John Chipman Welborn was born 4 January 1808 in Rowan Co., North Carolina, son of Moses and Deborah (Chipman) Welborn. He was their firstborn child. We know nothing of John's early years, but by about 1833 the extended Welborn family was beginning to emigrate and Moses moved with his family into Posey Co., Indiana. It is here that John met and married Frances Annable, 10 March 1836. The Annable family had moved into Posey Co. Indiana from Cayuga Co., New York, where Frances was born on 14 July 1811, to Barnabas and Ruth (Moon) Annable. The ancestry of the Annable family goes back to Massachusetts. Frances' father must have been quite the pioneer as he started his life 31 May 1767 in Franklin Co., Massachusetts, settled for a time in Cayuga Co., New York, and moved on to Posey Co., Indiana, where he died 9 May 1835.
John and Frances' daugher and our ancestor, Sarah Ann Welborn, was born 30 September 1844 in Indiana, presumably in Posey county. She is believed to have been their 6th child of the seven known, all born in Indiana.
By the time the first "expanded" version of the U. S. Census records appeared in 1850, we find our ancestors had already left Indiana and were living in Lafayette Co., Missouri. They didn't stay there very long either, as later we find them in Texas, where they lived out their lives.
We have the following insight into some of the history of our John, courtesy of Joe Welborn, descendant of John's brother, James Henry Welborn:
"... Most of my information comes from card files at the museum that I told you
about in Denton Texas. The lady, Hazel Shelton (deceased) kept the info on cards in a
library file. She researched the cemetaries and papers in Denton county for information on
pioneers. She did not chart family relationships, only mentions in the Pilot Point paper
etc. The Skinner cemetary has been bulldozed but the museum records show Frances Annable,
John C. and Leonia Welborn as being buried there. Leonia was the wife of Thomas C.
Welborn.
Mrs. Shelton's notes on David A list him as moving to Texas in the fall of 1870 and to
Pilot Point on Nov 5 1880 when he became postmaster. He was cousin of Bob Welborn and
spelled his name with 2 l's.
John C. left North Carolina with his family and went to Mt Vernon Indiana in 1831 or 1832
(probably took 2 years). His father Moses owned a wagon making shop there. John C. taught
school until the spring of 1835, when he went on the river and ran a flat bottomed boat
from Mt. Vernon to New Orleans. He married Mar 10, 1836. In the spring of 1849, he
moved his family to Lafayette Co. Mo. near where the town of Aulsville is now. In the
spring of 1854, he moved his family to Sherman, Texas and settled on a farm 2 1/2 miles
west of there. In 1863 he sold out and moved to the western part of Cooke Co. Texas near
where the town of Rosston is now and lived there until the Indians drove them out in 1868.
He then located at Pilot Point in 1868 where he died in Feb 1893. In 1880, his son
David and family was also in the home. ..."
[Ed. Note: The author has always been very appreciative of folks like the aforementioned
Mrs. Shelton, who labor faithfully and largely anonymously in so many places around the
country. Bless her heart for taking care of the records which provided us this valuable
insight into the history of our Welborn ancestors.]
Armed with this information, the author has attempted to track down some of these details about the Welborn family's life in Texas, but progress has been difficult. To date, he has failed to locate this family on the 1860 and 1870 U. S. Census records, trying to verify this brief history. We do find John living in Pilot Point, Denton Co., Texas on 3 June 1880. As indicated above, we find David and his family living in the household of his father, who is serving as a Postmaster for Pilot Point. David carried on this work after his father was gone. In fact, in Scurry Co., Texas on 22 April 1910, we find David still serving as a Postmaster, although 70 years of age, along with his daughter, Ethel, who is serving under her father as Asst. Postmaster.
While living in Rosston, Cooke Co., Texas, his daughter and our ancestor, Sarah, must have met and then married Timothy James Hart. They married in Cooke Co., Texas on 10 June 1864. Noting the reference above to the Indians driving them out of the area, the reader may be interested in reading more about this in the life of Timothy James Hart.
John died in Pilot Point, Denton Co., Texas on 20 February 1893. His wife, Frances, passed away a short time later on 4 December 1893. They are both believed to have been buried in the Old Skinner Cemetery, which Joe indicates is no longer in existence.
Author: Roger L. Roberson, Jr. • Last updated: 11 January 2003