Welch, WV 24801   

Welch, West Virginia Tenant Credit Report Service

Welch is a city in McDowell County, West Virginia, USA. The population was 2,683 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of McDowell County.

Welch was incorporated in 1894 and named after Isaiah A. Welch, a captain in the Confederate Army.

On August 1, 1921 detectives from the Baldwin-Felts agency killed Matewan sherriff Sid Hatfield as well as Ed Chambers at the McDowell County Courthouse located in Welch.

It was once a prosperous city during the coal mine boom of the early 20th century. Once the boom ended, the city fell on hard times.

When presidential candidate John F. Kennedy visited Welch by train in 1960, he saw a city that was seriously decaying and had a very high poverty rate caused by the declining coal mining industry. It was his visit here that was believed to be the basis of the aid brought to the Appalachian region by the Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson administrations. The first recipients of food stamps were the Chloe and Alderson Muncy family of Welch. The family, which included fifteen children, received $95 worth of stamps from Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman on May 29, 1961 as a crowd of reporters watched.

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