Welp Family Photographs

Heinrich Welp and Eliza Kleibocker were married on 28 September 1856 at the Independent Evangelical Protestant Church in St. Louis, Missouri, officiated by Reverend F. Picker. Together they raised seven children: Henry J., John H., William F., Herman W., August H., and Clara. Henry Welp was born in Bielefeld, Westphalia, Prussia on 10 October 1833, little is known of his childhood and parents. He emigrated to the United States in 1853 or 1854, settling in St. Louis, Missouri. There he worked as a cabinet maker. Eliza Kleibocker was born on 9 May 1835 in Rüsfort, Gehrde, Lower Saxony. The Kleibocker family emigrated to America in stages over more than a decade, with siblings settling across the St. Louis region and southern Illinois. Her older brother Johann Heinrich had arrived in St. Louis as early as 1851, where he established himself in the furniture trade. Eliza emigrated on 22 November 1854, arriving at New Orleans, Louisiana aboard the ship Olbers, accompanied by her sister Anna. She made her way to St. Louis, where family connections were already in place, and married Henry two years after her arrival. When the Civil War broke out, Henry enlisted on 5 May 1861 in Company C, 5th Regiment of Missouri Infantry Volunteers, serving as a carpenter building fortifications around St. Louis. On 20 June 1861 he suffered a severe sunstroke while working on a barracks roof and was carried home to recuperate. He received an honorable discharge in September 1861. Following Henry's Civil War discharge the family relocated to Washington County, Illinois, settling near Hoyleton. Henry farmed there for nearly two decades. By the mid-1880s the family had moved to Chicago and by 1898 Henry and Eliza had returned to St. Louis. Henry Welp died on 13 November 1902 at his home on Farrar Street, aged 69. Eliza Welp died on 25 April 1905 and was buried beside Henry at New Bethlehem Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri

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