Church, and their children are as follows: Sarah E., wife of Jacob Arisman, carpenter, and lives in Washington Territory; Sidney A., and John E., a prosperous farmer, lives in Atchison County, Mo. S. A. Weltmer received a common education, supplemented by his own efforts and the instruction of the best of mothers, and October 8, 1879, was married to Miss Mary G. Stone, a native of Missouri, and a daughter of Rev. B. D. Stone, an elder in the Missionary Baptist Church, and a native of Tennessee. Their five children are: Cyrus E., Silas W., Stella T., Tracy C. and Asa T. At odd times, prior to his marriage, he engaged in canvassing for books, and during autumn seasons of 1880 and 1881 he traveled through Southern Missouri with a stereopticon, giving scientific and educational lectures; then resumed farming and teaching school until January, 1884, when he built the “Akinsville Institute,” a private school at Akinsville, Mo., which he conducted until 1887, at which time he sold out to a joint stock company, but still holds the largest stock in the school, which is now known as the Akinsville Normal and Commercial Institute. In the spring of 1887 he began the publication of “Our Home and School,” an educational journal, at Akinsville, but discontinued the same at the end of four months, and resumed farming, and teaching in the public schools, and conducting vocal music classes. Mr. Weltmer was the first in his county to advocate objective teaching, and is well known as an earnest advocate of the “New Education.” He owns a one-third interest in a farm of eighty acres; is independent in politics, a Good Templar, a Wheeler, and both he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church.