Wales-Ohio

Trumbull County, Ohio

Mineral Ridge and Niles

Mineral Ridge

The Welsh started to settle in this area around 1847. R. D. Thomas noted in

Hanes Cymry America (A History of the Welsh in America) that there were two blast furnaces and five small coalmines in the area in 1872 and that many Welshmen were contractors and managers there. He also estimated that the Welsh population there was approximately 500 at the time.

Niles

It is not known when exactly the Welsh moved to Niles but it is believed that around 300 lived in the town by 1872. The majority were employed in the rolling mills and the nail factories. The Baptists used to congregate to worship in a schoolhouse in the town and a Welsh Congregationalist Church was established there in 1855.

Digitized Materials

NLW 21578E: The Register of the Welsh Pioneers of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties (1898 - 1922) (English and Welsh)

NLW 21577E: Minute book of the Welsh Pioneers Association of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties, Ohio (1895-1905) (Welsh; English newspaper cuttings)

Program (1975)

NLW 5631B (Harris Williams 28.) Miscellanea - three letters sent by Evan M. Williams (a native of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales) from Mineral Ridge in 1872.

Forty-Ninth Annual Gymanfa Ganu Song Festival
Niles (1975)

English program >>

Fifty-Sixth Annual Gymanfa Ganu Welsh Hymn Festival: The Niles Gymanfa Ganu Association
Niles (1982)

English program >>

Brief descriptions of Mineral Ridge, Niles, Church Hill, Hubbard, Coalburgh and Brookfield can be found in:

R. D. Thomas, Hanes Cymry America (A History of the Welsh in America) (Utica, 1872), pp.117 - 118