Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

Transfer Company, of which he is presi-
dent and treasurer. In 1915 he was unanimously
elected president of the West
Hartford Business Men's Association.
Mr. Arnold is a member of the Mayflower
Society, the Plartford Club, the Farmington
Country Club, and the Hartford
Yacht Club.
On December 18, 1915, Mr. Arnold
married Mary Ringler Heppe, daughter
of John Conrad and Katherine (Ringler)
Heppe, of Los Angeles, California.
WELDON, Thomas Henry,
Physician.
Dr. Thomas Henry Weldon, graduate
in medicine of the New York University
Medical College, and for more than thirty
years a well-regarded and successful physician
in Manchester, Connecticut, was
born in that town on March 19, 1861, the
son of Thomas and Mary (Campbell)
Weldon, both natives of Ireland, the
former born about 1827, and both resi-
dents in this country from about 1850
until their deaths, which occurred, re-
spectively, in 1909 and 1900. The families,
Campbell and Weldon, are of good
lineage, former generations of both having
been granted coats-of-arms, and
former generations of the Weldon family
in particular having been possessed of
much wealth. But Thomas Weldon at
the time of his emigration was poorly cir-
cumstanced. In this country he engaged,
firstly, in agriculture, later in weaving,
and latterly in independent business, as
a retail liquor dealer in Manchester, Con-
necticut, where he gained an enviable
reputation for integrity and honesty.
His son, Thomas Henry Weldon, born
in Manchester, in 1861, in due course
attended the public schools of that place,
and for more advanced academic instruc-
tion eventually took the course at Hart-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
ford High School, from which he gradu-
ated in the class of 1880. He had resolved
to qualify for entrance to professional
life, and therefore, soon after leaving high
school, went to New York City and matriculated
at one of the leading American
medical colleges, that of New York Uni-
versity, and in 1883 successfully graduated
with the degree of Doctor of Medi-
99
cine. Before entering general practice,
Dr. Weldon determined to undergo exten-
sive and exhaustive practical research in
the large hospitals of America's chief city,
as the clinical material always available
in such a thickly populated metropolitan
area would in a short while give him a
wider knowledge of practical medicine
than would be possible by many years of
private practice. And he was fortunate
in securing staff appointments to two of
the largest hospitals of New York City.
By competitive examination, he gained
a place on the junior medical house staff
of Bellevue Hospital, an institution hav-
ing accommodation for about 2,000 pati-
ents, and invariably filled to fullest capacity.
In that hospital, Dr. Weldon
served an interneship of eighteen months,
then going to an even greater establish-
ment, the almshouse and workhouse of
the City of New York on Blackwell's
Island. He remained a member of the
resident medical staff of the hospital of
those city institutions for one year, at the
end of which time he was undoubtedly
well capable, in theoretical and practical
knowledge of medicine, of undertaking
the responsibilities of a general practition-
er. He decided to open a medical office
in his native town, which he did in 1885,
and since then has been continuously
engaged in general practice in Manches-
ter. Thus Dr. Weldon has served the
people of the community and vicinity for
more than thirty years, during which
practice much credit has come to him.