USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > The Welsh of Columbus, Ohio; a study in adaptation and assimilation > Part 8
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Percentages according to sex in these groups are as indi- cated in table XVI. below.
1 See Figure 5 page 102.
102
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
Figure 5
&
b
C
47.6
25.7
26.7
Figure 5 is a graphic representation of Tables XII., XIII. and XIV. in the appendix. The segments are as follows :
Segment a. The total of church members as per table.
Segment b. The total of church attendants who are not members.
Segment c. The total of non-church-goers.
103
WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS
TABLE XVI.
Showing the relative number of males and females among the Welsh of Columbus, (not in the Calvinistic Methodist Church) grouped according to their status of Foreign and Native born, and showing the extent of church affiliations for each group according to sex.
Native born of foreign
parents.
Native born, having one
foreign and one native
parent.
Native born of native
parents.
I. Percent of Males and Females.
Males
58.7
61
59
61.3
Females
41.3
39
41
38.7
100
100
100
100
II. Grouped According to Chrurch
Affiliations.
Percent of Church Members in these Groups
55
46
46.4
44.7
Percent of church attendants, not
members
24.2
27
23.4
26.5
Percent of non-church-goers.
20.8
27
30.2
28.8
100
100
100
100
III. Church Affiliation according to sex in these groups.
Church members-Males
47.9
43.2
44
48,4
Church members-Females
52.1
56.8
56
51.6
100
100
100
100
Church attendants-Males
63
67
69.1
58.7
Church attendants-Females
37
33
30.9
41.3
100
100
100
100
Non-church-goers-Males
82.2
85.6
74
83.9
Non-church-goers-Females
...
17.8
14.4
26
16.1
100
100
100
100
Foreign born.
104
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
The percentages in table XVI., when closely examined, ex- plain themselves. We can readily see that there is an excess of males as compared with females in each group. We have attempted to explain the reason for this in a previous section of this chapter.1
As we get farther away from the foreign born Welsh group the percentage of church memberships decrease. In the col- umns on church membership according to sex, the percent for females is larger than that for males in each group notwithstanding that the males outnumber the females by a large majority. Of those who attend church, but who are not members, the percent for males in each group is in excess of females. Likewise in the group of non-church-goers the per- cent for the males is very large while that for females is very small. The inevitable conclusion is that Welsh women are better church attendants than Welsh men.
By way of conclusion, we may observe from the facts pre- sented in this and the preceeding chapter that the assimilative process is rapidly taking place. The Welsh of the city are being absorbed by the community and the Welsh traditions and "clannishness" are breaking down. While the Welsh community life centered about the church at one time almost entirely, the church having refused to adjust itself to new con- ditions has lost its hold on scores of Welsh in the city. As a consequence a large majority of the Welsh group has given away and melted into the American population in response to manifold outside influences and the lack of sufficiently strong common bonds to hold them together.
1 See page 88.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PROCESS OF CHANGE (The Vanishing Welsh)
Our discussion of the Process of Change may be treated to advantage by grouping our ideas under three general topics for consideration, as follows: 1. The Welsh conservatism is giving way to a broader outlook, due to the influence of en- vironment in general and the consequent vanishing of Welsh institutions. 2. The linguistic question-a change of langu- age. 3. The problem for the church-new conditions.
WELSH CONSERVATISM IS GIVING WAY TO A BROADER OUTLOOK
The Welsh mind is conservative and, generally speaking, unprogressive. It accepts anything new with great reluct- ance. But that a great change has taken place in the Welsh social mind in recent years, no one can doubt. Extreme Welsh conservatism has given way to a broader spirit in almost every direction, and on almost every question of public concern and of private conduct. In the preceding chapters, we studied the early Welsh of Ohio as pioneers settling in their respective communities. They preserved their Welsh customs, habits, and institutions for a long time without being influenced to any marked degree by the American spirit.
In the case of the Jackson and Gallia colony, for example, we studied a rural community transplanted from its native soil on the slopes of the Welsh mountains to the rugged hills of Jackson and Gallia Counties in southern Ohio. There the Southwalean from Cardiganshire lived and labored and wor- shipped, much the same way as he did in his native land, for several decades. There were no public conveniences to disturb his peace and custom. There were no steam railways, inter-
106
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
urban lines, nor even public highways of any account invading the settlement. There were no telegraphs, telephones, nor rural mail carriers, and even foreign mails were very infre- quent for a long time. They had but little contact with the outside world and what contact they did have was forced upon them by circumstances. They preferred to live alone enjoy- ing their own society, customs, and religious exercises, more than association with their neighbors of other nationalities. No doubt they changed somewhat without outside suggestion and influences, but this form of change was for a long time very slight and we have no means of measuring the extent of it.
In Columbus, too, we found the Welsh community compact and clustered about their church. They were distinguished as a group by the names Welshburg and Jonesborough. They talked and worshipped in their mother tongue, and they pre- ferred their own little group, in a social way, to mixing with foreigners in the neighborhoods about them.
The Welsh people of Columbus today are the descendants of the early Welsh families who settled here and the children of the early settlers of other Welsh communities in Ohio, par- ticularly the Jackson and Gallia settlement. As we study present conditions in Columbus we are impressed with the great change which has come to the Welsh social mind. It has changed tremendously in recent years, and still greater changes must come in the next decade or two when those who are boys and girls today, and who are thoroughly Americanized in habit and spirit, will assume leadership and responsibility in the homes, in the social circles, in business relations, and in the church.
There was a time when the introduction of the innocent and helpful organ into the church worship met with great re- sistance. Parting the hair was looked upon by older people at one time as a sign of too much pride. The men combed their hair straight down over their foreheads. But the Welsh of today are quite as modern in their personal appearance and
107
THE PROCESS OF CHANGE
as dashy in their habits of dress as any other respectable peo- ple in the community. To sing love songs and "coon songs" used to be regarded as very unbecoming to the young, and they were rebuked for it by the elders of the church. Card playing, dancing, theatre going, billiard playing, and bowling met with wholesale condemnation in former days; and even pitching quoits, playing croquet, and other similar amusements by way of recreation, were discouraged in past decades. To- day they are not endorsed, but are tolerated even by the leaders of the church. Some church members have billiard tables in their homes, others play cards, and many attend theatres, but most of them are particular in their attendance upon theatres ; they attend the best.
The conservatism of the Welsh church on the linguistic question has lost many of the young people to the Welsh church in the past. But this now is being overcome and the Welsh young people remain in their own church. Many of those who marry persons of other nationalities, instead of leaving the Welsh church for some English speaking church, persuade their partners to remain with them in the Welsh church.
REGARD FOR SUNDAYS AND HOLIDAYS
The Welsh people as a people have a sacred regard for the Sabbath. They observe the Lord's Day. But while they keep the Sabbath with good and wholesome observance, they are far from giving it the strict puritan observance which, for example, their forefathers did in the early days in the Jackson and Gallia settlement. The strict avoidance of whistling on Sunday, and of walking to and from church with a member of the opposite sex on the part of young people, or of going for a walk on Sunday, is no longer required; such things, which were not tolerated at one time in Welsh circles, are today common.
Some holidays are strictly observed. Chief among these is Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day is held in great es- teem by the Welsh of Columbus. The writer has heard a
108
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
prominent member of the Calvinistic Methodist Church re- mark thus: "I regard Thanksgiving Day as just as sacred as Sunday." Scores of others would reiterate that statement. In the Calvinistic Methodist Church there are three meetings held on Thanksgiving Day, and this is true of almost all other Welsh churches. The order of services on Thanksgiving Day is as follows: At 10:00 a. m. a Welsh prayer meeting; 2:00 p. m. a general fellowship meeting ; 7:30 p. m. a prayer meet- ing under the auspices of the young people's societies. The service best attended is the afternoon service when all, both younger children and older people, attend if the weather is favorable. But the morning and evening services are well attended also. It is regarded as out of place for a young man to attend a foot ball game on Thanksgiving afternoon, even though he attended church both morning and evening.
Other holidays have been given no unusual attention by the Welsh. Christmas has not been observed with any very special functions until recent years. Of late Christmas exer- cises have been held for the children of the Sunday School. Easter has had no special observance until very recently, ex- cept by way of eating an unusual number of eggs on that day. The Welsh Eisteddfod is often held on either Christmas or New Year's Day, and a Welsh picnic is held on the Fourth of July.
THE LINGUISTIC QUESTION
The question of language has had a great influence in changing the social thinking of the Welsh of Columbus. One of the stanzas of the Welsh National Air breathes the senti- ment that "If the enemy has ravished the Land of Wales, the Language of Wales is as living as ever." ("Os treisiodd y gelyn fy Ngwlad dan ei droed, mae Hen Iaith y Cymry mor fyw ag erioed.") However true that statement may be of Wales today, the truth about the Welsh who emigrated to America is that they have found a new home in a good land, but they are losing their mother tongue, the language of Wales.
109
THE PROCESS OF CHANGE
Welsh communities in America have made a brave fight to preserve the language of their fatherland, which is so dear to them. But like every other language spoken by foreigners who come to our shores, the Welsh must give way before the dominant power of the English. The longevity of the Welsh language varies in proportion to the size of the community, its geographical position, the proportion of Welsh in the com- munity, and the degree of migration from Wales into the com- munity. Welsh settlements and Welsh characteristics will, in the future, be shorter lived in America than they have been in the past. Our reason for this belief is that modern con- veniences in America today disturb the exclusiveness and the clannish tendencies of any people, or group of people, who come to our shores. Steam railways, electric railways, tele- graphs, telephones, rural mails and daily papers, and a thousand other modern improvemnts and conveniences disturb the exclusiveness of any community or clan, and be- fore the power of the English language in the commercial world of America every other tongue must be silent.
The average period of persistence of the Welsh language in Welsh communities is about three generations or about 80 years ; sometimes more, and frequently less. Concerning the Welsh settlements briefly studied in the second chapter, the following may be stated regarding the longevity of the Welsh language in them. Paddy's Run, settled over a hundred years ago passed through its most flourishing period in the '30s and '40s. At present there are only four old settlers1 in Paddy's Run who can speak the Welsh language. In the Welsh Hills in Licking County, there are less than a dozen people who can speak Welsh. In the towns of Granville and Newark, several Welsh speaking people may be found. In the Jackson and Gallia settlement,2 the strongest and best organized Welsh settlement in America in her balmy days, and the best fortified by natural environment against extraneous influences, the Welsh language is rapidly vanishing and is being supplanted
1 Two of these are over 90 years old.
2 First 18 settlers came there in 1818, but the real growth of the settle- ment began in 1834.
110
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
by English even in the church services. About one-third of the preaching done in the settlement is in English, perhaps more. About two-thirds of the Sunday School classes in the churches are conducted in the English language. Gomer in Allen County, settled in 1838, is rapidly changing its com- plexion linguistically. Half of the preaching services are in English and more than half of the Sunday School classes are carried on in that tongue. Venedocia in Vanwert County, settled in 1848, is gradually coming to recognize the need of English in the church. Venedocia is the latest of the large settlements, here considered, to be established and therefore the last to show signs of the decline of the Welsh language. Strictly speaking, the signs were evident long ago, but they were not discerned by the leaders in the Welsh church. A Presbyterian Church was organized in Venedocia some 12 years ago by the Lima Presbytery and its services are con- ducted in English. The Welsh people in Venedocia should have organized that church under the auspices of the Calvin- istic Methodist denomination. They failed to do this. The result is that he Welsh Church of Venedocia in the past 10 or 12 years has gradually decreased, while the Presbyterian Church, which consists very largely of younger Welsh Ameri- cans, has grown during the same period from a small mission church to a church with a membership of about 120. The Sugar Creek Church in Putnam County became extinct as a Welsh church, and for a number of years no service was held there. In recent years this church has been reorganized by the Calvinistic Methodists as an English church, and the work there is now growing. The Radnor settlement, in Delaware County, once a flourishing Welsh community is now entirely English in society and church. But the inhabitants of the community are almost all people of Welsh blood, being the descendants of the early Welsh settlers who came to Radnor a hundred years ago.
With this brief resume of the linguistic conditions of the older Welsh settlements of Ohio, which supply Columbus with
111
THE PROCESS OF CHANGE
much of its Welsh population today, let us now give attention to the linguistic condition among the Welsh of Columbus.
First, the linguistic condition in the Calvinistic Methodist Church. The Welsh church is the great conserver of Welsh forces, linguistic and otherwise. The Welsh church is the last place to give up the Welsh language. When every other branch of social activity and every social circle, including the home, has ceased to use the Welsh language the Church de- mands it in public worship, even though every sign points to the need of a change. The main reason for this condition is that the older people cling to their mother tongue from senti- ment, and the older people control in church affairs. They cling to the Welsh not that they do not understand the Eng- lish, but because they prefer the Welsh. The older people do understand English, but scores of their children do not un- derstand Welsh. The Welsh language is losing, and it must lose more and more in Columbus, as in other communities, as the process of Americanization of the children in Welsh homes is increasing, and as the practical cessation of immigration from Wales continues.
In the Calvinistic Methodist Church of Columbus there are 51 infants of five years and under. Of these 51 infants, 6 are able to speak Welsh. They speak the language well for children five years of age. In the next age group, children from 6 to 10 years of age, there are 50, and 4 of these may be said to speak Welsh fairly well. In the next age group, 11 to 15, there are 52, and 3 of these can speak Welsh. In the next age group, youths 16 to 20 years of age, there are 59, and 13 of these are able to speak the Welsh language. Of adults over 21 years of age in the church, there are 39 persons of pure Welsh blood who cannot speak Welsh, besides the mem- bers who are not of Welsh blood and who cannot understand the language.
We have this interesting linguistic condition among the children of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, viz. there are more children, and a larger percent of the children, of five
112
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
years old and under who can speak the Welsh language than there are in the next two age groups, viz. those between the ages of six and ten, and eleven and fifteen, respectively. The reason for this is that some Welsh parents are faithful to teach Welsh to their young children in the home, but as soon as they go to the public schools and begin to associate with other children, they pick up English and in a short time they refuse to express themselves in Welsh even at home, and not long thereafter they cannot talk Welsh at all.
There are 212 children under 21 years of age in the Cal- vinistic Methodist Church and society and only 26, or 12.7 percent, of them are able to intelligently use the Welsh langu- age. It may here be urged that almost one-fourth of this 212 are infants under five years of age, many of whom are unable to speak any language as yet. That is true, but the fact still remains that a larger percent of this age-group can speak Welsh than of the next two age-groups respectively; all of which means that when these children, now under five years of age, come to the age-groups of 6 to 10 and 11 to 15 respect- ively, a smaller percent of them will be able to speak the Welsh language than at present.
The percentages in the age-groups run as follows: Of the total under 21 years of age, 12.7 percent speak Welsh. Age- group under five years of age, 11.7 percent speak Welsh; in the age-group 11 to 15 years, 5.8 percent speak Welsh; in the age-group 16 to 20 years, 22 percent are able to speak Welsh. Of those over 21 years of age, there are 39 persons of pure Welsh blood, or 8.5 percent of those over 21 years old, who cannot speak the Welsh language. The group of 212 children and youths under 21 years old, 87.3 percent of whom cannot speak Welsh, are, for the most part, children of Welsh parents who have come to Columbus from the Jackson and Gallia settlement in the past 25 years. There are but very few of the descendants of the old original Welsh families of Colum- bus in the Calvinistic Methodist Church at present. Most of
113
THE PROCESS OF CHANGE
these have left the Welsh church and are identified with Eng- lish churches in the city.
When we come to study the linguistic situation among the Welsh of Columbus outside the Welsh Calvinistic Church and society, conditions are still more striking, as may well be ex- pected, even though the members of the Welsh Congregational Church are reckoned in this group.
Of the entire 1,273 persons regularly classified in the Gen- eral Canvass of the Welsh people of the city 359, or 28.2 per- cent, speak the Welsh language.1 And these are distributed as to classification of foreign and native born as follows: There are 269 foreign born Welsh, and of this total 161, or a little less than 60 percent, speak Welsh. The total number of native born of foreign parents is 415; of this number 130, or 31.3 percent, speak Welsh. The total number of native born having one of the parents foreign and the other native, is 178; of these 23, or a trifle less than 13 percent, speak Welsh. The total number of native born of native parents is 411; 45 of these, or 10.9 percent, speak the Welsh language.
It is evident from the above percentages that as we get farther away from the foreign born Welsh the knowledge of the Welsh language decreases. This is to be expected, but the percentage of each group is interesting nevertheless, if not surprising. As Americanization takes place the knowledge of Welsh diminishes. The groups, beginning with the foreign born Welsh, show the percents to diminish as follows: (i) 59.8 percent; (ii) 31.3 percent; (iii) 12.9 percent; (iv) 10.9 percent, respectively.2
With such a condition present, and with practically no direct immigration from Wales, and with rapid linguistic changes going on in the communities which have served as "feeders" for Columbus in the last 25 years, and which still continue to supply Columbus with Welsh people, it is safe to predict that the time is not far distant when the Welsh lan- guage will be extinct in Columbus, or at least dropped from use
1 See Figure 6 on page 114.
2 See Figure 7 on page 115.
114
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
Figure 6
b
a
2 8.2
71.8
Figure 6 is a graphic representation of linguistic condi- tion stated on page 113. The segments are as follows :
Segment a. Total of those who cannot speak the Welsh language.
Segment b. Total of those who can speak Welsh.
115
THE PROCESS OF CHANGE
Figure 7
L
b
b
a
40.2
31.3
59.0
68.7
b
b
a
a
/2.9
10.9
87.1
89.1
Figure 7, in four parts, is a graphic representation of the linguistic conditions as analyzed on page 113.
The circles are as follows :
1. Linguistic condition among the foreign born Welsh.
2. Linguistic condition among the native born of foreign parents.
3. Linguistic condition among the native born having one foreign and one native parent.
4. Linguistic condition among the native born of native parents.
The segments in each circle are as follows :
Segment a. Total who cannot speak Welsh.
Segment b. Total who speak Welsh.
116
THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
even in the Welsh church. Were we able to give linguistic conditions regarding the 423 children of Welsh parents, and the 806 children of mixed marriages, one of whose parents was Welsh, the statistics on the vanishing of the Welsh language would be even more striking than the above figures show.
CHARACTERISTIC WELSH INSTITUTIONS WANING
There are Welsh organizations and societies in many com- munities where the Welsh are organized as a people. Colum- bus today has none of these. Such organizations as the Cymrodorion Society, the Ivorite Society, Saint David's Soci- ety, etc. are found in many Welsh communities, especially in the cities. Some cities much larger than Columbus have them, such as New York, Philadelphia, etc., and some cities much smaller than Columbus, and which have a much smaller Welsh population than Columbus, also have them. But no such or- ganizations exist in Columbus. Even the Cambrian Musical Club, consisting of about 40 male voices, which was organized about six years ago, was abandoned in 1910. The Eisteddfod which is a characteristic Welsh institution is held occasionally, but this has no permanent elements. It is formed from an impulse on the part of a few persons and a temporary organi- zation is formed to carry out the Eisteddfod plans for the season. After the Eisteddfod takes place the organization dissolves, as a rule.
The reason for the absence of characteristic Welsh institu- tions among the Welsh of Columbus is difficult to state. The language does not play a very important part here. For, in many cities, flourishing Welsh societies are maintained where the Welsh speaking population is small. The only character- istic Welsh institutions in Columbus are those under the auspices of the Welsh church. Perhaps the great Welsh or- ganizations are formed, in cities where they exist, after the Welsh church has proven insufficient to the task of holding together the great mass of influential Welsh people in the city. At any rate, the condition in Columbus at present is that of
117
THE PROCESS OF CHANGE
a strong Welsh church with no other Welsh societies besides those maintained under the auspices of the church.1 Another reason which may be assigned for the absence of these Welsh institutions is that the Welsh of Columbus are absorbed with other societies and organizations in a social way. The men belong to various fraternal societies and labor organizations in the city, which occupy their time and attention; and the women have joined clubs for women in the city. Granted that this be one of the causes for the absence of Welsh institutions, we again see the change which has come into the Welsh society through association with other peoples in a mixed community. Welsh ideals and institutions are vanishing, and the Welsh of Columbus are identifying themselves with institutions which are common to Americans. The old societies once cherished by the Welsh are giving way to American institutions.
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