The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1883-08-30
rFrorn the Cam brian.1
IFrom the Cambrian.l
The Accidental SeItl ement of the Welsh
in Jackson and Gallia Counties, o.

CFrom the Cambrian.1
The Accidental Settl ement of the Welsh
in Jackson and Gallia Counties, o.
Probably there is no portion of the
world, where there are Welsh, where
the phrase ''Sefydliad Gallia Jack
son" (The Gallia and Jackson settle
ment) is not more or less familiar. 1t
is one of, if not the most populous
and fourishing settlements in the
United States. 1t covers the larger
portions OF four or five townships -
the territory being about equally di-
vided between the two counties.
Three or four Of these townships are
populated almost solidly by Welsh
immigrants and their descendants.
And the Welsh population is destined
to increase in the near future and not
decrease, as many old Welsh colonies
are doing. This will surely be the
fate of all purely agricultural settle
ments. Paddy's Run, the Oldest
Welsh settlement in Ohio, is fast
changing from Welsh to German,
and from Protestant to Catholic, we
are told. The Welsh Hills settlement,
Licking county, if not changing in
religion and nationality, is certainly
losing the Welsh language rapidly
Even the strong, thrifty, and wealthy
settlements Of Allen and Van Vert
counties have reached their climax
numerically. The land is too high
priced in all these places to induce
new immigrants. Land is selling in
Paddy's Run and Conner at from $75
to 800 per acre. Poor immigrants
from Wales can not purchase land at
these figures, and if they did, not one
in dozen could ever pay for it. As
the chief value of these places is agri-
cultural, and likely to remain so, no
great increase of the Welsh popula-
ton can be expected.
But not so with the Gallia and
Jackson settlement. We believe it is
only in the infancy of its develop
ment, numerically and industrially
True it was nick-named, forty years
ago, "Gwladyr Asgwrn" (Boneland)
as indicative Of the poverty Of the
soil as we'll as the people. Could the
Rev. Jenkin Jenkins (Sciencyn Ddwy-
waith), who applied the epithet to it,
now look down from his frigid home
in Minnesota, and see the millions of
bushels of coal which are mined in
Jackson and Gallia, and shipped by
all the railroads towards the North
west, and behold the thousands Of
tons of iron which are mined and
manufactured, and witness the thrift
of the country, as it marches to the
music of the wheels of industry,
surely, he never would have called it
homeland"
True the soil is thin compared with
the rich alluvial soils Of the valleys
and the black loan Of the Northwest
ern prairies, but it is not so barren
but that all the farmers make a good
living, and many of them save money.
1t is doubtful whether the lots of the
first immigrants could have fallen to
them in pleasanter places.
The whole country is underlaid
with different strata Of coal, of the
best heating and manufacturing quail
tiles. The iron ore is abundant, as
eyinced by the great number of blast
furnaces which dot the country, and
which are still on the increase. Fire
clay is also plentiful.
Where there is an abundance OF
coal and iron, which is only in the
infancy of its development, the Welsh
who are the best coal miners and iror
manufacturers in the world, will, il
the very nature Of things, be on the
increase. Doubtless other places ar.
as rich in these minerals as Gallia ant
Jackson, but it is questionable wheth
er there is any section of countr,
which offers better inducements t
the Welsh emigrant than that settle
ment. Land is cheap there yet, rang
ing from S1I to go per acre, an,
sufficiently fertile to support larg
manufacturing population. Their
are good schools and good churches
5 The Calvinistic Methodists have abou
ten churches, mostly in Jackso
: county; the Gaagregatinnalists. 81
or seven, mostly in Gallia county
and the Baptists, three or four. The
: all have an able ministry, and societ
|, is in settled state. 1t is not lib
. going to a new country, where farm
are to be opened and school hous'