Elsie Welter (1903-1994)

Elsie Mallinger was born near Sabin, Minnesota on March 2, 1903, the seventh of nine children. Her parents, John and Elizabeth Mallinger, moved to a farm near Ada, Minnesota when Elsie was young. Elsie entered country school at age four. Eventually she started teaching other students in the back of the class while the teacher continued teaching in the front. Elsie graduated high school at age sixteen and returned to her family’s farm for some time. She then attended Dakota Business College in Fargo, graduating in seven weeks. [1]

At age eighteen, Elsie moved to Hankinson, North Dakota, where she was offered a job in a law office. After this job, she returned to Ada and worked at the county auditor’s office. While there, a local banker asked her to work for him. She agreed and later married him. The relationship was not successful. The couple divorced, despite the financial and societal issues revolving around divorce at the time. Elsie then worked at a variety of jobs at several locations, including Fergus Falls and St. Paul, MN and Fargo, ND. [2]

On June 9, 1950, Elsie married Leslie Welter, Jr. in Sisseton, SD. Leslie Welter came from a well-to-do family as his mother was a Gedney of Gedney Pickle Company and his father was Leslie Welter, Sr., a businessman who grew potatoes, owned a brickyard and gravel pits, and worked as a real estate agent and broker. Leslie graduated from the University of Wisconsin and worked for his family’s businesses, taking over when his father retired. When Elsie and Leslie married, he already had three children from a previous marriage: Margaret, Eleanor, and Leslie III. Elsie also had a child, Betty. Early during their marriage, Elsie worked part-time as a court reporter. [3]

During their summers, the couple spent time at their lake cabin in Otter Tail County. In the 1960s, a nearby resort owner gave Elsie a pair of binoculars along with a bird identification book. This was the beginning of what she referred to as her “love affair with birds.” After this, she began to identify birds in the Fargo-Moorhead area and at the lake as well. [4]

In 1964, she began to visit the American Crystal Sugar Company settling ponds, north of Moorhead. In the decade following, she sighted 112 bird species there. By 1974, these ponds were named the “Welter Nature Preserve.” By this time, Elsie had already established the Audubon Society of Fargo-Moorhead and served as the organization’s president. While Leslie was alive, Elsie spent most of her birdwatching in western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. She did not like the idea of “life-listing” bird species she came across but instead believed that it was important to “view and listen to birds simply because they are one important piece to the ecosystem." [5]

In 1968, Leslie passed away, but Elsie remained active. She started traveling around the U.S. with her mother and learned to appreciate new experiences and places. From 1969 to 1973, Elsie drove 30,000 miles around the US and Canada. In 1969, Elsie went back to college to obtain a liberal arts degree. Originally, she went to North Dakota State University, but quickly switched to Moorhead State College, now known as Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM). Elsie pursued both English and History degrees for her own satisfaction and to prepare for her upcoming world travels. In 1972, she graduated magna cum laude.  In 1973, Elsie departed on a month-long trip to Columbia, Panama, the Amazon, and Brazil.  During this trip, she sighted over four hundred species of birds and returned with around seven hundred slides of birds, people, and scenery. [6]

Elsie Welter was also very involved in her local community. From 1972 to 1974, she served as the president of the Audubon Society of Fargo-Moorhead. In the mid-1970s, she moved from Moorhead to Fargo. Later, she joined the Fine Arts Club in the literature subsection and served on the board of directors and social economic sections. She served in various offices with First Presbyterian Church in Fargo including a position as a deacon. While she took positions in Fargo businesses and clubs, she continued in her travels. In 1974, she visited Cyprus, East Africa, Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, the Mascarene Islands of Reunion and Mauritius, and the Seychelles. The following year, she visited Hong Kong and Bangkok. In 1976, she traveled to Rio de Janeiro and Australia. By 1986 she became interested in the biology program at Concordia College. [7]

Elsie also continued her world travels, including visits to the Soviet Union, Suriname, the Comoros Islands, and the Indian Ocean. She would eventually travel to Europe, China, Japan, Nepal, India, Russia, Iceland, Australia, Thailand, Madagascar, South America, Gambia, Mauritius Islands, Zambia, Tanzania, Seychelle Islands, and Egypt. Despite all her traveling, she believed Fargo to be the best place to live.  She related to a reporter that she had “never been impressed by any other place to the extent of wanting to live there” and also noted that her friends and family were local to Fargo. [8]

Elsie dedicated a lot of her time and financial resources to Concordia College. She began employment there as an adjunct instructor in 1977.  She donated a 28,000-slide storage case along with duplicates of her slides from her travels to the Concordia biology department. She also donated a computer system and funds to catalogue her slides into the computer system, as well as clothing and souvenirs from countries she visited. [9] In March 1989, she donated property between Moorhead and Dilworth to Concordia College’s biology department. This property contained twenty-five acres of land, including an apartment, and was valued around $500,000. [10] For the remainder of her life Elsie Welter was involved with Concordia. She remained friends with faculty and discussed affairs related to the college and her travels. She passed away on December 19, 1994 in her home after a struggle with lymphoma. [11]

On June 22, 2003, Concordia’s science museum was dedicated to Elsie and named the Elsie Welter Natural Science Museum. There was a ceremony and dinner with over 50 invited attendees. Currently, the museum is named the Elsie Welter Natural History Museum. [12]