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Licking County, Ohio
Granville, Newark and the Welsh Hills
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Land purchase
In 1801 Theophilus Rees and Thomas Phillips bought 2,000 acres of land between Granville and Newark and later that year Theophilus Rees sent his son, John, there to build a cabin, clear part of the land and sow wheat. By 1802, Rees and his family were ready to move to the
Welsh Hills and start farming there. Further information about
Theophilus Rees and Thomas Phillips can be found in History of the Welsh settlements in Licking County by Isaac Smucker.The growth of the Welsh community in Licking County
"It is an excellent place for serving-men and workmen: some, who had failed to get enough milk, potatoes, and barley bread in Wales, had their fill and to spare of wheat bread and other fruits."
Y Teithiwr Americanaidd, p.22
A number of Welsh settlers were attracted to the area in the years that followed. It is estimated that there were about 15 to 20 families living in Licking County in 1817 and by 1843 there are believed to have been almost 800 Welsh settlers in the Welsh Hills. The names of Y Teithiwr Americanaidd, p.22the first Welsh settlers to move to the Welsh Hills were recorded by Isaac Smucker.He also describes
the hardship suffered by the Welsh pioneers and the characteristics of the Welsh pioneers of Licking County."Newark is a fast-growing town, on the banks of the canal leading from Lake Erie the River Ohio. Many Welsh craftsmen dwell here, and live extremely comfortably." Yr American, p.24
There was plenty of work for the settlers. At that time the town of Newark was developing fast and there was a demand for workers to lay the railroad between Newark and Lake Erie. There was a good living to be made by farmers and craftsmen too, as R. D. Thomas ('Iorthryn Gwynedd') testified when he visited the area in 1851. Yr American, p.24In his notebook (only available in Welsh), he recorded the information given him by one homesteader, near Newark, about his livestock and crops. He lists the prices of corn, Indian corn, oats, butter, cheese and good-quality cheese, potatoes, bacon, mutton, beef, poultry and wool. He also noted the wages for a mason, a carpenter, a cartwright, a blacksmith, a tailor, a shoemaker, a laborer and a maidservant in Newark and how much a "good man" and a 15-year old boy would earn annually on a farm. At the end of the notebook he lists the names of "Friends from the Old Country" in Newark and Granville (Welsh only) >>The Welsh Chapels and Churches of Licking County
Details of the early Welsh chapels and churches in Licking County can be found in History of the Welsh settlements in Licking County by Isaac Smucker:Baptist Chapel, Welsh Hills >>Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in the Sharon Valley >>Harrison Township Welsh Congregationalist Church >>The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel at Granville >>Granville Welsh Congregationalist Church >>The History of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel at Newark >>The History of Newark Welsh Congregationalist Church >>Something of the history of the Welsh chapels and churches of
Newark, Granville and the Welsh Hills is also recorded in Hanes Cymry America (A History of the Welsh in America).Digitized Materials
CMA 22312 - Letter dated 12 March 1866 from William H Breese, Newark, to his uncle (English)CMA 22313 - Letter dated 30 May 1867 from William H Breese, Granville, to his uncle, Mr Owen Prys, AberystwythCMA 4 (B) 22331 - Letter dated 4 February 1870 from John M. Jones, Saron, Welsh Hills, Newark, to a friendIsaac Smucker, History of the Welsh settlements in Licking County, Ohio: the characteristics of our Welsh pioneers--their church history with biographical sketches of our leading Welshmen (Newark, 1869)Brief descriptions of Newark, Granville and the Welsh Hills can be found in:
Edward Jones, Y Teithiwr Americanaidd (Aberystwyth, 1837), p.22 (Only available in Welsh)B. W. Chidlaw, Yr American (Llanfair, 1839), p.24 (Only available in Welsh)R. D. Thomas, Hanes Cymry America (A History of the Welsh in America) (Utica, 1872), pp. 106 - 108General bibliography
Isaac Smucker, 'Historical Sketch of the Welsh Hills, Licking County, O.' (in two parts) The Cambrian, Vol. I, No. 2 (March/April), pp. 46-53; No. 3 (May/June 1880), pp. 81-6William Harvey Jones, 'Welsh Settlements in Ohio', (in three parts) The Cambrian, Vol. XXVII, No. 7 (pp. 311-17); No. 8 (pp. 344-50); No. 9 (pp. 395-9) (July-September 1907)
Rev. E. I. Jones, 'Congregationalism in Newark, Ohio', The Cambrian, Vol. XXIII, No. 12 (Rhagfyr 1903), pp. 495-98
Links
Welsh Society of Central Ohio - WSCOHistory of Licking County, O. Its Past and Present
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