USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > The Welsh of Columbus, Ohio; a study in adaptation and assimilation > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
2 See "The History of the Welsh Settlement of Paddy's Run"; also "Hanes Cymry America" p. 113 sq.
3 See "Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania," chapter on "Cam- bria County."
21
THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO
the township Cambria, and later the County was given the same name.1 The Welsh of this colony are characterized as "a people remarkable for thrift, sobriety, and industry."
Hughes and Bebb did not join the other members of their company who settled in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, but after remaining with friends in the Dyffryn Mawr, (Great Valley), near Philadelphia for several months, they started in April 1796 for the then far West. They walked over the mountains to Red Stone, Old Fort, (now Brownsville) Pa. where they secured a flat-boat and floated down the Ohio River to Fort Washington, or Cincinnati.
After reaching Cincinnati they spent three weeks "in traversing the five lower ranges" but in their search they found only one tract of land which they considered good for that part of the country. They described the land as being well watered and convenient being only half a mile from the road going from Cincinnati to Hamilton. They purchased 100 acres of land in section 34, Colerian Township, cleared a part of it for cultivation, and built a cabin on it. Their pur- pose was to remain there and to experiment with the land in that region until the land beyond the Great Miami was sur- veyed by the government and placed on the market, believing that the soil on the east side of the Great Miami River was similar to that on the west side.
They remained on their farm east of the Great Miami from 1796 until 1801 when the government surveyed the land on the west side of the river and placed it on the market. The two men made frequent excursions into the regions be- yond the Miami and made careful examination of the soil and of conditions in general. "The land to be sold on the other side of the Miami," writes Hughes, "is rich as any in Ken- tucky, much better watered, and the title indisputable."
Ezekiel Hughes was the first to purchase land in this newly opened territory. He bought sections 15 and 16 in White- water Township, Hamilton County, paying $2.05 per acre.
1 The Welsh of Cambria County first settled at Beulah, about two miles from Ebensburg but when Ebensburg was made the county seat of Cambria County, the Welsh gradually moved toward Ebensburg.
22
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
This tract lies between the Miami and Whitewater rivers, just where the Whitewater empties into the Miami. At the same time Edward Bebb purchased half a section on the Dry Fork of Whitewater in what is now Morgan Township, Butler County, which was the first land bought in Butler County. Two other men, Morgan and William Gwilym, from Cavena- man, South Wales, joined Hughes and Bebb on the east side of the Great Miami in 1798, and "squatted" on Blue Rock Creek. In 1802 William Gwilym followed his friends to Paddy's Run and began to clear the forest. Morgan Gwilym returned to Red Stone where he had previously worked, stayed there a while and then invested his earnings in a two-horse wagon and some iron castings and returned to Paddy's Run.
Edward Bebb, after buying his land, started for Wales seeking the sweetheart of his former days with the intention of bringing her to the cabin in the woods. He walked all the distance from Paddy's Run to Ebensburg intending to stay there a short time on his return trip to Wales. While at Ebensburg, much to his surprise, he met the lady for whom he was making the trip. Her maiden name was Margret Roberts. But when Bebb met her in Ebensburg her name was Mrs. Margret Owens. After Bebb left Wales for Ameri- ca Miss Roberts married a man by the name of Owens. To Mr. and Mrs. Owens one child was born. The family left Wales for America but on the voyage Owens and the child died and were buried at sea, and Mrs. Owens was left to make her way in the new country alone. After landing in New York she determined to go to Ebensburg where she had rela- tives who had left Llanbrynmair in the ship Maria in 1795. It was at the home of one of the friends that Edward Bebb found her on his arrival at Ebensburg. Bebb remained there a few weeks, then returned to his home, on the Dry Fork, accompanied by his bride. There in their cabin on December 8th, 1802 was born William Bebb, the first white child born in Butler County, who later became the 17th Governor of Ohio, and the first native born Governor of the Buckeye State.1
1 See "Historical Collections of Ohio" Vol. I. p. 349.
23
THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO
Ezekiel Hughes returned to Wales in 1803 and married a Miss Margret Bebb.1 The two returned to their home in Hamilton County in 1804. These trips on the part of Bebb and Hughes, together with correspondence and glaring ad- vertisement, created a great interest on the part of the Welsh of Llanbrynmair and presently a large number of Welsh im- migrants poured into Paddy's Run. From 1803 to 1820 there was a constant stream of Welsh people coming into the com- munity and a Welsh colony was the result.
Just as Hughes and Bebb were pioneers in Paddy's Run so is Paddy's Run pioneer and parent of Welsh settlements in Ohio.2 Out of Paddy's Run grew, either directly or indi- rectly, four important Welsh settlements in the State, viz .: the Welsh Hills colony in Licking County, settled in 1801; the Jackson and Gallia settlements in Jackson and Gallia Counties, settled in 1818; the Gomer settlement established in Gomer, Allen County, in 1833; and the Venedocia settlement in Vanwert County established in 1848.
The Welsh Hills Settlement
Theopholis Rees and Thomas Phillips were members of the colony which first settled in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, in 1796. The influence of Hughes and Bebb may be seen in the desire of their friends to venture farther west.
In 1801 Theopholis Rees began to investigate the ad- vantages of the country beyond the Ohio River.3 In August
1 Margret Bebb, so far as we have been able to ascertain, was not a relative of the other Bebbs mentioned in this chapter.
2 Paddy's Run sounds incongruous as the name of a Welsh community. There is a story handed down by tradition that in the first surveying party which came to this region there was an Irishman, and that the Irishman was drowned in this creek. From that time to the present day the creek has been known as Paddy's Run; and the community takes its name from the creek which runs through the valley. At one time during the '80s an effort was made to change the name from Paddy's Run to Glendower (Welsh, Glyndwr). The change was actually and officially made by the government, but so great was the opposition to it that the name was soon changed back to Paddy's Run. The station is now called Shandon but the community is known as Paddy's Run.
3 See "The Cambrian" for August 1907, article by Wm. Harvey Jones, p. 344 sq. Mr. Jones in this article states that Rees came to America with Thomas Phillips and others landing in New York May 14, 1795. Chidlaw definitely states that Rees was in the company of fifty who came with Hughes and Bebb and landed in Philadelphia in the Spring of 1795. Jones has made a careful study of Welsh Settlements in Ohio in recent years. Chidlaw, on the other hand, was the son-in-law of Ezekiel Hughes and wrote 20 years before Jones. Chidlaw quotes from the Diary of Ezekiel Hughes in his article (see The Cambrian for May, 1888). Whether Rees was in this particular company which Hughes and Bebb brought with them or not we do not know, but that the large majority of the Ebensburg colony were from the colony that Hughes and Bebb brought over is certain. So the influence of these men in their west- ward venture was felt in the Ebensburg colony, and the most venturesome of them were, by the success of their friends in Paddy's Run. inspired to seek like opportunities beyond the Ohio.
24
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
1801 he sent his son, John Rees, and Simon Jones to explore a tract of land in Granville Township, Licking County, which has since received the name of Welsh Hills Settlement. When these men returned to Ebensburg and reported favorably on the land in Licking County, Theopholis Rees and Thomas Phillips purchased nearly 2,000 acres of land in the northwest corner of Granville Township. The tract was divided, Rees taking the south half or a little more, and Phillips the re- mainder. Others bought smaller farms about the same time. A year after the purchase was made Rees and his family, his two sons-in-law and their families, left Ebensburg for their new home in the Welsh Hills. Thomas Phillips did not come to his tract in the Welsh Hills until 1806. From 1806 on, the colony grew rapidly for many years.
"JACKSON AND GALLIA"
Paddy's Run is indirectly responsible for the Welsh set- tlement of Jackson and Gallia Counties in Southern Ohio. In the Spring of 1818 six families from Kilkenin, Cardigan- shire, South Wales, emigrated for America. Their destina- tion was Paddy's Run, Butler County, Ohio. Friends of these people had left Kilkenin before and had settled in Paddy's Run. These six families arrived at Baltimore, and there hired wagons to carry them and their baggage to Pittsburg, where they purchased a flat-boat to float down the Ohio River as far as Cincinnati in the hope of reaching Paddy's Run shortly after. Floating down the Ohio they arrived in a few days at a small village, and, being short of provisions, paddled to shore and a delegation was sent to the town to secure food. On entering the village they discovered that the inhabitants were French-the village was Gallipolis.
The delegation was kindly received by the French inhabit- ants who urged them to remain for the night. The committee returned to the boat and reported what they had seen and heard, with the result that the entire party disembarked and spent the night in Gallipolis. The French improved their time and opportunity and did all in their power to persuade
25
THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO
the Welsh to remain in Gallia County giving it as their opinion that Gallia County was as good a country as could be found anywhere.
During the night a violent storm arose. A heavy rain fell and a fierce gale was blowing. When the Welsh went to the river bank the next morning their boat was no where to be found. Two theories are advanced as to the disappearance of the boat. One is that during the storm of that night the boat became unfastened from the shore and drifted down the river. The other is that some resident of the village imbued more or less with the modern idea of booming his town cast the boat adrift in the hope of compelling the Welsh immi- grants to increase the population of Gallipolis. The boat was found and brought back to the village after several days search, but by this time the women of the company rebelled against going any farther.1 They declared that they had sufficiently risked their lives already and positively declined to commit themselves to the mercy of the treacherous Ohio any more in a flat-boat.
The rebellion of the women together with the kind hospi- tality of the French inhabitants of Gallipolis prevailed. The Welsh settlement of Jackson and Gallia owes its existence to this incident which occurred to this company of immigrants who left Kilkenin in Cardiganshire, South Wales, with the avowed intention of going to Paddy's Run in Butler County, which is only a short distance farther down the river.
These six families had little or no means when they arrived in Gallipolis and their first task was to find employment. At that time the State was opening a highway from Gallipolis to Jackson. On this road the men found work. They pushed their way north and west some eighteen or twenty miles from Gallipolis and came into the vicinity of what is now known as Centerville in Gallia County. They followed Sims Creek where there were a few acres of good bottom land.
These pioneers experienced untold hardships and suffered
1 See "The Cambrian" for June 1883, p. 120; also the "Cambrian" for Nov. 1888, p. 322 and "Sefydliadau Jackson a Gallia," p. 10 sq.
26
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
great privations. No glowing reports were sent to the old home in Wales from this settlement for many years, and it was not until eleven years later that another Welshman came from Cardiganshire into Jackson and Gallia Counties.
In 1829 David Thomas came from Cardiganshire to visit his old time neighbors and friends, and in 1831 the Rev. Ed- ward Jones from the same place came to the settlement. While there Jones preached to the pioneers in their native tongue. This was the first Welsh preaching they had heard since leaving Wales. Jones stayed but a short time, then re- turned to Cardiganshire where he wrote and published a pamphlet in which he described the land of Jackson and Gallia Counties, and told of its resources, urging that this section of Ohio was the very place to which the Welsh should emigrate.1 As a result of the publication of this pamphlet the Welsh from Cardiganshire literally poured into the Jack- son and Gallia settlement for many years. The settlement is frequently called "The Cardiganshire of America." Immi- gration began with vigor in 1834 and continued increasingly for twenty or twenty-five years.
THE GOMER SETTLEMENT IN ALLEN COUNTY
While the Welsh from Cardiganshire were flocking into Jackson and Gallia Counties, the Welsh from Montgomeryshire were entering Allen County. In 1833 three men, James Nicholas, Esq., David Roberts, and Thomas Watkins, with their respective families drove in wagons from Paddy's Run through the dense forest to what is now known as Gomer in Allen County.2 The Welsh of Paddy's Run were almost all from Montgomeryshire, as we have already observed. Now we find favorable reports going from Gomer to Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire and some of the pioneer settlers of Gomer soon paid visits to the old home in Wales with the result that a large immigration into Gomer from Llanbrynmair was soon realized.
1 See "The Cambrian" for Nov. 1883, p. 286 sq .; also "The Cambrian" for Sept. 1907, p. 295; and "Sefydliadau Jackson a Gallia," p. 13. 2 See "The Cambrian" for Oct. 1908, p. 439; also "Hanes Cymry Amer- ica,'' p. 120.
27
THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO
THE VENEDOCIA SETTLEMENT IN VANWERT COUNTY
For the Venedocia Welsh Settlement Paddy's Run is also responsible. Governor William Bebb purchased two or three sections of land in what is now Venedocia, Vanwert County. Through the influence of Governor Bebb his cousin, also Wil- liam Bebb by name, came to America from Llanbrynmair. He lived at a place called Rhiwgriafol, and was known as "Bebb Rhiwgriafol."
The Bebbs in Wales were prominent Calvinistic Metho- dists,1 and William Bebb "Rhiwgriafol" promised his friends and relatives before leaving home that he would, on arriving in America, establish a Welsh colony the religious complexion of which would be Calvinistic Methodist. With this promise he left Wales for Paddy's Run in 1846 or 1847.
In April 1848 three men, William Bebb "Rhiwgriafol", Thomas Morris, and Richard Jarvis accompanied by their re- spective families, left Paddy's Run for Vanwert County. This was the beginning of the present large and prosperous com- munity of Welsh people in Venedocia.2
THE RADNOR SETTLEMENT IN DELAWARE COUNTY
There is one more settlement which must be considered here because of its evident bearing on the early Welsh popu- lation of Columbus, Ohio, although it bears no relation, so far as we can learn, to the pioneer settlement of Paddy's Run. It is the Welsh settlement of Radnor in Delaware County. This settlement is in the township of Radnor near the north- west corner of the county, about six miles north of the city of Delaware. A young man by the name of David Pugh from Radnorshire, South Wales, was the first to purchase land here, buying land warrants for 4,000 acres from Samuel Jones of Philadelphia.3
Pugh4 landed in Baltimore in 1801 and rode on horse-back
1 See "Methodistiaeth Cymru" Vol. II., p. 246.
2 See "Hanes Cymry America," p. 122; also "Adroddiad Pwyllgor Adeiladu Capel Newydd Salem Venedocia."
3 See "The Cambrian" for August 1907, p. 345.
4 David Pugh is the ancestor of the large and influential Pugh family of Columbus, Ohio.
28
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
all the way from Philadelphia to Radnor to see his purchase. He then returned to Philadelphia and arranged with a Welsh- man by the name of Henry Perry from Anglesea, North Wales, to make a settlement upon the tract.
In the Autumn of 1803 Perry and his two sons, aged 13 and 15, erected a cabin on the land and lived in it that winter. In the Spring of 1804 Perry left his boys on the place to do for themselves while he returned to Baltimore for his wife and other children. In 1804 Pugh returned to his tract and divided it into lots of 100 acres each, and sold the farms to other settlers who came there. Many Welsh people came to Radnor from 1804 to 1807 and after that time the settlement enjoyed a prosperous growth for at least twenty years.
PIONEER LIFE
Many aspects of life were common to all these pioneer Welsh communities. The region into which they came was an unbroken forest, covered with a variety of timber and a thick growth of underbrush. The water supply was plentiful and the forest gave abundance of fruit and nuts of many varieties. The woods abounded with game and the streams teemed with fish. Nature provided well for the early comers.
The first task of the pioneer after securing his land was to select a suitable place for the location of his cabin. The first Welsh settlers sought the hills. The regions into which they came in Butler, Licking, and Jackson and Gallia Counties were hilly, as were the homes of former Welsh settlers in Cambria County and the Great Valley region in Pennsylvania. Two reasons may be assigned for their selecting the hills for a home. First, the land from which these pioneer Welshmen came was mountainous. It was natural that they should chose a place similar in its general appearance to their homeland. A second reason for their seeking the hills was that the hill- tops were healthier. The valleys and bottom lands while possessing better soil, were at the same time swampy, the streams were sluggish and the water stagnant; whereas the hillsides were dry and from their slopes welled up pure and
29
THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO
refreshing springs of water which ran in streams into the valleys below.
The first cabins were generally erected near a spring on the hillside. Before the early settlers of Jackson and Gallia Counties decided to make that region their final abode they commissioned one of their number to investigate the condi- tions of the soil and climate in the Radnor settlement in Dela- ware County. The man returned with the verdict that the region about Radnor was low and swampy and suggestive of malaria. The Radnor colony, therefore, is the one exception of the early pioneer Welsh of Ohio which settled in a region not hilly, for the land in the vicinity of Radnor, while it is not entirely flat, is only slightly rolling.
After living for a generation in the hill-country the Welsh began to move out of the hills into more level regions, and to make settlements there. Thus we found some of the early settlers of Paddy's Run in 1833 migrating to Gomer and start- ing a new settlement there; others from the same place went to Venedocia in Vanwert County in 1848 to establish a new settlement in that place. And later, during the '60s we find the second generation leaving the hills of the Jackson and Gallia settlement and joining their countrymen in Vanwert County, while scores of others left for the prairies in Western States.1
The cabins of these early Welsh pioneers were built of logs with puncheon floors and greased paper windows. The doors were of clapboards fastened with wooden hinges. The logs of the house were chinked with mud of clay, as were also the chimneys. Their houses were scantily furnished with home made furniture, and their out-of-door buildings corres- ponded with their dwellings in point of architecture and fur- nishing in general.
These Welsh pioneers possessed qualities of great endur- ance and their prominent characteristics were industry, fru- gality, deep religious convictions, and a kind and helpful
1 . See "The Cambrian" for March 1885, p. 73; also "Hanes Cymry America" Part II., p. 47.
30
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
neighborly spirit. Their co-operation in economic activity showed this. They had their cabin "raisings," their "roll- ings," "choppings," and "huskings" in common, and "butchering day" was a great event. The women also had knitting parties and quilting bees. When new comers entered the settlement they were received with great kindness and the spirit of hospitality was very marked at such a time. Neigh- bors entertained new arrivals and helped them clear a piece of ground and to raise a cabin and did all in their power to make things home-like and comfortable for them.
The Family and the Home Training .- This was a period of large families in the Welsh settlements, the families ranged anywhere from six, eight to ten children in the home, and sometimes twelve. The home influence and training were puritanic. On the puncheon floors of the cabins the entire family knelt every morning and every evening about the family altar. These early families knew but one language and one Book. They all spoke Welsh and they read and studied the Welsh Bible. If a family chanced to have some book aside from the Bible it was a biblical commentary, or perhaps a biography of some famous Welsh preacher. Papers and periodicals were scarcely known to them for a long time, except some few sent from Wales and these generally were of a religious character.
With the literature at their disposal the parents in these humble homes were diligent in instructing their children ; evenings were spent in teaching them to read the Welsh Bible and to commit verses of Scripture to memory. The younger children learned verses, while the older children committed chapters of the Gospels and Psalms to memory.
Sabbath Observance .- The Sabbath was very strictly ob- served in the home. All shoes had to be shined on Saturday night for Sunday. Wood and water enough to last over Sun- day had to be brought to the house on Saturday evening. If a child laughed heartily on Sunday he was censured for it, the idea being that such laughter could only issue from a spirit of levity which was regarded unworthy of the day.
31
THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO
For any member of the family to remain home from church on Sunday, except for illness, was out of the question. A child was censured for picking a berry from a bush on his way from Sunday School. To sing any song other than church hymns was not allowed, and to whistle even a hymn tune was forbidden as one of the unnecessary things on Sunday. To go for a walk on Sunday was to idle the time away and to go for a ride would be definitely to break the Sabbath.
The diligence with which these parents guided their child- ren and gave them instruction with the meagre means at their disposal is certainly praiseworthy, and their reward may be seen in the worthy type of manhood and womanhood which the early settlements have produced.
RELIGIOUS LIFE
The Church Organization .- The control of the church in a typical Welsh community is remarkable. The church occu- pied a large and controlling place in each of these early Welsh settlements. But the power of the church organization is more marked in the Jackson and Gallia settlement than in any other. This may be accounted for in several ways. First of all, it was by far the largest of the early settlements, thus affording opportunities for developing a community life of their own choice without compromises with other people about them. In the next place they were all from the same part of Wales; they were, so to speak, one large family. They were very clannish and desired to have nothing to do with their neighbors of other nationalities. They spoke the Welsh lan- guage and were determined to maintain it. Their prevailing religious persuasion was Calvanistic Methodist and this de- nomination lends itself readily to a rigid form of government.
The first pastor to the Jackson and Gallia settlement was the Rev. Robert Williams. Williams was a man of austere character and of domineering disposition. He was a powerful preacher, a great organizer, and an untiring worker. He was an absolute ruler and possessed but little of the democratic spirit. Apart from Robert Williams the history of the Jack-
32
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
son and Gallia settlement cannot be related. He was its con- trolling figure in every religious undertaking. Under his leadership the religious organization of the settlement was developed and carried on for forty years, and the highly or- ganized condition of the settlement in a religious way was very largely due to his efforts.1
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.