The Oskaloosa herald., 1900-10-25
AN OHIO VISIT.
Time Works Great Changes and
Old Homes are Passing Away.

SH 0AAC DoNAo1 Va bAAo OAIy NhN
her sister, Mrs. Lewis Roberts, of
Givin, r recently returned from q
months visit amid the scenes of
their former homes in Ohio and they
talk ent~ertainingly Of their trip and
the places and people visited. Their
account of the visit will be of great
interest to many of the Welsh people
of the county who moved from Ohio
to the Iowa coal fields and who have
not visited the old homes since COM
ing to Mahaska county.
1t had been sixteen years since
Mrs. Davis had seen the old home
and Mrs. Roberts had not been "back
to Ohio" for tw~enty-four years, The
ladies we're prepared to Q changes
in their former home but they were
not expecting the radical evolutions
that have taken place. All, or near
ly all, appearances of the Old Ohio
home of a quarter of a century ago
ire obliterated and, to the lodies, it
was almost like going into a strange
land. Familiar names and faces are
few indeed. Nearly all the old fam
lilies of the Welsh communities have
passed away. The elders have been
laid to rest and nearly all of those
now living in the cities and places
visited are of the younger genera
tions. The bare footed girls and
boys of the old days are in the homes
of today and are themselves the
mothers and fathers OF the present
generations. There are few of the
old Welsh people left. The ladies
state that they had a most enjoyable
visit but they do not care ever to re-
turn as Iowa and Mahaska county is
to them now far more of a home than
the places visited. The ladies were
with relatives and friends at Tai
mage, Akron and Cuyahoga Falls.
The mining interests in this neigh
borhood in which the Welsh people
so prominent in the old days,
have become practically worked out
and there is now but one mine work.
and that on a very small scale.
The Welsh people who have stayed
in the neighborhood have remained
there on account of property inter
ests which could not be disposed of.
Where the following of the mining
industries was formerly the only
pursuit, other occupations have now
come in to the support of the families
remaining. They r in shops and
the factories, are at contract work
and carpentering, and a few are still
on the farms-but none are in the
mines. One of the things b attouch-
ed the ladies most in all these nu-
merous changes, was the dying out
of the old church. Formerly there
was a large attendance and church
was made a meeting place in all the
term implies. The Welsh people for
miles and miles came together there
and the happenings of the week and
the prospect of the morrow were
handed from one to another in the
friendly manner that characterizes
the Welsh people. There was singing
school, the eisteddfod, and the con-
at the church, and these we're
and held dear to the Welsh
heart as nothing else could be. But
all this is no more. The ladies at
tended the old church, but what a
change had come over the place and
the people. There were very few in
attendance. Almost all were strang-
ers. There was an utter absence of
all the old friendly spirit of sociabil-
ity. 1.-THE young folks" who for
merly made the day so lively and
who used to be a care for the staid
old deacons, yer not to be seen.
There was a chilly, formal atmos-
The ladies felt themselves
and forgotten and were
relieved when they were out and
away from the place that had known
so many of their youthful hours.
They went to the old farm home
and ate chestnuts from the old tree.
Here indeed was one old friend, and
one among a very few to remain I'M
The old house was not like
home. There had been changes and
improvements, and where they had
expected to find familiar marks new
walls stared them in the face. The
old orchard itself showed of the I'M
kindness of the years and but few of
the old trees remain to call up the
of the old and happy days
of their childhood.
Those of the old friends visited who
recalled the Iowa people sent back
their greetings, and the families will
be remembered by many of the Oska-
loosa and Givin folks. At Talmage
they visited the places of Tom Rob-
erts, Philip Thomas, Dave Wilson, Mrs.
William Davis, Win Matthews, James
Evans and Dave Phillips, (who now
resides at the old home place of the
William L. Thomas, Mrs John
Paul, Mrs. David Rees, the Harris
and Mrs. Richard Clayton.
At Cuyahoga Falls they visited Mrs.
Dave Morgan, Mrs John Jones, Thos.
William Daniels and Mrs.
Bridget Doyle, IN old Irish woman
Of the neighborhood, who was over
Dyed to see the ladies and recalled