Licking County, Ohio - Chapter 29: The Welsh Hills Settlements, 1881

Chapter 29: The Welsh Hills Settlements

THOMAS PHILLIPS AND SONS - THEOPHILUS REES - OTHER EARLY WELSH EMIGRANTS - THEIR SETTLEMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA - THEIR PURCHASE OF LAND IN GRANVILLE TOWNSHIP - THEIR APPEARANCE IN THE WELSH HILLs - "Jimmy JOHNSON," THE LEWISES AND OTHERS - THE ADDITIONS TO ILHEIR NUMBERS - SAMUEL WHITE, SR. - JONATHAN WHITE - SAMUEL WHITE, JR. - DR. THOMAS AND SoNS - A FEW OF THE SETTLERS SUBSEQUENT TO 1810 - THE BOUNDARIES OF THE WELSH SETTLEMENTS - ITs TOPOGRAPHY - HARDSHIPS AND ADVENTURES OF THE EMIGRANTS - GRADUAL INTRODUCTION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE - THEIR RELIGION - THEIR PATRIOTISM AND OBEDIENCE TO LAW AND ORDER - THEIR HONESTY AND ADHERENCE TO THE PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE - GRADUAL

Americanization

N 1787 John H. Phillips and his two younger i brothers, Thomas and Erasmus, sons of Thomas Phillips, a Welshman of large' fortune, were students at a college in Wales. John H. was the reputed author of some seditious or treasonable literature, and, to avoid arrest and punishment, he decided ato emigrate to America. Accordingly he sailed for Philadelphia, accompanied by his brothers, who were more or less implicated with him, ar riving in the above named year. They soon went to live in a Welsh settlement in. Chester county, in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Here they met with Chaplain Jones, a Welsh minister, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere. General Anthony Wayne was also a resident of Chester county, and when he organized the expedition against the Indians in the Northwest territory, in 1792, through the influence of Chaplain Jones he appointed John H. Phillips a member of his staff.

These sons of Thomas Phillips succeeded, after much persuasion, in obtaining the consent.of their father, who was a man of wealth, to.close his business. affairs and follow them to America.

Thomas Phillips, both residents of Carmarthenshire, in South Wales, who likewise was a man of liberal means, after a full consideration: of the' subject, also decided to try his fortune in the New

They accordingly closed up their business, and, when that was accomplished, they bade adieu to their native hills in ''Wild Walia," and sailed in the ship Amphion, Captain Williams, April 1, 1795 (or, as some accounts have it, 1796), for the United States, where they arrived after a passage of nine weeks.

Many of their old Welsh neighbors, by arrangement, through the kind generosity of Messrs. Rees and Phillips, came as emigrants in the same | ship with them, though many of them were unable "to pay their passage, but agreeing to do so upon | earning money enough after their arrival here.

In October after their arrival, most of this colony removed to Big Valley, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, where there was a Welsh settlément. Messrs. Rees and Phillips resided some time in or near Philadelphia; but both removed to the Welsh settlement in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Here, however, they did not remain long, but soon, probably in.1797, together with others who had crossed the Atlantic with them, removed to Bulah, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, where they formed.a portion of a considerable Welsh settlement. In this community Mr. Phillips' son, Thomas, who came over in 1787, died in 1801. The other son, Erasmus, died in Philadelphia some years later.

In 1801, or earlier, when all this county constituted Licking township, Fairfield county, Thomas Phillips and Theophilus Rees purchased two thous- and acres of land situated in what is now the northeast quarter of Granville township. It bordered on the McKean township line and extended almost to Newark township. They purchased this land of Mr. Sampson Davis, a Welshman of Philadelphia, who was then an extensive dealer in western lands. The purchase was made upon condition that the land proved as represented, the purchasers not having seen it. Chaplain Jones, Morgan Rees, and Simon James were selected to view the land. They accepted the commission, discharged the duty assigned them, and, upon their report, the contract was ratified. Mr. Rees and his son-in-law, David Lewis, visited this. purchase in 1801.

In 1801 David Lewis and David Thomas, left Bulah, Pennsylvania, to settle on the Welsh Hills. On arriving at Marietta they found stonemasons' work and remained until the spring of 1802, when they came up the Muskingum and during said year built cabins on the Welsh Hills. In the same year Mr. Theophilus Rees with his family, and Simon James without his family, left their homes in Bulah, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of permanently occupying and improving the Welsh Hills purchase.

Mr. James was to build a cabin on the Phillips tract, clear some land, then return to Cambria, which he did. He, however; removed, with his family, to the Welsh Hills settlement in 1804.

Upon the arrival of this colony of emigrants at or near Wheeling, they fell in: with a frontiersman, hunter, scout and Indian fighter named Jimmy Johnsan, who felt quite willing to be transferred to

Mr. Rees thinking that an pre in those occupations, and a man of such diversified genius and talents might be useful to him in his wilderness home, engaged him to accompany him, agreeing to sell him one hundred acres of land, to be paid for in such services as he might be able to render. David Thomas stopped in Newark, and lived in a cabin on the Park House lot until he could build a cabin on his land, when, late in the same year, or early in 1803, he removed to the Welsh Hills and occupied his cabin.

worked as a stone mason, but his father-in-law, Theophilus Rees, having given him one hundred acres of his land, Mr. Lewis soon took measures to occupy it, and with the help of Patrick Cunningham and his sons, erected a cabin upon it. This cabin was probably erected in 1802. But Theophilus Rees, Simon James, and Jimmy Johnson, established themselves on the Hills in 1802; Mr. Rees most likely temporarily occupying, with a portion of his family and laborers, until a better one could be erected; and Messrs. Johnson, Thomas and Lewis constructing cabins for themselves and _ families, Simon James' occupancy, however, in accordance with the original intention, was only temporary. Theophilus Rees, David Lewis, David Thomas, Simon James, and Jimmy Johnson were the Welsh Hills pioneers. Thomas was afterward known as "Big Davy Thomas," to distinguish him from a smaller man of the same name, who was also a son-in-law of Theophilus Rees, and who, in 1810, settled on the purchase of Mr. Rees, he having been presented with one*hundred acres of it.

Theophilus Rees, the patriarch of the Welsh Hills, was a gentleman and a scholar; a man of integrity and great usefulness. to his 'countrymen and his church. He spoke the English language imperfectly, but after the arrival of the Granville colony in 1805, he was a regular attendant upon the services of the church in Granville until the organization of the Welsh Hills church in 1808.

John H. Phillips, the youthful sedtitious writer, who left his country to secure his own safety, arrived for the first time on the Welsh Hills in 1803, or the year after, but remained only a short time. He returned to Chester county, where his family lived, and superintended the construction of a bridge over the Schuylkill near _ Philadelphia. In 1806 he returned to the Welsh Hills, where he taught school, and made himself generally useful for eight years, when he removed to Cincinnati where he died in 1832. He was one of the earliest school teachers in the Welsh Hills, and a man of fair abilities, good scholarship, and made his mark wherever he went. He held some official positions in Cincinnati, and was highly esteemed there.

in Cambria county, Pennsylvania, and moving on his land immediately was found impracticable. He, however, visited it in 1804, accompanied by his wife, whose adaptation to frontier life, business capacity, energy and force of character were proverbial. They remained some time, and then returned to Cambria county, with a determination to bring their business affairs there to a close. This was accomplished in two years; and in 1806 Thomas Phillips and family returned to the Welsh Hills where he lived until his death, which occurred May 26, 1813. Mrs. Phillips died some years before in Philadelphia, whither she had gone on business.

Mr. Phillips, like his neighbor and friend, Deacon Rees, was a well educated gentleman of large experience and extensive information and reading.

Thomas Cramer, son-in-law of Jimmy Johnson, and his brother, Peter Cramer, came from West Virginia in 1804, as did also Mr. Simon James, who, two years before, accompanied the Rees colony. During the years 1805 and 1806, John Price, Benjamin Jones, John H. Phillips and Thomas Powell were added to the list of Welshmen in the Welsh Hills' settlement.

Samuel J. Phillips and Thomas Owens were among the Welsh settlers of 1807 and 1808; Jacob Reily and a Mr. McLane, not Welshmen, were immigrants of the sdme year. Morris Morris, David James and Joseph Evans, father of Joseph and Lewis, of Newark, came in 1809; and "little" David Thomas, son-in-law of Theophilus Rees, and Mr. Samuel White, sr., came in 1810. Mr. White was a son-in-law of Thomas Phillips, and though not a Welshman, albeit his wife was a native of Wales, he yet became very closely identified with the history of the Welsh Hills' settlement. -He was born March 4, 1762, in Peterborough, near Boston, in Massachusetts, and entered college upon reaching manhood; but before the completion of his college course, he commenced a seafaring career which he pursued for twelve years. He visited the four quarters of the globe while a seaman, and during the time, was shipwrecked abandon the life of a sailor, and returning to Philadelphia, entered the service of Thomas Phillips as a teamster in 1797. Mr. Phillips was running

Mr. White was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and education; possessing an inquisitive mind, and an independent, frank, upright character. He was the father of a number of sons, and died September 13, 1851, at the ripe age of eighty-nine.

Jonathan White, son of the foregoing, was born in Cambria county in 1800, and came to the Welsh Hills with his father in 1810. He became a good scholar under the teaching of Rev. Thos. D. Baird, of Newark, and was a young man of very fine talents, excelling in oratory. He died in 1827, in Stark county, Ohio, where he was engaged as canal contractor.

Samuel White, jr., was born in the Welsh Hills settlement, March 3, 18:2. He was the first student on the list on the first day of the first term of Granville college. He remained there some time, but difficulties, growing out of the discussion of the slavery question, led him to complete his education at Oberlin. Leaving college in 1836, he entered the law office of the late Colonel Mathiot, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. In 1843 he was a successful candidate for the State legislature and became a leader in that body. In 1844 he received | the nomination of the Whig party for Congress in the district composed of the counties of Knox, Licking and Franklin, in opposition to Colonel C. J. McNulty, one of the most able and accomplished stump speakers and political campaigners in Ohio. They conducted the canvass with extraordinary vigor, and it is generally conceded that it was owing to the herculean labors of Mr. White during this campaign that he contracted a fever which so utterly prostrated him as to end in his death, which occurred July 20, 1844. Columbus Delano took his

Samuel White, jr., for some time edited, in part, the Newark Gazet¢e; but in this vocation it cannot be said that he exhibited extraordinary ability. He was not remarkable as a writer. He made the reception speech in 1843, on the occasion of the ar- _ rival of John Quincy Adams in Newark, which was universally conceded to have been a preeminent success. He was a man of remarkable force and power as a public speaker. It is undoubtedly true that his equal as an orator, before a promiscuous assembly, and in cases of a certain kind before a jury, has never been produced in this county. His sarcasm was withering; his invective powerful. He was exceedingly ready and pointed in repartee, and of very. great severity in his strictures upon party measures and party leaders. In declamatory harangues and satirical oratory he was perfectly overwhelming. In aptness of scriptural quotations he could not be excelled. To work up an audience to the fever heat of excitement, and to sway the multitude by inflammatory appeals, were to him matters of easy accomplishment. He was indeed a man of wonderful power, and his early death is probably all that prevented him from taking a front In logical argumentation, in philosophical reasoning, in legal acumen or ability he did not excel, but in the elements of a popular stump orator, young as he was, he has had but few equals and fewer superiors. Many still remember that he and B. B. Taylor, a Democrat, made much music of the rambling, discordant sort, during the famous log cabin and hard cider campaign of 1840. They were often pitted against each other in the three or four subsequent contests, producing uniformly music of the harshest sort.

Samuel White was fearless, independent, outspoken, frank, honest, never uttering opinions he did not believe, and always gave expression. to thoughts he entertained, without "fear, favor or affection." against slavery and intemperance, he was always in the front rank, playing well the part of Richard, the lion-hearted.

freedom of press and speech, and more thi: once braved ignorant, infuriated, brutal mobs, who tyranically denied the liberty of speech. He never shrank from the open avowal of his sentiments under any amount of popular odium, and therein he attained, in those heroic times, to the highest point of independent manhood.

''He and I held opposing political opinions, but we were in harmony on the question of the right of free discussion, and now, after he has been a tenant of the tomb more than a third of a century, I avail myself, with the highest degree of pleasure, of the opportunity to bear testimony to one of nature's highly gifted ones, with whom I was not in political harmony, and sometimes not on terms of friendly personal relations. But he

A Welshman, who passed current on the "Hills" as Dr. Thomas, settled there about the year 1834. He derived most of his consequence from the fact that he placed five sons in the Baptist ministry, who were all more or less distinguished. They were named David, John, Benjamin, Daniel and Evan, and all entered the pulpit very young. David, the eldest, was, for a number of years, pastor of the church in Newark, as was also Benjamin. David was a man of wonderful volubility in the pulpit, and stood in the first class of the school known as "revival orators." His brothers, also, had similar gifts, and all were liberally endowed with talents as public speakers. They were remarkable men, whose fame spread abroad, and who made considerable stir in the world as pulpit orators of more than average natural powers. They never enjoyed superior educational advantages, nor attained to any distinction in scholarship.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the purchase of Messrs. Rees and Phillips formed the nucleus of the Welsh settlement in this county. Theophilus Rees settled on his half of the purchase, and surrounded himself by his sons, Theophilus and John, and his sons-in-law, the two David Thomas', and David Lewis, and his hunter, "Jimmy Johnson," giving to each of them about one hundred acres of his land.

Mr. Thomas Phillips settled upon his portion of the purchase, and likewise surrounded himself by his sons, John H. and Samuel J., and his sons-in- law, Thomas Owens, Samuel White, William Morrison and John Evans. To all of them he gave one hundred acres of land, but the two last named sons-in-law did not occupy their land. Morrison lived on land in the vicinity, but Evans never came to Licking county. Toa granddaughter Mr. Phillips gave two hundred acres of land, but she never occupied it.

It is impracticable to give the names of the emigrants from Wales who settled in this county subsequent to 1810. Additions were made to their number from year to year, so that, notwithstanding the numerous deaths and removals, the number of Welsh inhabitants in Licking county, ineluding those who are in whole or in part of Welsh parentage, cannot be much less than twenty-five hundred at the present time. They live principally in the Welsh Hills settlement, and in the city of Newark, and village of Granville.

Of those immigrants from Wales, who settled in the Hills subsequent to 1810, there were Daniel Griffith (1812), Walter and Nicodemus Griffith (1815), David Pittsford (1816), and Hugh Jones (1819).

Of those members of the families of Messrs. Rees and Phillips, who came from Wales in 1795, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, wife 'of "Little" David Thomas, and daughter of Theophilus Rees, was the last survivor. She died May 3, 1855, after a residence in America of sixty years.

The portion of Licking county in which the first Welsh settlers located, has ever since been known and designated as the "Welsh Hills settlement." It was originally limited to the northeast quarter of Granville township, but the settlement gradually extended in all directions, and its present boundaries, though somewhat indefinite, may be given with some degree of approximation to accuracy. It is mainly in the townships of Newark and Granville, but extends slightly into the townships of Newton and McKean. It begins at Sharon valley, at a point about two miles northwest of Newark, and extends in a northwesterly direction into McKean township, and is between five and six miles long. It has a width of four miles or more, extending on the northeast into

Newton township; its southwestern boundary being in Granville township, near the village of Granville. It is all between the road running north from Newark to Utica and that running west to Alexandria.

The country embraced in this settlement, belongs to the class known as "hilly," but it may be regarded as fertile, particularly in the production of cereals. It was originally all heavily timbered, but is now mostly cleared land. Farms are not generally large, and timber for present and prospective purposes is found on each of them with rare exceptions.

A considerable quantity of level or slightly undulating land is found on most of the farms, which produces corn and the different varieties of grasses well. Soft water springs abound, and it may be considered one of the best watered sections of the county, although the streams are small.

The settlement has always been regarded as one of rare salubriousness; healthfulness being the rule among the hardy, robust inhabitants, and sickness the exception.

The earliest settlers on the Welsh Hills endured great hardships and privations, both in' reaching their wild western homes, and during the first few They had to cut out roads to enable them to get to their land with wheeled vehicles; and the roads over which they traveled from the Ohio river, were of recent con-

Indians often visited the Welsh settlers in early times, but they were not hostile. A sort of a chief named "Big Joe," and a few of his followers were frequently visitors at the house of David Lewis, and are still distinctly remembered by one of the members of his family, Mrs. Ann Cunningham, wife and John Cunningham, and who was often present during their visitations. They did no particular harm, but frightened the women and children, and were not, therefore, welcome visitors.

that on one occasion, when some distance from the house in the night, a pack of wolves surrounded and treed him, and then proceeded to gnaw at the trunk of the small tree, and make other menacing demonstrations as he sat on the lower limb. Fortunately their progress was arrested by some of the settlers, who were drawn thither by the unusually fierce howlings of the hungry beasts. On frequent occasions in the night, the wolves would gather in force around persons passing from one cabin to another, who had to be relieved by their friends armed with guns and torches.

Mrs. Cunningham, above mentioned, states that one night while her brothers, sons of David Lewis, and herself, were engaged in boiling sugar water, near, their father's house, a pack of wolves surrounded them, and made such threatening demonstrations as to render it necessary for their parents to disperse them, which they did by the aid of fire-brands, and perhaps powder and lead. They were held at bay by the children, by the free use of fire-brands, but the almost entire exhaustion of these brands before the arrival of assistance, rendered their position extremely perilous. Bears were numerous, and there were a few panthers, both very formidable foes.

Most of these Welsh emigrants, had a limited knowledge of the English language; they also tenaciously maintained the necessity and importance of perpetuating their own language. In this, however, they did not differ from the Germans and other foreigners. Settled together, on contiguous tracts of land, and forming a community by themselves, they were enabled for many years to carry out their wishes in this regard, and the Welsh language, and no other, continued to be spoken in many of these families for a long series of years. The views these people entertained; their inability to converse in English, and the utter ignorance of the Welsh language on the part of those composing contiguous neighborhoods, made their condition, of necessity, one of isolation and apparent exclusiveness, or, as it appeared, clanishness. But if this was a fault, it grew out of the necessities of their condition.

Free intercourse with their American fellow-settlers was at first, and for many years, almost impossible, and this condition of things continued until that world-wide renowned institution, the American common school - that entering wedge for civilization - was established in and around this settle- Many of the older persons of this settlement never acquired a knowledge of the English language, but their children and grandchildren did, and gradually that language worked its way through the entire settlement. All their descendants of the present generation both understand and speak it with facility, and receive most of their education and training init. Keligious instruction is still continued in their own language, in three churches in Granville township and two in the city of Newark.

The Welsh pioneers and their descendants, as well as the present Welsh population of Licking county, may be characterized as pre-eminently religious, adhering, generally, either to the Baptist, Methodist or Congregational churches. They are, with rare exceptions, Calvinistic in their views, holding those peculiar tenets, probably, in their milder forms. They are Calvinists, at all events, whether Baptists, Methodists or Congregationalists. Probably a larger proportion of them are churchgoers and church-members, than is to be found among any other nationalities, native or foreign.

They spend very much more time in_ their churches for the purpose of receiving and imparting religious instruction, and for devotional exercises, than is usual with other churches and with other classes of citizens: neither are they surpassed by other churches, or systems of moral training, in their efforts at, and success in, developing a high order of consistent Christian character. They sustain five churches in this county exclusively, besides forming an integral portion of a number of others, in which they receive religious instruction in the English language. Prominent among these is the Welsh Hills Baptist church, organized with Welsh members in a great part, and since, mostly sustained by them.

The Welsh are, also, generally friends of tem. perance. When the Maine law was in issue in 1853, they were its unflinching friends, and have always been opposed to free drinking. They were especially zealous during the Washingtonian move ment in 1841, and for several subsequent years.

When protection and free trade were contending for supremacy in the governmental policy, the Welsh voters generally rallied under the protection flag.

When the Federal Union was imperiled by traitors, they were almost universally loyal to the government that had given them freedom and protection, and many of them went forth to deadly conflict on the battle-field. But few of them, if any, to their honor be it spoken, gave manifestations of sympathy with treason during the devastating war made by traitors in the interest of slavery, and against the government. The Welshmen of Licking were patriots, and many of them offered up their lives as a sacrifice upon the altar of their country.

-flect, reason and mature their opinions, and when formed, they adhere to them with great tenacity - indeed they are proverbial for firmness, unyielding determination and decision of character. They hold their opinions because they believe them to be correct, and they never give them up for the sake of accommodation. They are positive men - men of strong convictions, that cannot be surrendered to please anybody. They have always been up to the average standard of intelligence and general information. Sustaining, as they do, churches, schools, and the press, they could not fail to reach a good degree of enlightenment.

They place a full estimate on' the value of money, but are, nevertheless, scrupulously honest and conscientiously upright; generally manifesting a high degree of integrity in their business relations.

The present occupants of the Welsh Hills, decendants of the pioneer settlers, have become considerably Americanized, readily adapting themselves to American institutions, language, customs, habits and modes of thought. They are distinguished for all the qualities of good citizenship, and justly claim a good degree of exemption from debasing habits, indulgence in groveling propensities, drunkenness, and the debauchery, vice and crime which degrade humanity.