Adam David Welker, Jr.

The following information about Adam David Welker, Jr., was found on the website Family Search.org: My grandfather Welker became a farmer, principally of cotton, in the area near Pima and Safford, Arizona. Apparently he fared pretty well, but the month and year of his sixtieth birthday, the Great Depression began. He lost his land and the ability to support his family so he decided to move to Southern California and live near their eldest daughter, Della, in West Riverside.

I remember him being a quiet man. I got to ride in his coupe car with him. When our family drove from San Juan Capistrano to Riverside to visit my grandparents, we would spend the night. I remember on Saturday nights they enjoyed listening to country music from Nashville, Tennessee, on the radio. While we were there, often grandpa would make ice cream using the manual crank ice cream freezer. Also I remember he smoked cigarettes and chewed tobacco until his death at the age of 87 years old.

Another entry from Family Search.org about Adam reads as follows: Colonizing Gila Valley, Arizona....In a conversation with my grandfather, Adam David Welker, in 1955, he told of the journey from Bear Lake,Idaho, to southeastern Arizona to help colonize that area. He recounted their frequent encounters with the Indians and their harsh experiences in settling the Gila Valley. One settler in Gila Valley said of the flora and fauna; if you touch it, it stings you, if you pet it, it bites you, and if you eat it, it kills you. President Spencer W. Kimball's father was their stake president.