[byrne.ftw]
! From The Abilene Reporter News -- May 1, 1937 At
Sunrise May 3, 1887, in Del Rio, Stella E. Browne became the bride of
Lynton Lee Welch. Fifty years will have passed Monday Morning since
the young couple, native Texans, met, in the border city to plight
their troth. The bride had been brought two weeks earlier in a wagon
by her father from his ranch in Los Arbelos canyon, Coahuila, Mexico,
that she might shop for her trousseau and have access to a dressmaker.
She was the guest of a friend, Mrs. George Tims, in whose home the
wedding ceremony was read. Lynton Lee Welch's family also had gone
from Texas to run a ranch below the Rio Grande. It was in Los Arbelos
canyon that the Browne and Welch families became acquainted and where
the two young Texans fell in love. Mr. Welch was born July 12, 1867,
near Kerrville, the youngest in a family of 13 that was reared on the
frontier. Two older brothers, Josh Welch of Los Angeles, and the late
Wiley Welch of Camp Wood were Texas Rangers for many years. Living all
his early life on the frontier of Edwards and Kerr County, he had
little opportunity to attend school and obtain education in the sense
an education now is measured. The new frontier schools had terms of
three months in one-room log cabins. Each pupil had a slate and
pencil, but few books. Experience became his teacher. His earliest
recollections are his fears of the Indians, who made raids on his
community regularly every full moon. Once when his cousin and he went
to a spring for water he was horrified to see a big Indian warrior
standing just across the creek. The boys left their buckets, rushed
for the house, where all members of the family soon gathered, locked
themselves in and remained for hours. Twice after that all their
horses were Stolen and three young colts were killed. Two of the
best horses escaped from the Indians and returned home. Mrs. Stella E.
Browne Welch was born February 1, 1869, near Leesville in Gonzales
County. She was the oldest of eleven children. Her father the late
N.P. Browne of this (Mitchell) county, was a veteran of the war
between the states. He once was a pupil in Burleson College at Old
Independence, Texas -- now Baylor University. Her parents were from
Missouri and Arkansas. Mrs. Welch tells many interesting stories of
the old Negro mammy and son who remained faithful servants to her
parents along with 17 others long after they had been freed from
slavery. She attended school at Crabapple in Gillespie County -- in a
brick building which was an unusual opportunity for that day. While in
school there she boarded with a German family and was the only child
in the school who could speak English. Her own home was at the base of
Enchanted Rock, which was within a large acreage owned by her father.
Stock had to be guarded closely on the open range. Looking for better
pasture for their stock, the Browne family sold out and moved to
Coahuila in 1886. A year later the marriage took place. Cake and
lemonade from heirloom goblets lined with gold were served the wedding
guests. A friend sent a driver and a fine stagecoach to carry them to
the Rio Grande ferry. Accompanied by the bride's father they crossed
the river in a small boat. After a brief stop at the customs house
they accepted an invitation of the alcalde to become his guest for an
hour. Then they began the trip home on saddle horses brought up the
preceding day. For more than a year they made their home in Mexico.
Preparations then were made for their return to their beloved native
state. They bought a home and moved eight miles west of Llano in
Llano County, where they lived eleven years. Often they have recalled
how happy they were to be near friends and relatives again, to be near
a good school and market and where they could attend church services.
Sorrow were however mingled with their gladness. Their two oldest
little sons were lai