Welch, Moses Cook, Dd

Welch, Moses Cook, D.D.

a Congregational minister, son of Rev. Daniel Welch, was born in Mansfield, Conn., Feb. 22, 1754. Although he graduated from Yale College in 1772, he remained for several years undecided as to his profession. For a while he was teacher of a grammar-school in Windham, Conn., and then entered the office of Hon. Eliphalet Dyer to study law. His father's aversion to this profession induced him to abandon it in about a year. Then he taught school and studied medicine a short time. As the Revolution was fairly begun, he engaged with Mr. Samuel Nott in the manufacture of saltpeter, to be used in making powder to supply the Continental Army. Having been drafted, he cheerfully entered the army, but, contracting a disease in camp, was obliged to return home. About this time he was converted. Turning his attention to the ministry, he studied theology under Rev. Dr. Salter, of Mansfield, and Rev. Stephen White, of Windham. When his father died, in 1782, he was called to succeed him as pastor of the Church in North Mansfield, to which office he was ordained June 2, 1784. In 1812 he was detailed as chaplain in the American army, a service which he promptly performed. For two years, from 1822, he belonged to the Corporation of Yale College, He died at North Mansfield, April 21, 1824. In consequence, probably, of his legal training, he was a great ecclesiastical lawyer. With a vigorous mind, an ardent temperament, and clear perceptions, he became a popular preacher. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 2, 234.