USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > The Welsh of Columbus, Ohio; a study in adaptation and assimilation > Part 4
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11. The time to persuade a diligent laborer and a skilled workman to remain in Wales to half starve themselves, when they can receive for their services such fine wages in markets which are so inviting, free and convenient, is past.
12. The population of this vicinity is less according to the last census than it was when the previous census was taken, and it would be still smaller were it not that strangers had recently come into our woolen mills.
13. The fact that continual decrease is experienced in an agricultural district, which is thinly populated, is a sure sign that there is here some glaring unfairness on the part of land- lords and stewards.
14. The best class of tenants are forced to believe that the day is near at hand when they too must give up their farms and follow their friends and relatives in the search for better and cheaper farms on the great Western Continent, and they can easily secure them.
15. It is not easy for the landlords now to imagine the loss to themselves and to their children because of banishing these faithful, diligent, and economical tenants from their farms. And they certainly will repent, when it is too late, for treading under foot so cruelly the rights of the people who have served them with so much self-denial and faithfulness, endeavoring through a score of narrow straits to meet their rents.
16. The landlords and stewards will never again have the opportunity to oppress tenants so obedient, humble, and sub- missive as those they are now crushing to ruin. The old
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
schemes of inducing the inexperienced and of ensnaring them have been worn thread-bare. The door of hope, to diligence and labor, is open. The great continents of America and Au- stralia are open to receive, reward, and honor the skilled work- man, the faithful shepherd, the honest laborer and the op- pressed tenant."
Add to this form of agitation on the part of Welsh leaders in Wales the visits made to Wales by individuals of influence who went back to Montgomeryshire from Ohio, and we have another direct incentive to Welsh emigration. We shall here mention one such person who exerted a great deal of influence in bringing many Montgomeryshire Welsh to Ohio and to Columbus.
Rev. B. W. Chidlaw came to Radnor, Ohio, with his parents when a boy of ten years, in 1821. Within a few weeks after their arrival Chidlaw's father died and the boy was left to care for his widowed mother. Chidlaw received his early re- ligious training at home with his mother and in the log chapel near Radnor. He got his elementary education in the log school-house in the same neighborhood. In August, 1829 Chidlaw walked from Radnor to Granville, Ohio, in order to study Latin and Greek, preparatory to entering the Ohio Uni- versity at Athens later that year. In November he entered the Ohio University. A year or two later he entered the Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, walking all the way from Radnor to Oxford, a distance of 125 miles. In 1835 he gradu- ated from Miami University and was licensed to preach by the Oxford Presbytery. At the same time he received a call to the pastorate of the Paddy's Run Congregational Church. Before taking up work in this important field Chidlaw decided to make a trip to Wales with a view of improving his Welsh, the church at Paddy's Run at that time being carried on for the most part in the Welsh language.
In the Autumn of 1835 Chidlaw spent two months in Wales and preached week-days and Sundays practically all the time he was there. In 1839 he made a second trip to
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THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS
Wales and this time he stayed there eight months. He was given an extensive itinerary in the vicinity of his old home in Montgomeryshire. Chidlaw preached daily and met with en- thusiastic inquirers wherever he went. People who wanted to learn more about life and opportunities in America, and especially in Ohio, met him at every turn.1 Chidlaw was a great agitator of "America for the Welsh," and the fact of his being a Welsh preacher reared and educated in Ohio en- couraged them in the belief that there were religious oppor- tunities in this country as well as chances for improvement in a material way.
We insert the following illustration of Chidlaw's agitation on his preaching tours in Wales. It is a story of personal ex- perience told by Mr. Edward Pryce of Columbus who is now the oldest Welsh resident of the city. "I came to Columbus," said Mr. Pryce in an interview, "in 1840. At that time I was a lad of seven years. The Welsh of that period were nearly all from Montgomeryshire. Rev. B. W. Chidlaw put us in the notion of coming to America. He was a preacher who lived with his mother at Radnor and had come back to Mont- gomeryshire for a visit. I well remember the night he spent at our home. He wore boots. That was the first time for me ever to see boots on a man's feet, and what puzzled me was how he could ever get them off. I remember it as well as yesterday.
"Chidlaw told us of the great advantages for raising children in America. My mother took it all in for she had seven children. And she decided then and there to come here. Father objected to coming, but mother prevailed and we came, arriving in Columbus in June 1840, and I have lived here ever since."
In addition to the deplorable economic and social condi- tions in Wales, revealed in Samuel Roberts' agitation, which stimulated migration together with the influence of individu- als, like Chidlaw, who visited their old homes and others who wrote glowing accounts concerning life and opportunities in
1 See "The Story of My Life," Ch. V., p. 82.
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
Columbus we have the fact of improved transportation facili- ties in this period. The National Road from Wheeling, West Virginia, on the Ohio River was completed. Also the San- duskey Turnpike which connected Columbus with Lake Erie by land. And still more attractive to the immigrant was the Ohio Canal, which brought Columbus into water communica- tion with the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Immigrants who landed at Baltimore and Philadelphia came overland to Pitts- burg, then down the Ohio River to Portsmouth, thence up the Canal to Columbus. Others came from the North up the St. Lawrence River through the lakes to Cleveland and from Cleveland down the Canal to Columbus. We have record of Welsh immigrants coming to Columbus by both these routes. And we have finally to mention the development of the rail- roads after 1850 which eclipsed all other modes of travel.
THE WELSH OF THE FIRST PERIOD WERE SKILLED LABORERS 1
An old City Directory of Columbus (1842-1843) contains the names of 38 Welsh people. Five are names of females, five are of males whose occupations are not mentioned. The names of 28 males appear whose occupations are given. Twenty-three of the twenty-eight named were skilled laborers. The little pamphlet by Mr. L. D. Davis, entitled "Some Facts with References to the Welsh of Columbus, Ohio from the Earliest Times up to 1860," gives a brief obituary mention of many of the early Welsh of Columbus, giving (i) the date of their birth; (ii) the date of their marriage; (iii) the part of Wales from which they came; (iv) the year of their arrival in Columbus; (v) their occupation and religious preference, and (vi) the date of their death. This booklet reveals the fact that at least three-fourths of the Welsh who came to Co- lumbus previous to 1860 came from Montgomeryshire and that a very large percent of them were skilled laborers, and among them a great many carpenters and plasterers.
1 Just how many of the early Welsh were skilled laborers when they came to the city we have no means of ascertaining, perhaps not many for the large majority of them came from an agricultural district in Wales, but on their arrival in Columbus they evidently applied themselves to the trades.
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THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS
The Welsh were found working in the different industries such as the John Demming Threshing Machine Company, and Neil and Moore's Coach Shop, the Joseph Ridgeway Com- pany, manufacturers of all kinds of machinery, and other similar places.
THE SECOND PERIOD
The second period (1860-1885) marks the gradual decline of direct foreign immigration from Wales to Columbus and a corresponding rise of immigration from the local Welsh settle- ments. The decline of immigration from Wales was due largely to the fact that other States west of Ohio were offering tempting attractions to immigrants. The booming of Western States appealed to the poor immigrant from Wales. The con- sequence was that Welsh immigrants entered these States in large numbers. An idea of the way the Welsh went westward may be had from the fact that from 1864 to 1870 over 240 Welsh families settled in Missouri alone.1
THE "MILL MEN" COME
While the immigrant directly from Wales traveled west- ward there were attractions in Columbus which appealed to a special class of workmen, namely, the "mill men." The rise of industry, the mills and shops, attracted workmen of that class. For example : the Steel Rail Company which organized a mill for the manufacture of steel rails attracted a great many iron workers in the '70s. The company engaged a Welshman by the name of Lewis as superintendent. Lewis came from Pennsylvania. The habit of the Welsh iron work- ers of that day was to follow their leader, so along with Lewis came many of his former workmen, the majority of whom were Southwaleans. Another Welshman by the name of Lewis was bookkeeper for the company, and almost all of the important positions such as foremen, engineers, etc. were held by Welshmen. In conversations with Welsh residents of Co- lumbus, many of whom worked in the Steel Rail Mill in that former day, the writer has been given various estimates as to
1 See "Cymry America," p. 84 sq.
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
the percent of Welsh working in the mill. Some gave it as their opinion that three-fourths of the employees were Welsh, others gave an estimate of two-thirds and no one gave a lower estimate than one-half. The mill was abandoned some twenty years ago. Some of the Welsh left at that time but many of them remained in the city, finding employment with other firms.
The Hayden Company had a great many Welsh people in their employ. David Price, a brother of Edward Pryce1 mentioned above, was 17 years of age when he came to Colum- bus with his parents in 1840. David Price was connected with the Hayden Company for 45 years. At first he was a teamster for Hayden, then he clerked in the store. Finally he became foreman of all the outside work for Hayden, having complete charge of teams, the hiring of men, etc., a sort of general manager of outside affairs. David Price helped the young Welsh boys a great deal. He was a man of unusual energy and push. He knew the city and was known by all. When a Welshman arrived in the city in search for work he was di- rected to Price, who always assisted him in finding employ- ment. Price gave the young Welshmen positions at Hayden's, either temporarily or permanently, and he helped scores of them secure good positions elsewhere in the city.
IMMIGRATION FROM LOCAL SETTLEMENTS IN OHIO
During this period the tide of immigration on the part of the Welsh from the Jackson and Gallia settlement turned from Cincinnati to Columbus. This began in 1860 when the Rev. R. H. Evans, who was raised in the settlement, became pastor of the Calvinistic Methodist Church in Columbus. The next to come from this settlement was a woman who came as house- keeper for a man in Columbus, who had a brother living in the settlement. She came in 1863. The same year Mr. L. D. Davies was brought to Camp Chase as a paroled prisoner of the Civil War. At the close of the War in 1865 Mr. Davies came to Columbus and settled there permanently in business
1 These two brothers spelled their names differently, one with a "y" and the other with an "i". The spelling of the name "y" in Pryce is the original.
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THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS
as a grocer. He was followed by his brother in 1867 accom- panied by another young man from the settlement. After that time Welsh immigration from the Jackson and Gallia settlement kept increasing. By 1873 there were about 15 people from the settlement in Columbus and in the decade which followed a great many more came.
The causes of migration from Jackson and Gallia may be briefly summed up as follows: (i) Their farms were small and not very productive, so the young sought employment in the city. (ii) Cincinnati was not so attractive to them as in former years.1 The city had grown and consequently the Welsh population had scattered. The pastor of the Welsh church of that period was not so strong socially as his prede- cessor had been. (iii) The development of railroads in cen- tral Ohio made Columbus very accessible to the people of the settlement. (iv) Wages were good and many forms of oc- cupation were available in Columbus. (v) Columbus was not as large as Cincinnati and the Welsh were grouped to- gether about their church. (vi) Rev. R. H. Evans came to the Columbus church directly from Jackson and Gallia settle- ment. He was followed by the Rev. David Harris as pastor. Mr. Harris came to Columbus from Ironton which is also in the Jackson and Gallia Presbytery. Harris had been a tomb- stone maker and had traveled extensively through the settle- ment. He knew all the people of the community, first as business man, then as minister. His influence brought many to Columbus. (vii) Men from the settlement came to Co- lumbus as members of the legislature from their district, and they advised the young of Jackson and Gallia, who were seek-
1 For many years previous to 1860 the Welsh from Jackson and Gallia flocked into Cincinnati. Scores of Welsh girls found employment in the best homes of the city. The young men also entered the shops and factories of Cincinnati and many of them learned trades. Poverty at home forced them to seek employment elsewhere. Cincinnati was accessible to the Settrement by water down the Ohio River. The fact that there was a good Welsh church in Cincinnati helped to attract them there, and it encouraged the parents to allow their children to go to Cincinnati. The first two pastors of the Cincinnati C. M. church were Revs. Edward Jones and Howel Powell. These men were very strong socially, and they paid great attention to the young men and women who entered the city from country homes. The Welsh C. M. church during the late '50s and early '60s had a membership of 350; two-thirds of them were from Jackson and Gallia, and about one-third of them were servant girls.
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
ing for positions in the city, to go to Columbus. (viii) When the children were established in good positions their parents, in many cases, followed them to Columbus.
THE THIRD PERIOD
The third period of Welsh migration to Columbus, (1885) is marked by a decided decrease in direct immigration from Wales and the rapid increase of immigration from the local Welsh settlements in Ohio. The decrease of foreign Welsh immigration amounts to what may be regarded as almost a complete extinction of the direct foreign immigration on the part of the Welsh to Columbus.
The trend of migration during the past 25 years may be seen from Table II. in the Appendix.1 Table II. has been compiled from the records of the Calvinistic Methodist Church of Columbus. The Table shows the total number received into the church by letter in the past 25 years, (viz. from 1885 to 1909 inclusive). In the table there are 28 columns showing the sources from which the members came, the name at the top indicating the church. The column at the left shows the year in which they came. The two columns marked "totals," one at the right and the other at the bottom, shows (i) the total which came each year, and (ii) the total which came from each church in 25 years. The columns of this table are also grouped in such a way as to indicate what churches are grouped together, belonging to the same vicinity.
This table, to be sure, does not include all the Welsh who have come to Columbus in the past quarter of a century. For many who came here went to the Welsh Congregational Church, others went to English churches in the city and still others to no church at all. But the table does indicate the trend of the Welsh immigration during this period.
The first 15 columns are of churches in the Jackson and Gallia Presbytery, and all of these may be said to belong to the Jackson and Gallia settlement with the exception of four. And these four have contributed the least of any of the
1 See Appendix A.
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THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS
churches individually of the entire 15. They are Ironton, Portsmouth, and Pomeroy on the Ohio River and Coalton in Jackson County. These four collectively gave to the Calvin- istic Methodist Church of Columbus only 22 out of 466 mem- bers which came by letters from that Presbytery. All the rest came directly from the settlement except Jackson town people, and they must be counted as a part of the settlement for the Welsh population of Jackson grew out of the settle- ment.
The next large group is that of Vanwert and Putnam Counties consisting of five churches. The Sugar Creek Church in Putnam County is separated from the others by some 15 or 18 miles. But it is a neighboring settlement and may be thus considered with the Venedocia settlement in Vanwert County. From the Venedocia and Sugar Creek group 135 members have come in the past 25 years, the most of these came in the late '90s and thereafter. The remainder are from various places in Ohio, as the table indicates, and from other States, and from Wales.
The total coming to the Calvinistic Church by letters in the past 25 years is 801. Of this total 466 came from Jackson and Gallia Presbytery, and 135 came from the Venedocia and Sugar Creek group. In other words 601 out of the 801, or three-fourths of the entire number came from these two dis- tricts alone. Of the remaining 200 members, 125 were scatter- ing in Ohio, including those who came from English churches in Columbus; 43 were from other States, and only 35 came directly from Wales. From this it is fair to conclude that direct immigration from Wales to Columbus had practically stopped by 1885, and that there was a great influx of Welsh from rural districts in Ohio, particularly from Jackson and Gallia and from Venedocia and Sugar Creek, is evident.1
The Welsh from the Jackson and Gallia settlement were variously employed when they came to Columbus. Many were artisans and they entered the mills and shops. Others were employed as carpenters, plasterers, painters, stone
1 See Figure I. on page 54.
Figure 1
C
b
d
e
a
a
58.2
b
16.8
c
15.4
d
5.2
e
4.4
Figure 1 is a graphic representation of Table II, appendix
A. The segments are as follows :
Segment a. Jackson and Gallia.
Segment b. Vanwert and Putnam.
Segment c. All others in Ohio.
Segment d. Other States.
Segment e. Wales, G. B.
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THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS
masons, bricklayers, and some were common laborers. Many found work in the State Institutions, while others clerked in stores and found positions as bookkeepers, and many of the young women were employed as house servants in the best homes in the city.
The new arrivals from Jackson and Gallia were received and cared for by friends and relatives who had already be- come established in the city. The grocery store of Mr. L. D. Davies was for many years practically an employment bureau for the Welsh who flocked into the city from the Jackson and Gallia settlement.
ORGANIZATION AND CHANGE
The first period (1820-1860), was a period of organization and rapid changes according to shifting conditions. The be- ginning of church activities is a good illustration of this fact. The first Welsh church organized in 1824 was Baptist. The worshippers met in the homes of the members until 1830 when they occupied a building on Mound Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. In 1831 the society resolved to build a church. The church was erected and was ready to be occupied by May 1832. The English Baptists had no church, consequently some English preaching was allowed in the Welsh church. Then the clash came. A dissension arose and in the Autumn of 1832 a number of the Welsh members went out of the church and organized a new Baptist church under the leader- ship of Rev. John Harris. At the beginning the services were carried on entirely in Welsh in the new church. But later on, the English speaking Baptists had to be reckoned with again with the result that occasional sermons were preached in the English language. The colored Baptists also worshipped with them in this society for a short time but they withdrew and organized for themselves in 1834.
There were, therefore, in 1833 two Baptist churches or- ganized under Welsh auspices. Both societies were weak and they maintained an existence with great difficulty. Their case was taken up by the Baptist Missionary Society with the re-
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THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
sult that a new society was formed which absorbed both of the Welsh societies. The new (third) church was English. In the roll of its charter members this church had 9 Welsh people, and on the committee appointed to build a new church edifice the name of Rev. John Harris appears. From these facts it is evident that the Welsh were prominent in founding the Baptist interests in Columbus. The new church built on the corner of Rich and Third streets was occupied in 1837 and by 1840 it had a membership of over 200, many of whom were Welsh.
While the Baptists were passing out of existence as a Welsh church another Welsh society was in process of forma- tion under the direction of Rev. James Hoge, the father of Presbyterianism in Columbus. This church was organized as a Union Welsh church with a charter membership of 12, nine of whom were women and three men. At first meetings were held in a schoolhouse located in an alley north of Broad Street between High and Front streets The location of the meeting house was subject to many and frequent changes until a frame church building was erected on Town Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. The church was dedicated as a Mission church under the auspices of the First Presbyterian Church. The lot for the building was donated by the Presbyterians. This church passed through its period of struggle. One faith- ful member by the name of Davies (y Saer) was there alone many a time simply to keep the door open, awaiting a brighter day for the Welsh church. Conditions improved and all went well for a time and they succeeded in building a church for themselves in 1845. But the Union Church, like their Baptist brethren, after they had accomplished the definite and difficult task of building a house of worship, quarrelled and the result was a division.1
The real cause of the "split" was that during the '40s many of those who came to Columbus from Wales were Cal- vinistic Methodists. The Calvinists wanted more Calvinism in the church. One member of the Union Church who was a
1 See "Some Facts with Reference to the Welsh of Columbus &c." p. 12 sq.
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Calvinistic Methodist wrote to a friend in Wales urging him to come to Columbus to assist in organizing a Calvinistic Methodist Church, giving as his reason that the present ar- rangement in the Union Church was very unsatisfactory to the Calvinistic faction. He also stated that he believed that the dissatisfaction then existing would continue and increase until the Calvinistic Methodists organized for themselves. The friend came to Columbus in 1848, and the Calvinistic faction went out from the Union Church and organized a church for themselves with 28 charter members. This re- duced the Union Church to 12 members, the same number as it had when it organized ten or more years before. From this time on the Union Church was known as the Welsh Congrega- tional Church; and they worshipped in their church on Town Street until the early '90s when they erected a new and com- modious building on the corner of Washington Avenue and Gay Street.
The Calvinistic Methodists after organizing with 28 char- ter members held their meetings for a year or more in the homes of Edward Herbert and Evan Reynolds on the corner of East Long and Fourth Streets. In 1849 a new church edi- fice was erected on the corner of East Long and Fifth Streets. It was occupied in 1850 and the same year the church was received into the Western Presbytery of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Synod of Ohio.
Since that time there have been two Welsh churches in Columbus, viz. the Welsh Congregational Church and the Cal- vinistic Methodist Church. The Calvinistic Methodist society found it necessary to move from its crowded quarters on the corner of East Long and Fifth streets and in 1887 a new com- fortable auditorium with a seating capacity of 800 or more was built on the corner of East Long and Sixth streets. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church is prosperous and grow- ing, having a membership at present1 of 512. The Welsh Congregational Church has not grown in recent years. Its
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