Monterey’s Dale Welch: Telling The Stories Of Putnam County

Monterey native Dale Welch has always been a lover of story-telling.

Welch said he is a volunteer storyteller at the Monterey Depot Museum and the official Putnam County historian. He said that he got his love for history at a young age, listening to the stories of his grandmother.

“I got a recorder for Christmas once, a cassette recorder, and I started taping her stories,” Welch said. “I found that tape a few years ago, and this was recorded in 1973 or 74, and I was afraid to put I on anything, but I took it to a radio friend of mine and he put it on a CD for me and that’s what my family got for Christmas one year.”

Welch said that the key to his work has been learning to listen. He said that he believes it is his days writing for the Herald-Citizen and owning a Monterey newspaper that helped him hone his craft.

“I had several different people like World War II veterans and they would tell me stories that they may have never even told their families before, even though maybe I’d have to go back two or three times and they’d finally break down and tell me. I had one guy in Byrdstown, he died, and his family sent me a thank-you card because of the stories I got out him.”

Welch said that he’s been a lover of stories for almost 50 years. He said that collecting them is important because every person has a story that’s worth telling.

“It’s important to keep telling the stories so they won’t be lost. they need to be written down, or nowadays they’ve got video and other kinds of things to do,” Welch said. “It’s important to people will not forget, because they tend to repeat it.”