The Welsh in Iowa

By Cherilyn A Walley

"The Welsh in Iowa" is the history of the little known Welsh immigrant communities in the American Midwestern state of Iowa. Dr. Walley's book identifies what made the Welsh unique as immigrants to North America, and as migrants and settlers in a land built on such groups. With research rooted in documentary evidence and supplemented with community and oral histories, "The Welsh in Iowa" preserves and examines Welsh culture as it was expressed in middle America by the farmers and coal miners who settled or passed through the prairie state as it grew to maturity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This work seeks to not only document the Welsh immigrants who lived in Iowa, but to study the Welsh as a distinct ethnic group in a state known for its ethnic heritage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Release date: Jul 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781783165919

Cherilyn A Walley

Cherilyn Walley has taught at Iowa State University in the Department of History. She has published works on rural, regional and military history.

Book preview

THE WELSH IN IOWA

THE WELSH IN IOWA

Cherilyn A. Walley

© Cherilyn A. Walley, 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff, CF10 4UP.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-7083-2222-2

e-ISBN 978-1-78316-591-9

The right of Cherilyn A. Walley to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The publishers wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales in the publication of this book.

Jacket photograph: Getty Images

Jacket design: Dalen (Llyfrau)

Acknowledgements

This book has been more than a decade in the making and is the result of not only my own efforts, but also the assistance of more people than I could possibly acknowledge here. However, I do need to mention a few people by name. I am in academic debt to my major professor, Dorothy A. Schwieder, without whose support and encouragement I would not have pursued this topic. She unquestioningly accepted my reasoning for choosing to study the Welsh in Iowa – because they were there. As the grande dame of Iowa history, she also laid much of the groundwork for the study. I must also thank the rest of the history professors who guided me through my graduate career at Iowa State University; without their patience and advice, this book would be less than it is in many ways: Doug Hurt, Andrejs Plakans, Amy Bix, George McJimsey, James Whitaker, Christie Farnham Pope and Pamela Riney-Kehrberg. My fellow graduate students also contributed their criticism and encouragement, as well as some much needed laughs in the T.A. office. I especially need to thank ‘Henry’ Peter Hoehnle for his perspective and enthusiasm for Iowa history, as well as his incredible impressions of old movie stars. Thanks also go to the History Department itself, as well as the Graduate College, for providing me with enough assistantships, grants and scholarships to ease my financial way through two advanced degrees. At least as valuable as the financial support was the knowledge and experience I gained first as a teaching assistant and then as an inde- pendent instructor. Though none of them are likely to read this, I would also like to thank the hundreds of ISU undergraduate students I was lucky enough to teach; their willingness to be engaged by history fed my own interest in the past and their insights into their home state were invaluable. The Iowa Welsh Society welcomed me with open arms and treated me as one of their own. I am particularly indebted to Phillips G. Davies for all of his scholarship and translation work on the Welsh in Iowa.

On a more personal note, I need to thank my family (Mom, Dad, Glynne, Joanna, Lorien and Taryn, more recently Akiko, Mike and Eric) for their unfailing confidence that I could not only finish my doctorate, but excel at my studies. Though usually unspoken, I knew that they knew that I could do it. I am grateful to my friend Wendy Nielsen for her patient support throughout this whole dissertation/book process. I am also indebted to the ISU Judo Club for providing me a physical and mental outlet during my graduate years. Finally, I have to thank my dogs Reese and Anne for their help; Reese loyally kept me company as I spent hour upon hour at the computer and Anne diligently kept squirrels and geckos from invading the house while I was distracted.

Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

List of Tables

Introduction

1   The Welsh

2   Iowa

3   The Welsh in Iowa

4   Demographic Profile

5   Welsh Coal Miners

Conclusion

Appendix A. Welsh Agricultural Communities

Appendix B. Welsh Mining Communities

Appendix C. Iowa Welsh Community Settlement Timeline

Appendix D. Iowa Welsh Church Organization Timeline

Bibliography

Figures

  1 Distribution of the Welsh in the United States, 1890

  2 Iowa, 1856: predominating state of origin for each county

  3 Latitudinal migration patterns from eastern states to Iowa

  4 Iowa, 1885: ethnic distribution as proportion of foreign born in each county

  5 Welsh agricultural communities in order of settlement

  6 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1856

  7 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1885

  8 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1890

  9 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1900

10 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1905

11 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1910

12 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1915

13 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1920

14 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1925

15 Distribution of people born in Wales, Iowa, 1930

16 Old Man’s Creek Welsh community in 1900

17 Map indicating Welsh land ownership, 1889: Douglas Township, Clay County

18 Age distribution graph, Des Moines County, 1850, Welsh

19 Age distribution graph, Des Moines County, 1850, non-Welsh

20 Age distribution graph, Johnson County, 1860

21 Age distribution graph, Sharon and Union Townships, 1860, non-Welsh

22 Age distribution graph, Sharon and Union Townships, 1860, Welsh

23 Age distribution graph, Sharon and Union Townships, 1870, non-Welsh

24 Age distribution graph, Sharon and Union Townships, 1870, Welsh

25 Age distribution graph, Sharon and Union Townships, 1880, non-Welsh

26 Age distribution graph, Sharon and Union Townships, 1880, Welsh

27 Age distribution graph, Foreston/Lime Springs Welsh, 1880

28 Age distribution graph, 1880 Forest City Township non-Welsh native-born

29 Age distribution graph, 1880 Forest City Township non-Welsh foreign

30 Welsh population in Iowa coal-mining counties

31 Coal-mining counties ranked in descending order of Welsh population

32 Welsh-coal mining communities in approximate order of settlement

33 Welsh agricultural communities in order of settlement

34 Map of Johnson County, Iowa, 1875

35 Map of Union Township, Johnson County, 1870

36 Map of Sharon Township, Johnson County, 1870

37 Map of Union Township, Johnson County, 1889

38 Map of Sharon Township, Johnson County, 1889

39 Map of Old Man’s Creek Welsh community, 1900

40 Map of Louisa County, Iowa, 1875

41 Map of Des Moines County, Iowa, 1875

42 Map indicating Welsh land ownership in Des Moines County, 1873

43 Map of Iowa County, Iowa, 1875

44 Map of Monroe County, Iowa, 1875

45 Map of Howard County, Iowa, 1875

46 Map of Montgomery County, Iowa, 1875, showing Welsh land ownership and Welsh churches

47 Map of Clay County, Iowa, 1875, showing Welsh churches

48 Map of Buena Vista County, Iowa, 1875

49 Map indicating Welsh land ownership, 1889: Douglas Township, Clay County

50 Map of Carroll County, Iowa, 1875

51 Welsh coal-mining communities in approximate order of settlement

52 Map of Appanoose County, Iowa, 1875

53 Map of Appanoose County, Iowa, 1896

54 Map of Appanoose County, Iowa, 1915, with mines marked

55 Map of Boone County, Iowa, 1875

56 Map of Jasper County, Iowa, 1875

57 Map of Keokuk County, Iowa, 1875

58 Map of Lucas County, Iowa, 1875

59 Map of Mahaska County, Iowa, 1875

60 Map of Des Moines Township, Mahaska County, Iowa, 1884

61 Map of Monroe County, Iowa, 1875

62 Map of Polk County, Iowa, 1875

63 Map of Wapello County, Iowa, 1875

Tables

  1 Welsh-born in Iowa, by county and census year

  2 1850 Des Moines County family and household statistics

  3 1850 Des Moines County agricultural statistics

  4 Fertility rates, Sharon and Union Townships, Welsh and non-Welsh

  5 Household and family size: Welsh and non-Welsh

  6 Household and family composition: Welsh and non-Welsh

  7 Foreston/Lime Springs Welsh and Forest City Township, Howard County: birthplace statistics

  8 1880 Foreston/Lime Springs Welsh and Forest City Township, Howard County: family and household statistics

  9 1880 Cleveland Welsh, Lucas County: family and household statistics

10 Welsh communities: family and household statistics summary

Introduction

Iowa is well known as a home to immigrants. The state’s German and Norwegian heritage is familiar, as are the state’s numerous immigrant colonies, such as Orange City, Elkhorn, Decorah and Swedesburg. Ethnic celebrations abound; Story City holds Scandinavian Days, the Amana Colonies sponsor Oktoberfest and Pella’s Tulip Time festival attracts visitors from around the region. The state is home to four ethnic museums; the Norwegians have one in Decorah, the Germans in Davenport, the Danes in Elk Horn and even the Czechs have a museum, in Cedar Rapids. Less well known, however, is the fact that Iowa was also a popular destination for smaller immigrant groups, such as the Welsh. Though not as numerous as the Germans or Norwegians, or as well known as even the Czechs, many Welsh did choose to make their homes in Iowa. This is their story.

Other histories have told small portions of the story of the Welsh in Iowa, concentrating on the Welsh in certain occupations or as members of specific communities. This book gives a more complete account of the Iowa Welsh experience, placing it in the context of both the Welsh immigrant experience and Iowa history. The story begins first by briefly tracing the development of Welsh identity in Wales, then examining the economic and religious factors that led so many proudly Welsh countrymen to emigrate. The story of Welsh settlement in Iowa itself is told through the development of the two main types of Welsh communities – agricultural and coal mining – and placing those communities in the larger context of Iowa’s history of settlement and ethnic composition. The story of the Welsh in Iowa concludes with a look at how these settlers regarded themselves and the measures they did or did not take to preserve their ethnic identity.

It is with this idea of ethnic identity and its expression, preservation and eventual loss that this study is most concerned. Once Welsh immigrants were settled in America, all that united them was a shared concept of their own ethnic distinctiveness. The question is: how much did this ethnic identity influence the Welsh in Iowa, and what did the Iowa Welsh do either to maintain or to erase that identity?

Although the history of the Welsh in Iowa has not been fully documented, neither has it been completely ignored. Former English professor Phillips Davies performed a yeoman’s work in translating R. D. Thomas’s Hanes Cymry America from Welsh to English, as well as a number of other historical works on the Welsh in America. In conjunction with agricultural historian James Whitaker, Davies also published a useful article on the Welsh in Iowa in The Palimpsest. A few other articles also appeared in the early twentieth century, such as ‘The Welsh Eisteddfod’ and ‘Asa Turner and the Welsh’, but no in-depth history of the state’s Welsh has been undertaken until now.

Fortunately, the Welsh as an ethnic group in America are better known. Alan Conway’s The Welsh in America: Letters from the Immigrants is a well-known study of Welsh immigrants and a popular source of collected Welsh correspondence. Edward Ashton’s The Welsh in the United States is equally useful. A number of regional studies have been written about the Welsh in Pennsylvania, who are well known for their influence in early Philadelphia society as well as for their substantial presence in the state’s coal mines. Thomas Allen Glenn’s Welsh Founders of Pennsylvania and Gwyn Williams’s The Search for Beulah Land are two studies that address such topics. Other articles and books shed light on the Welsh in New York, Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Anne Kelly Knowles has recently published a work in historical geography titled Calvinists Incorporated: Welsh Immigrants on Ohio’s Industrial Frontier, and Aled Jones and Bill Jones have just published their study Welsh Reflections: Y Drych & America 1851–2001, gleaning insights from the most widely distributed Welsh periodical in America.

The Welsh are certainly not alone in being of interest to historians of ethnicity. Most relevant to this history of the Welsh in Iowa are those studies that focus on ethnic groups in the American Midwest – the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska. Ethnic group studies vary as widely as the subjects of their research, but all touch in one way or another on a few central themes: culture, migration and settlement and assimilation. Culture includes social customs, religious practices, family structure and even work habits. Such observable cultural markers often provide the first clues to ethnicity. Migration and settlement, or how a family or community gets where they are going and how they choose to live once they are there, are pivotal aspects of any community history in the Midwest. As America is a land of immigrants, the heartland was both a destination and a staging post for people and communities seeking their own promised land. Finally, assimilation is a catch-all term for the inevitable melding of cultures that time and proximity engender in America. Assimilation can be a blessing or a curse to ethnic groups, and was both for the Welsh.

A number of historians have written detailed analyses of the major Midwestern ethnic groups, and these studies give context to the story of the Welsh in Iowa. Frederick C. Luebke’s study of Germans in Nebraska, Immigrants and Politics: The Germans of Nebraska, 1880–1900, was one of the earliest to grapple with issues of assimilation in rural communities, touching on such issues as institutional strength as an indicator of the rate of ethnic assimilation. Jon Gjerde’s book, The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830–1917, looks at conflicts between and within Midwestern ethnic groups. He uses both statistical and anecdotal evidence to explore varying attitudes and behaviours as they reflected and countered different cultural influences. Gjerde’s earlier work, From Peasants to Farmers: The Migration from Balestrand, Norway, to the Upper Middle West, took a more geographical approach to the study of ethnicity. Instead of beginning with a community in America and tracing its residents back to their European origins, Gjerde chose a single community in Norway and followed its emigrants to their new homes in America. In this way, he was able to identify specific cultural characteristics and observe their transformation over time and space. Anne Kelly Knowles followed a similar methodology in her book Calvinists Incorporated: Welsh Immigrants on Ohio’s Industrial Frontier. Using her background as a historical geographer, Knowles was able to enhance her study of the Welsh iron workers by including detailed information on the immigrants’ origins and how those influenced economic decisions and social relationships in America. In his book The Amish on the Iowa Prairie, 1840 to 1910, Steven D. Reschly borrows heavily from sociology to develop a workable theoretical structure for his study of the Amish. Within that structure he uses narratives to illustrate the characteristics that made the Amish a recognizable and successful ethnic community. Though many other studies could be included in the historiography of rural Midwestern ethnic communities, the above represent works that not only deal with specific ethnic groups, but also address the more elusive issues of how ethnic identity is developed and maintained.¹

Respected historian Kathleen Neils Conzen has done extensive research on rural ethnic communities, and points out important questions that arise from the common themes of culture, migration and settlement and assimilation. One question is how exactly location affects ethnic identity. If social customs are indicators of ethnicity, what happens when city or rural life changes those customs? How can we determine which behaviours have been brought by immigrants to their new homes, and which have been developed in response to their new situation?²

Location also includes settlement patterns and how they do or do not reflect ethnicity. Specifically, the phenomenon of clustering (the gathering together of immigrants into a relatively small geographical area) seems to be a hallmark of ethnic groups. Even as ethnic communities are identified and categorized according to types of clustering – dense enclaves, open-country neighbourhoods, scattered farmsteads oriented towards a single town or institution – the more compelling question is why clusters develop at all and how clustering is linked to ethnicity. As Conzen points out, no one factor can completely answer the question, since clustering is the result of many individual decisions, borne of myriad influences and situations. Just as no two people are identical in every way, no two ethnic groups behave in exactly the same way, and even within a single ethnic group no two communities develop in an identical manner. Hence the ongoing quest to discern ethnic characteristics in migration and settlement patterns.

Just as individuals’ reasons for immigrating are unique and highly personal, people’s responses to the pressures of assimilation in their new home are varied and complicated. A host of factors push the new immigrant to adopt the dominant culture, even as other factors pull the immigrant back to the familiar ways of the old country. For the historian, the challenge is to identify these push–pull factors and determine how much each one influences the immigrant. Which of a person’s actions arise from the desire to fit in, which from the desire to remain true to their heritage and which are simply manifestations of individual personality? Is Uncle Jan frugal because he is Dutch, because he is surrounded by New Englanders, or because he is naturally a penny-pincher? Seemingly direct correlations between ethnicity and cultural institutions are further complicated when individual personalities and group dynamics are introduced. Thriving ethnic churches certainly lent strength to ethnic communities, but how much of that influence was the result, not the cause, of shared ethnic identity?

The assimilation process is another of the burning issues in ethnic studies, and is perhaps the most difficult question to solve. Sociologists, as well as historians, have tried to construct models to describe the process of assimilation, but none has yet been developed that describes a universal experience for immigrants. This lack of a standard approach to describing the assimilation experience makes direct comparisons between ethnic groups difficult. Yet, perhaps it is in this diversity that the truth of immigration is found: each individual experiences the assimilation process differently.

The most common assimilation model presents the process as an inevitable loss of traditional culture and eventual absorption into the dominant society. This straight-line model is used to represent the experiences of both immigrant groups and individual immigrants. However, many scholars reject the straight-line model, and the use of models altogether, believing them to be too simplistic to capture the subtleties of the immigrant experience.

Even the concept of ethnicity is under debate. Challenging the commonly held notion that ethnicity is a quality brought with immigrants like baggage – a static Old World identity eroded by New World culture – Kathleen Neils Conzen, David A. Gerber, Ewa Morawska, George E. Pozzetta and Rudolph J. Vecoli have presented an alternative to assimilation models: the invention of ethnicity. According to invention theory, ethnicity is a wholly new identity developed by immigrants in response to the dominant culture. As such, ethnic identity is continually renegotiated both by the immigrants themselves and by the dominant culture. For example, what it meant to be Irish in America was a concept that changed dramatically over the course of the twentieth century – take the difference between how James Cagney and John F. Kennedy expressed their shared heritage.

As immigrants invent a new common identity, the old-country distinctions fade in importance. Regional loyalties and even religious prejudices give way to a hyphenated umbrella identity that unites them and shields them from the dominant culture; those from County Cork and County Kildare unite as Irish-Americans. Invention theory also holds that since immigrants in rural areas are supposedly subjected to less pressure to assimilate, they have less need to invent an ethnic identity. This would account for the longevity of rural ethnic communities when compared to their inner-city counterparts.³

Ethnic historian Herbert J. Gans, however, believes invention theory should supplement, not completely replace, straight-line theory. Viewing ethnicity and assimilation solely from the perspective of invention theory results in the complete subjugation of the individual to the group – all Irish immigrants became Irish-Americans in the same way and for the same reasons, regardless of personal experiences and predilections. Gans maintains that while the straight-line model of assimilation is too rigid, it is often an accurate and useful approach to ethnic studies.⁴

As is usually the case, taking the middle approach to describing the process of assimilation seems to be the best option. The introduction of an assimilation model provides convenient terms of reference that are useful when studying ethnic groups, but should be used in moderation. The individual’s experiences should take precedence, with references to the model when appropriate in order to find an explicable pattern in the details. Similarly, the characteristics of ethnicity and the phases of assimilation identified in a model should not limit the scope of the study. While some cultural markers seem to be common to all ethnic groups, such as language and national origin, others are unique to the culture and experience of one particular ethnicity – like green beer in Baltimore on St Patrick’s Day. To some degree, each ethnic group must define its own path to assimilation, choosing for itself what markers, or characteristics, it deems important to its ethnicity and how those characteristics will weather assimilation pressures. These unique aspects of ethnicity are the result of the intercultural negotiations that invention theory claims are the very basis of ethnic identity.

In light of the arguments reviewed above, this study will use Elliott R. Barkan’s six-stage assimilation model as a point of reference. Barkan’s model focuses on immigrants’ interactions with general American society and what he calls its ‘core culture’. The model provides useful points of reference while incorporating elements of invention theory’s emphasis on negotiated identity. Barkan’s model divides the immigrant experience into six stages progressing from ‘contact’ to ‘assimilation’. Rather than being organized in a straight line, Barkan’s model conceives of the assimilation process as a loose spiral, with each stage bringing the immigrant further within the sphere of the core culture. Being arranged in a circular pattern, and therefore not forcing a rigid progression towards a defined end point, the six-stage model allows for variation between individual experiences. As individuals or groups invent their own ethnicity, they may or may not pass through a certain stage. While some ethnic historians have challenged Barkan’s model as not representative of all immigrant groups’ experiences, neither is any model yet developed. Most importantly to this study, Barkan’s model does adequately represent the Welsh experience in Iowa.⁵

The first stage in Barkan’s model is stage 1 – Contact. This is the stage in which immigrants first arrive in America and experience their initial contact with American society. This is also the stage in which immigrants cluster together according to kinship connections and regional affiliations, primarily as a result of communication within the ethnic group. As will be described in chapter 2, Peter Cassel’s decision to emigrate from Sweden, his journey to America and to Iowa, and his role in founding New Sweden all took place in stage 1. The second stage in the model is Acculturation. According to Barkan, this is the stage in which ethnic communities emerge from what were previously just immigrant clusters; the immigrants remain geographically close to one another, speak their native language and rely on ethnicity-based networks for information and support. The German Turner societies fell partially into this stage, as they encouraged participation based on a common ethnic heritage and sought to provide support for the German community. Stage 2 is also the stage when the immigrants individually and collectively gain more exposure to the larger society and culture.⁶

Adaptation is the third stage in Barkan’s model, and is well represented by the Danish community in Elk Horn, Iowa, in the 1880s, an account of which is also included in chapter 3. In this stage, the ethnic community achieves a better balance between foreign-born and native-born members of the community, more English is spoken by the people and individuals experience more mobility out of the enclaves. As more children were born in Iowa, as Danes young and old learned English and as young adults left home for higher education or jobs, the individuals and the community worked their way through stage 3.

Barkan’s stage 4 carries the above trends further, as the individual and the community move into the Accommodation stage. In this stage the community has fewer foreign-born residents, and most residents use English instead of their ethnic tongue. Members of the community also participate in non-ethnic organizations at a higher rate, such as joining local clubs and societies, and sometimes even joining non-ethnic churches. The fourth stage also sees more intermarriage with people not part of the ethnic community, and more geographic and occupational mobility. Pella, Iowa, is still in stage 4 to a certain extent, with its emphasis on its Dutch heritage even as its residents easily navigate the larger world.⁷

The fifth stage in this model of ethnic assimilation is that of Integration. At this point, the individual may retain some residual ethnic characteristics, such as community-specific expressions or food preferences, but for the most part he or she has achieved inclusion in the general society. A community in the fifth stage would exhibit higher levels of education and more socio-economic mobility than were shown before. The ethnic church remains, but church leaders have less influence over the community. The individual in the Integration stage primarily identifies with the core culture, considering themselves more American than part of any specific ethnic group. Most Iowans of Norwegian heritage fall into this group today. Little more than the large Lutheran church on Main Street, the annual Scandinavian Days street fair, and the sale of lefse in the single grocery store marks Story City, Iowa, as a former Norwegian enclave. Granted, the high school’s mascot is a Norseman wearing a Viking helmet, but the town increasingly identifies with the diverse college just to its south and attends Iowa State University wrestling meets more often than Sons of Norway meetings.⁸

Assimilation is the sixth and final stage in Barkan’s model. It is at this stage that the individual has lost all significant connection to his or her ethnic heritage. The person may be conscious that he or she is descended from a certain ethnic group, but no longer identifies themselves as a member of that group. The community in the Assimilation stage may even retain the ethnic church, but in form only, as