Leonard Welker: Frontier ranger and Southeast Missouri settler

Several men who settled in the Cape Girardeau District before the Louisiana Purchase were veterans of the American Revolution. The best-known of these lived until the 1830s and applied for pensions. To receive these, veterans had to provide details on their service. The service of those who died prior to the Pension Act of 1832 is more difficult to document, depending on the state from which they served.

Such is the case with Leonard Welker. More details of his life are becoming available with better access to records. He was probably born in Germany around 1750. Welker settled with his wife Catherine and family by 1771 on the Pennsylvania frontier in Northumberland County -- present-day Union County.

The long northern boundary of Northumberland County exposed it to attack early in the Revolution. This vulnerability became tragically obvious when over 200 patriots died in an attack in the Wyoming Valley on July 3, 1778, by a force of Tories, Iroquois and British. The result was the first "Great Runaway" by panic-stricken settlers leaving northern Pennsylvania.

Patriot Gen. John Sullivan organized a punitive expedition June to October 1779 to attack Iroquois villages. While the force was gathering at Wyoming, a British force attacked down the west branch of the Susquehanna River into Northumberland County, resulting in a second "Runaway" by settlers. Although Sullivan's Expedition broke future large-scale attacks, raids continued.

The county responded by recruiting special rangers, who served long enlistments on the frontier to counter Iroquois attacks. Leonard Welker enlisted as a ranger. Although surviving records include no exact dates, his name is on a payroll and on muster rolls for two units during 1779-82.

Welker stayed in Northumberland County after the war, operating a saw and grist mill for a time. Whether it was the attraction of new land or debt, the family left for Rowan County, North Carolina, by 1789. The couple had five sons and two daughters at the time of the 1790 census.

The family was in Lincoln County, North Carolina, in 1800, when two sons and a daughter had established independent households. Traditionally, Leonard Welker came with the Bollinger party in 1799-1800, but his presence in Lincoln County for the census in August 1800 suggests he actually immigrated to Missouri later.

Welker settled on a tract on Caney Fork near Whitewater River in 1802, purchasing rights to it in 1805. Testimony by George Frederick Bollinger before the Board of Land Commissioners charged with confirming Spanish land grants established his settlement date. Bollinger stated, "... [Leonard Welker] settled the said tract of land in 1802 and did prior to and on the 20th day of December 1803 actually inhabit & cultivate the said tract of land and had then a wife and 4 children."

After living in Missouri for 14 years, Leonard Welker wrote his will and passed away shortly after in November, 1816. A soldier of the Revolutionary War, his principal legacy is the hundreds of descendants living in the area today.