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The
Welsh-American Heritage Museum is located in Oak Hill, Ohio
in southern Jackson County. It is open by appointment by calling
Mildred Bangert at (740) 682-7057.
The
objectives of the museum are to foster Welsh family ties throughout
the world, to collect and preserve records, artifacts, books,
photographs, etc. of Welsh families in a museum setting, to
keep the Welsh culture and traditions alive in the area, and
to preserve for all time the old Welsh Congregational Church
building.
In 1818
six families from the Cilcennin area set sail from Aberaeron
Wales to the United States. After a long and wretched journey
across the Atlantic they hired covered wagons for another long
and hazardous trek across the mountains of Pittsburgh. There
they placed their meager possessions on crude rafts and journeyed
down the Ohio River - their destination was to have been the
frontier town of Paddy's Run.
After
traveling 250 miles, they ran out of provisions and tied up
their rafts near the French settlement of Gallipolis where they
were made welcome for the night. Whether it was the storm or
the travel-weary women who cut loose the ropes that night, no
one knows, but the travelers never reached their destination.
Some
of the men were involved in building roads near Centerville
and then on to Oak Hill. The area reminded them so much of their
native Cilcennin that they decided to settle there.
In 1839
hundreds gathered at Aberaeron Harbor as friends and relatives
said their last goodbyes to 175 who were emigrating to the United
States. There was considerable wailing and weeping as the boats
sailed out of the harbor. Four young men led the singing of
a hymn at the quayside, "Bydd Melys glanio draw nol'n
bod o din I don, a mi rol ffarwel maes draw I'r ddaear hon."
A great
many of those 175 Welsh men and women found their way to the
Tyn Rhos, Moriah, Nebo, Centerpoint, Bethel, Oak Hill and Horeb
areas in Gallia and Jackson counties of Southeastern Ohio.
Farming,
making iron and manufacturing clay products became three of
the leading occupations of these Welshmen and their descendants.
The
Welsh-American Heritage Museum not only strives to keep Welsh
traditions alive, but continues to be a link with the land of
the Red Dragon with visits and programs between people here
and people in Wales. News of the happenings at the museum are
printed in the Welsh Newsletter, Ninnau, that is read in both
Wales and the United States.
"The
museum is a living museum, a place where people can come and
feel the very essence of our heritage: a heritage that links
us with the land of Wales with every Welsh hymn we sing and
every Welsh-oriented event we attend," says Mildred Bangert.
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Courtesy of the Welsh-American Heritage Museum, Oak Hill,
OH
Mildred
Bangert, Curator
(740) 682-7057
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