Benton Welty, principal of Auburn Grammar School 1923

Benton Welty, principal of Auburn Grammar School 1923-1943
Though he was born and died and buried in Pennsylvania, the biggest
chunk of his life and career was spent in Auburn. Benton Welty left such
an impression that the city council in making an overcrowded school
into a new city hall and museum named the historical after the school’s
beloved principal.
This lifelong bachelor was also an active community leader, from being
a charter member of the area Clamper Chapter with Wendell Robie and
other prominent citizens to serving as president of the Auburn Lions
Club during his 20 years here.
He told a reporter he thought Auburn has the finest school system in the
country.
In a page 1 flowerily obituary in 1945, the Auburn Journal said this
lifelong bachelor “established a record among the children which would
be hard for any human to equal.
“The devotion and the love which his pupils held for him gave Benton
Welty a place in this community which can never be taken by another.
Pupils who went to school under him and are now active citizens of the
community will always think highly of him.
“He was a man who never seriously considered the value of money but
was more content to forget his own needs and see that little children who
needed clothes, shoes, glasses or food were provided for so that smiles
would be on their faces as they attended school.”
Welty was a descendant of a long line of teachers and judges in
Westmoreland County, PA. He attended several colleges, including
South Western State Teachers, Washington & Jefferson, Grove City,
Princeton, Springfield’s YMCA college and the University of California,
Berkeley. He interrupted his early teaching career in 1904 to play
professional baseball as a 1st baseman in the Texas League, but a broken
hand brought an early halt.
Welty was credited with starting the school banking system in
Pennsylvania through the Pittsburgh Bank for Savings that later spread
to schools throughout the nation.
By 1908 he ended up as principal of schools in the Gold Rush mining
town of Marysville, Mont., creating a still-standing baseball field.
Welty left teaching there in 1916 for a short-term position in Chile with
the Anaconda Copper Co. that ended at end of year because of the war in
Europe. He enlisted in the Army’s YMCA branch of government service
assigned to work with the Italian Army at Monte Grappa in the Italian
Alps. He taught English to the Carbinieri.
While there Welty was one of 45 Americans invited by President
Woodrow Wilson to attend a dinner given by the King and Queen of
Italy. There he met famed telegraph-radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi,
who presented him an Italian flag from one of the cakes.
After Welty’s discharge he returned to Anaconda in Montana. In 1921
he joined Associated Oil Co. in California briefly before joining the
Ceres Schools in Stanislaus County. He remained there for two years
before being named principal at Auburn Grammar.
During his tenure here Welty was active in the Auburn Lions, Elks and
Masonic orders. In 1943 a serious foot ailment resulted in a leg
amputation followed by a couple of strokes. When he recovered
sufficiently, a brother came to return him to the family home in
Weltytown, PA, to be cared for by his mother and a sister. He died there
Oct. 27, 1945. –Michael Otten
Headstone of Benton Welty, Oct 6, 1880, to Oct. 27, 1945. Welty is one of numerousWeltys and
other kin buried in the Saint Paul Lutheran Church Cemetery in Trauger, Westmoreland County
PA, near family community of Weltytown where he died.
Stop in and visit this unique Auburn treasure listed on the National Register of Historic
Buildings. See what a classroom of a century ago looked like named after popular principal
Benton Welty.
Benton Welty
School Room
Open 10 am-4 pm
Saturday, June 18
Win Prizes, Have Fun
Ride the Heritage Trail