The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-08-10
From the st. Joseph News-Press.

FROM the Ol JOSepn NeWS-i 1850
N GRAY-HAIRED mother at 2O9
(P71 East Highland avenue in st.
Joseph is watching with tender
and ANXIOUS solictude the progress of the
Wellman expedition to the North Tone.
She is Mrs. Minerva Wellman, and Walter
wellman, who leads this daring dash for
the Pole, is her son. Mrs. Wellman arriv-
ed in st. Joseph last night to make her
home with her SON. Robert A Wellman.
Mrs Wellman speaks of her famous
son with fondness and pride. While she
realizes the danger he is mourning, the
mother seems to be confident that he
will be able to take care of himself. She
has followed his course in the Arctic
religions before, as this is Walter Well
mans third attempt to reach the Pole.
Twice he went with dogs and sleds; now
he plans to penetrate the unknown do
main by means OF an alrshp. He is now
at Danes Island, spltzbergen, and a
cable dispatch sent from there under date
of July "a stated that the party intends to
depart for the Pole in the latter part of
August.
man to a reporter for the News-Press:
He was born in Menter. Lake County,
Ohio, and we came west in a covered
wagon in 1871. Walter was IS years old
the day we crossed the Missouri river at
Plattsmouth, Neb. He never went to
school a day after that
Soon after we arrived in Nebraska
Walter went to work as a clerk In a gro
Gerry store He was employed there only
few months, and then he went to
work on the York Monitor, the first paper
published in York, Neb. He learned to
set type in thart office. In 1873 he and
boy named Brakeman started the Clay
County Tribune at Sutton, Neb. Wat
ter was 141a years old and Brakefan was
161z years old.
Walter left Nebraska In 1875 and went
to Philadelphia to see the Centennial Ex-
position. He wrote for a number of Jews
papers there and. after remaining in
Philadelphia about six weeks, he decided
to abandond country newspaper work for
the metropolitan field. He sold his I'M
terest in the Clay county paper to his
older brother Frank. Then he went TO
Cleveland, where he worked on daily
newspapers. While there he compiled q
volume of poems, which had been writ
ten by my sister, who lived in Cleve-
land.
I'm 1877 he went to Canton, Ohio, and
asked for a position on the Repository.
Mr.. Saxton, the editor, was a brother OF
Mrs. William Mckinley. saxton was
4aa N ott,t,, ~
and he placed Walter in chage of the
paper while he went to Washington. Wal
ter worked for him two or three years,
and then went with the old Chicago
Times. After living there few years
he went to Washington as correspondent,
and he has been there about twenty
years.
II saw Walter Just before he left.
While he realizes the danger of his I'M
dertaking he is sanguine of success this
time. After his second attempt to reach
the North Pole in 1898, he told me he
never would try It again. He had his
ankle badly crushed by the ice that time.
He likes to be on the go, and I was not
much surprised when he announced that
he intended to lead third Polar expedi-
ton"
Mrs. Wellman is 70 years old, and she
bears her age lightly. She lived near
York, Neb.. thirty-four years. Her hus-
band died about four years ago. She re-
turned this week from visit to son
in Madison. Wis.
MRS. Wellman has a number of inter-
esting souvenirs which have been given
to her by Walter. Probably the most in
teresting are pieces of the material from
which the airship was made. The air
ship is made of three layers OF silk, mat
ted together with pure rubber Mrs.
Wellman has strips of the silk before it
was prepared for use in the hay, and also
a strip of material after 1t had been
prepared for its final use. She also has
a number of photographs which were
taken by by her son on formmer Polar
expeditions.
Twelve thousand yards of silk were
used in the construction of the bag"
said Mrs. Wellman. THE silk cost $1.50
a yard. There are two layers of Chinese
silk and one of Japanese silk, put to-
gether with a solution of rubber. The
expenses of the expedition are being de-
frayed by the Chicago Record-Herald-
In the party with Walter are Major Henry