History

Robert H. (Rob) Welder's ancestors were the Welters from Bavaria, de la Portillas from Spain, Powers and Hughes from Ireland, and Traylors from France.  Rob Welder’s great-grandfather, Franz Welter, immigrated to this country in 1830 with his wife and their five children. They lived in New Amsterdam until 1833, then joined the Beales and Grant Colony to head for Texas to settle along the Rio Grande.  His two sons, John and Tom, changed the family name to Welder.

The colony of 59 persons was a project of empresarios, Dr. Charles Beales and Dr. James Grant. They, along with the Welder family, embarked from New York on November 10, 1833 on the schooner, Amos Wright and anchored at El Copano on the Texas coast on December 11, 1833. They brought oxen along to carry the colonists on their trip inland, and an abundance of wildlife provided food for the trip.  El Copano is within 12 miles of the Welder Wildlife Refuge. 

John Welder, son of Franz Welter and Robert H. Welder's grandfather, accumulated approximately 100,000 acres of land in south Texas mostly through the purchase of land grants. In 1850 John married Dolores Power, daughter of Colonel James Power, who was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and his wife, Dolores de la Portilla. Dolores de la Portilla's father was Felipe Roque de la Portilla who was born in Spain about 1768 and then immigrated to New Spain around 1786. Felipe Roque de la Portilla was living in Matamoros, Mexico in 1807 when the Mexican governor of Texas established a civil settlement program on the Texas frontier to ward off foreign penetration. In return for premium lands, de la Portilla agreed to make a Texas settlement at his own expense, thus inaugurating the empresario system of colonization in Texas. The Rob & Bessie Welder Wildlife Foundation and Refuge are located about 10 miles northeast of Sinton, Texas on the lands deeded along the Aransas River in the original 1834 land grant.