Basil Welch, a well-known Vineyard character who wrote poetry, did wood carvings, hunted, fished and had a large collection of historic photographs — including of Island outhouses — died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday, Sept. 24, after a brief illness. He was 87 and had led a full and active life and had many friends.
Basil Lambert Welch was born on his mother’s birthday, April 16, 1924, at his grandmother’s house in Oak Bluffs. He grew up on Mt. Aldworth Road in Vineyard Haven where his family had a flower and vegetable garden and a greenhouse in their backyard. Basil’s own yard and gardens showed his love of plants throughout his life.
He graduated from the Tisbury High School in 1942 and went to work briefly with the Tisbury highway department. He was not allowed in the service because of his asthma, but he wanted to do his part, so he moved to Stockbridge and drove a supply truck for the Air Force. After the war, he came home and worked briefly at the ArtCliff Diner cooking and running the grill. A short time later, he walked across the street to Duke’s County Garage at what was then four corners, and worked in the paint shop, painting vehicles and repairing flat tires for six years.
In 1950 he meet Elisabeth J. Hanson, and they were married in November of that year. They had two daughters, Linda in 1952 and Laurie in 1956. Weekends in the summer were spent having cookouts on some beach with his brother Malcolm and his family, and in winters he took his girls sledding.
With a young family to provide for, Basil took a job with New England Telephone Company as an installer and repairman, a job he continued for the next 32 years until his retirement. He was the one who switched over the towns of Chilmark and Gay Head to the dial system. During his many years with the phone company, Basil began to notice all the nooks and crannies of the Island as he checked out phone lines to remote and out-of-the way places before all the development took over. Never without a camera, he began to photograph outhouses. They were a common sight, even though most were out of service, but Basil saw the beauty in their design and shape, and even their location to a dwelling. Sometimes these outhouses would be built into a stone wall, or sometimes he would find one standing alone, long after the main house was gone. He photographed these and had quite a collection, realizing that some day there would be no more.
Among Basil’s many hobbies were carvings he did in his basement workshop, a skill he learned from his father, who would also carve small animals. Basil carved many shorebirds, ducks, miniature rowboats complete with oar locks, oars and a box containing even more miniature duck decoys. He carved a farm scene with animals with a farmer and his wife depicting his grandparent’s place. He made tiny rifles including Davy Crockett’s Ole Betsy. He was proud of the many ribbons he won at the Agricultural Fair for his carvings.
He was a poet and sent an occasional two or three-page poem about what was going on at home to his daughter Linda when she was at school. Most of his poems were exchanged with his brother Neil, but some made it into the Island newspapers, usually about something he had an opinion on.
He was an avid reader and had bookshelves crammed with books about nature, wild life, westerns and detective work.
He enjoyed fishing in local freshwater ponds with his daughter Laurie, and he enjoyed hunting. He hunted rabbits, deer, ducks and pheasant as a young boy and his love of it continued throughout his life. He traveled up to Jerry’s Pond in the middle of Maine every November for almost 25 years. If the snow was deep and the pond frozen, he would park his truck, and a snowmobile would pick him up and take him in the last few miles. Basil loved the wilderness and was always accompanied by his faithful dog Penny. As years went by and Basil and Penny aged, it became harder and not quite as safe for them to go into the woods to hunt. Not wanting to miss out on his annual adventure, Basil and Penny would make the trip anyway, but Basil became the cook. He cooked on an old wood burning stove and said the food never tasted so good as it did on that stove.
During a cold winter in the late 1970s, Basil got together with his neighbor Stan Lair almost nightly and copied photographs from old negatives and glass plates. They borrowed photos from others and the two of them ended up with several albums filled with photos from the early 1800s through the 1900s, of every town on Martha’s Vineyard. Basil’s love for Island history carried on through his photographs and many stories. He knew almost everything about anything, and was interviewed many times by the local newspapers and by Linsey Lee for Vineyard Voices.
Country Western music was another hobby. Basil’s collection of records, tapes and CDs could fill a small studio. Every time you spoke to him on the phone, or if you were sitting at his kitchen table, country music was in the background. He traveled the East Coast from Maine to Florida to Tennessee over his many years and each stop would find him in some out-of-the-way country western show or concert. His favorite singers were Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson.
Basil retired from the phone company and moved to Chilmark in a house his parents had started to build behind their own home. Basil finished the house and moved in around the mid-1980s. Retirement made him anxious to do something else, so he became superintendent of Abel’s Hill Cemetery in Chilmark in 1985, a position he held for 23 years. He was instrumental in clearing up and cleaning out a lot of trees and weeds. “Those damn Russian olives!” he would always say. In one newspaper interview he said he would one day be resting in the cemetery himself and wanted to make it a nice place for everyone. During his years of clearing a new section was opened up to accommodate more people. Roads were added, stones repaired and lawns mowed. One year he wrote in the Chilmark annual town report: “All is quiet on Abel’s Hill, and that’s the way it should be.”
Abel’s Hill Cemetery is where Basil will be interred, beside his sister Marijane Poole and her husband Matthew, where he can rest in the sun and watch his birds in the nearby trees. Basil’s love for birds was well known; he had chickens, turkeys and peacocks. He loved his ducks on the pond near his home. He had a dozen bird feeders around his window. None were allowed to go empty and his cats never bothered the birds.
He was a member of the Tisbury police department as a special officer, the Tisbury fire department and the Chilmark fire department. He was a life member of the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club, which he joined in 1955 and served as president and secretary for a number of years.
He was the last of his family. He was predeceased by his parents Milton L. and Rose deBettencourt Welch, his brothers Malcolm, Melvin, Neil, and Justin, his sister Marijane Poole and his grandson in law Robert Reilly.
He is survived by his daughters Linda M. Voluckas and Laurie Clements, his son in law Steve Voluckas, his grandchildren Stephanie Reilly, Robert Townes, Jordan Clements and Marie Clements, his great-grandchildren Peyton Reilly, Brevnee Reilly and Kamari Clements. He is also survived by his sisters in law Emilia Welch, Gladys Welch, Violet Welch, Audrey Hanson and Virginia Riley, his brothers in laws Edward Riley and Richard Hanson and many nieces and nephews. He will sadly be missed by his longtime friend Corajane (Coco) Adams, his best friend Blair Emin and many more.
Visiting hours will be held on Sunday, Oct. 2, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs.
A graveside service will be held on Monday, Oct. 3, at 11 a.m. at Abel’s Hill Cemetery, with the Rev. Bill Eddy officiating. A potluck gathering at the Chilmark Community Center will follow. Please bring a dish to share.
Donations in Basil’s memory may be made to the Martha’s Vineyard Chapter of Ducks Unlimited, P.O. Box 1724, Edgartown, MA 02539 or the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club, P.O. Box 1799, Edgartown, MA 02539.
Please visit ccgfuneralhome.com for online guest book and information.
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