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biography
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Welser, Samuel Rowe, retired McKeesport, was born in Philadelphia on April 15, 1816,
and is of American extraction.
When he was twelve years of age, he joined, as a juggler and tumbler, Raymond and
Warings' circus, with which and other principle shows he traveled in this country
until 1848. He then went to South America as a clown for the circus of Banks,
Archer & Rockwell, returning by way of the West Indies. Archer died at Matanzas,
Cuba, May 24, 1850, and the show disbanded in Charleston, S.C. soon afterward. The
same year Mr. Welser joined Dan Rice's show as a clown, traveling with him from
July, 1850 until March, 1851.
He was afterward engaged with various leading companies until 1864, his last two
seasons being with S.O. Wheeler & Co., Boston.
In 1860, Mr Welser was the first and only man to drive four geese hitched to a
common tub three feet in diameter down the Monongahela river from Brownsville to
McKeesport, PA.
In 1854 he came to McKeesport to train horses for Taylor & Wolf's circus, and in
1857 he married Mrs. Julia Stacy, a widow of means, who died February 7, 1886,
leaving our subject all her fortune, which included cash, bank-stock and eight
houses on Diamond Square and Market Street.
Mr. Welser retired from the circus ring in 1864 and has been a resident of
McKeesport since 1854. He is a prominent member of the I.O.O.F. and encampment,
with which he has been identified thirty years; politically he is a republican.
The History of Allegheny County, PA. published: 1889 by A. Warner
& Co.; pages 341 and 342.
Contributed by Brandy Roberts.
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