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The History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston and Lime Springs, Ia. Gathered by the Old Settlers". Editors: Rev. Thomas E. Hughes, Rev. David Edwards, Hugh G. Roberts, Thomas Hughes. Published in 1895.

9 Blue Earth County - location of the Welsh Settlements
10 Blue Earth County - climate, soil and production
11 Blue Earth County - aborigines
12 Blue Earth County - early discoveries
13 The First Settlement of Mankato
14 The first Welsh Settlers in St. Paul and Le Sueur
15 The first Welsh Settlers in Blue Earth County
16 The Organization of Blue Earth County
17 The First Settlers in Judson
18 The Colony from Emmet (Wisconsin)
19 South Bend Church Organized
20 The First Settlers of Eureka
21 The First Settlers of Butternut Valley
22 The First Settlers of the Horeb Neighbourhood
23 Salem Congregational Church Organized

 


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FULL TITLE: History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston and Lime Springs, Iowa, gathered by the Old Settlers
Edited by the Reverends Thomas E. Hughes and David Edwards, and Messrs. Hugh G. Roberts and Thomas Hughes.
1895

Note: We have added comments and corrections to the original text . These are in orange type.

We have indicated the page numbers in the original book, but precede them with a letter x and they are placed in brackets
(x20), (x45), etc.. This makes them easier to find with the page search function.

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History of the Welsh in Minnesota

By Thos. Hughes, Esq, Mankato


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9 BLUE EARTH COUNTY - Location of the Welsh Settlements
(http://city.net/maps/address/ For a modern map of the area go to the MapQuest website and type in Mankato)

The Minnesota river, rising near the western boundary of the State to which it gives its name, flows, for the first hundred miles of its journey, in a southeasterly direction, when it makes an abrupt bend to the northeast, and, after following that course another hundred miles, empties into the Mississippi at the eastern boundary of the State. “Minnesota” was the ancient Indian name of the river, and is derived from two Dakotah words - “Minne,” “water;” and “Sotah,” literally meaning “bleared,” though variously translated “muddy,” “cloudy,” and “sky-tinted.” The word has reference to the peculiar appearance of the river, caused by minute particles of bluish clay mingling with the water, so that it does not seem muddy nor yet clear, but “hazy” or “bleared.”
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The valley, in which the river flows, is from a mile to a mile and a half in breadth, and, on either side of the great bend, quite straight - like the two sides of an angle. Standing upon the bluff at the “V” of the big bend one may look up the valley to the northwest or down the valley to the northeast, a distance of forty or fifty miles.
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(See ‘Before Mankato’ in the ‘Streets of Old Makato Website’ http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/history/oldmankato/commonlinks/streets.html)
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What a magnificent view it is, with the cone-shaped bluffs rising in woody terraces on either side of the valley nearly two hundred feet in height, now opening into a grand amphitheater, enclosing an oasis of three or four miles of bottom prairie, and


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now closing into a few miles of solid timber. Occasionally one catches a glimpse of the river’s silvery chain as it meanders around one of its many curves; for, though the valley, be straight, the river is exceedingly crooked, turning and twisting, and often almost doubling upon its path as though it fain would loiter in its lovely valley. For the most part the river hugs its northern bluff, leaving most of the bottom-lands on its southern side. The low, flat-lands, in times of great freshets (a sudden rise in the level of a stream, or a flood, due to heavy rains or the rapid melting of snow and ice. Webster’s Dictionary) , are overflowed, while, what is known as the “bench,” which rises about twenty feet from the low lands, is very stony, so that the valley is but little used for agriculture. It is not, however, on that account less valuable, for in its prairie bottom-lands are found the finest meadows of wild hay in the country. Clay, for the manufacture of brick, drain-tile, and pottery-ware, is found, also, in inexhaustible quantities; while the rocky second bench is full of immense quarries of the finest building stone, lime and hydraulic cement.
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The valley is dotted with many villages and cities; and, in the palmy days of steamboating, the river banks on either side were lined with town sites, which might have been great cities, had the fates been more propitious.
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At our feet, at the great bend of the river, lies Mankato, the principal city of Southern Minnesota. Three miles higher up the bend are the ruins of its ancient rival - the village of South Bend; ten miles higher up, on opposite sides of the river, are the town sites of Judson and Eureka, but these cities are now no more; fifteen miles still farther up is the pretty German city of New Ulm. Below Mankato seven miles is the old village of Kasota with its famous stone quarries; five miles farther is the city of St. Peter; two miles beyond is the site of Traverse de Sioux, once the metropolis of the Minnesota valley, but now entirely deserted; about a mile farther we come to Ottawa, and six miles more and we reach Le Sueur; while at the junction of the Minnesota with the Mississippi lie the great twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
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At the great bend of the Minnesota there empties into it, from the south, between Mankato and South Bend, the Blue Earth river. Its name is a translation of the Indian appelation, “Mahkahto,” given it by reason of a peculiar bed of clay of a bluish or greenish color, found on the river about three miles above its mouth, which clay of old had great fame among the aborigines as a pigment for decorating their bodies. The river, with its many tributaries, branching out like a spreading oak,


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drains the county of Blue Earth. These many rivers, with their countless brooks and rills, each bordered with its winding chain of timber, and with the myriad lakes, many of which are daintily set in groves of oak and poplar, caused the naturalist, Nicollet, who, in 1838, visited the country, to name it the “Undine Region,” after the water nymph of the famous German romance. On the eastern bank of the Blue Earth lies the great forest, stretching fifty miles in length by from twenty to forty miles in breadth, known as the “Big Woods.” This great body of timber has been protected during the centuries from the destructive prairie fires, which almost every autumn used to sweep across the plains, by the Minnesota river on the north, the Cannon and Straight rivers on the east, the Le Sueur river on the south, and the Blue Earth river on the west. On the western side of the Blue Earth begins the great plain, which stretches over grassy knoll and reedy lake in a boundless ocean of rolling prairie as far as the Rocky Mountain.
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The portion of this vast country with which we shall have to do particularly is that occupied by the Welsh Settlements. The largest and one of the oldest of which is is that of Blue Earth County, comprising a strip six miles wide, extending northwesterly along the right bank of the Minnesota river, a distance of twenty miles. It embraces the townships of South Bend on the east, Judson in the center, and the northeasterly half of Butternut Valley and the fractional town of Cambria in the west. Its western end also dips over a little into Cottonwood township, Brown Co. A few Welsh also reside in the small village of Courtland, on the opposite side of the Minnesota river from Cambria; quite a number reside at the much larger village of Lake Crystal, situated on the southern boundry (sic) of Judson; and a still greater number dwell in the city of Mankato. There is also a branch of the settlement twenty miles northwest of Mankato, in Le Sueur county, near the village of Ottawa, known from the great timber tract in which it is situated as the “Big Woods” settlement,
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Another branch of the Blue Earth county settlement of the Blue Earth county settlement is located on the head waters of the Big Cottonwood sixty miles to the west, formerly known as Saratoga, but now called Tracy and Custer, while about 2,000 Welsh people reside in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Sixty miles to the northwest of Mankato lie three flourishing Welsh settlements, at the head waters of the Iowa river, partly in Minnesota and partly in Iowa, and known as Bristol Grove, Foreston and Lime Springs.
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In the Blue Earth County settlement, on the southern


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boundary of South Bend and Judson, there is a chain of five large lakes, beautifully environed by groves of timber, and on the banks of one of which is pleasantly situated the village of Lake Crystal. The outlet of these lakes is a sparkling little brook which flows in a northeasterly direction through the towns of Judson and South Bend into the Minnesota river. It is called by its Indian name “Minneopa”, from “Minne,” “water,” and “inneopa,” “of two falls.” These falls are situated about half way up the stream, and one is ten, and the other, just below it, nearly fifty feet in height. Stories are told how the Indian braves used to shoot over both falls in their light, frail canoes and land right-side up on the foaming waters below. In a cave under the larger falls dwelt in the early days the brave chief San-tuhu-mah-na-du-tah, “Hater-of-the-white-race,” whose mighty deeds, in avenging the wrongs of his sister, tradition tells. At the time of the Inkpadootah (Inkpaduta) war the old chief went to Spirit Lake, and from there, probably, to the spirit land, as he was never heard of afterwards.
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Through the middle of Cambria township flows Cambria creek, and through its northwestern corner runs the Little Cottonwood, both emptying into the Minnesota. The Little Cottonwood is so called to distinguish it from the Big Cottonwood, a larger river emptying into the Minnesota six miles above in the vicinity of New Ulm. “Cottonwood” is the English word for “Waraju,” the old Indian name of these rivers (See 0877 (The Sioux and their Names of Places - 1895).
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Bordered thus, north and east, by the two large rivers, the Minnesota and the Blue Earth, with their charming valleys and belts of wood; traversed by so many brooks and rills with their spurs of timber jutting out across the great rolling prairie; bespangled with so many lovely lakes and pleasant groves, the Welsh Settlement of the Minnesota valley is the most delightful spot in all this charming Undine Region.
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10 BLUE EARTH COUNTY - CLIMATE, SOIL AND PRODUCTION
The Dakotah Indians believed that the mouth of the Minnesota river stood directly over the centre of the earth. Nor was this traditional fancy of the untutored savage much at variance with the more exact knowldege of modern geography. The surveyor’s chain designates Minnesota as the equi-distant point between the two oceans; while the rivers, radiating northward, southward, eastward, westward, also mark it as the very top of the great dome of the American continent. This high latitude and altitude render the winters at times necessarily cold and long,

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while the distance from the sea causes the atmosphere to be exceptionally dry and pure. A severe winter closes in about the last of November, and continues without any great relaxation of its vigor until about the last of March. There is an occasional blizzard from the northwest. The depth of snow is from one to two feet all winter, and the mercury reanges from zero to twenty to thirty degrees below; but in the dry, crisp air of Minnesota one does not fell the cold at thirty below; but in the dry, crisp air of Minnesota one does not feel the cold at thirty below, more than he would at zero in the more humid atmosphere of the sea coast. The severe winters, however, do not occur regularly every year. Half the time the winters are mild and open, with little, if any, snow. These open winters, though are not nearly as healthy as the others. There is a tonic in a steady, cold Minnesota winter, which braces up one’s whole constitution, which purifies the atmosphere, and which seems even to impart fresh vigor to the soil. The summer months of June, July and August are usually very warm, the temperature often getting as high as 80, 90 and sometimes even 100 degrees in the shade. Its long, magnificent autumns are, however, Minnesota’s pride. The temperature so pleasant and uniform, the skies so clear and sunny, and nature so gorgeously rich in all her attire, that the days are a succession of delights.
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The soil is a dark, rich loam, from a foot and a half to three foot in depth, with a clayey bottom. It produced in its natural state a most luxuriant growth of grass, taller than one’s head, and even today constitutes the principal pasturage and hay meadows of the land.
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The chief agricultural product has been wheat, which used to yield from twenty to thirty-five bushels per acre on the average. Of late years the land has become somewhat exhausted from constant wheat raising, and the farmers are turning their attention more to dairying, stock raising, and diversified farming, with a success more sure and substantial than under the old dispensation of universal wheat fields. Corn, oats, barley, sorghum, and potatoes are grown abundantly. Wild plums, grapes, gooseberries, currants, strawberries, and raspberries are very plenty, and their tame cousins are also easily cultivated. Hardy kinds of apples are likewise grown successfully.
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The timber of the country comprises oak, elm, basswood, maple, butternut, hickory, poplar, and in the valleys, black walnut and cottonwood.
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11 BLUE EARTH COUNTY - ABORIGINES
This country was the ancient home of the Sisseton bands of

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the powerful Sioux or Dakotah nation. Their villages were situated at Traverse-De-Sioux, at Swan Lake, (Merrah Tauka) (sic; = Tanka; See 0877e (The Sioux and their Names of Places - 1895); and see 1053e (Lakota wordlist) Maghá Táka Óta = “many swan”), at the mouth of the Big Cottonwood, and in Judson, just below the residence of Henry Roberts, Esq., on the Minnesota river.
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Of these the principal one was at Swan Lake, under Chief “Red Iron,” while that under Chief “Friend,” in Judson, was the least, being really only a branch of the Swan Lake village. An Indian village consisted simply of a collection of huts, built by covering a frame-work of poles with elm bark, leaving a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape. These villages were seldom occupied except in the winter, which fact, owing to the Indian’s want of cleanliness in and about his abode, was well as a sanitary measure. During the summer the Indians wandered about from stream to stream, from lake to lake, and from prairie to woodland, hunting and fishing, and dwelling in teepees.
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An old Indian trail led from “Red Iron’s” village to “Friend’s,” and there to the upper prairie, near the house of Henry Roberts, Esq., thence by the house of Rev. John Roberts, following the edge of the timber in a bee line through the village of South Bend, to the valley of the Blue Earth, called by the Indians “Pleasant Valley,” where they obtained their paint and where they loved to camp, thence the path led through where now stands the city of Mankato, into the Big Woods, where they frequently went on hunting expeditions, and where, every spring, they made much maple sugar.
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Upon this ancient road in the early days one would be quite sure to meet a troop of aborigines on the march, all walking in single file. First came the men, dressed in close-fitting pantaloons of clouted cloth or buck skin, with a wide, fancy fringe along each leg, a pair of moccasins. ornamented with beads, on the feet, and a dirty white blanket drawn over the shoulders. At the girdle hung a tomahawk, knife and ammunition pouch, while on the arm would be carried the gun. They were a tall, stalwart looking people, straight as an arrow, of a dusky red color, with prominent features, high cheek bones, and long, straight, very coarse, black hair, often braided in two or three plaits. Behind the men came the squaws, much more haggard and squatty than their lords, because of the drudgery they had to perform. On their backs would be huge bundles, and often a small pappoose (sic; = papoose), strapped to a board, perched on top of all. With them also, would be all the other pappooses of various ages, the older ones carrying burdens, like their mothers. Mingled with the company would be several wolfish-looking

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dogs, whose meat was esteemed a great delicacy at their feasts. Generally, the troops would have half-a-dozen small scraggy ponies, which, sometimes, the men would ride; and which sometimes the squaws would harness to two poles, one end of each of which would drag on the ground and form a primitive sort of wagon, upon which to transport a part of the luggage and pappooses.
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All labor connected with Indian life the squaws performed. Their duty it was not only to transport the baggage, but, also, to put up the wigwams (sic), fetch the firewood, cook the meals, cultivate the small patch of Indian corn, tan the furs and the robes, make the clothing and fancy bead-work, manufacture the household implements and hew out the canoes.
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The Indians were very hospitable, and would spare the last morsel, and expect others to do the same. They had but a faint idea of private property, especially in the matter of food, and, therefore, thought nothing of begging eatables of the early settlers, deeming it a matter of right that if they or their pappooses were hungry, and the pale face had more food in his lodge than he wanted at a meal, he should certainly share with them. They seldom made any provision for the morrow, but would gorge themselves with what they had at the time and wait until hungry before looking for more; hence, during the severe winters, when game became scarce, they were often at starvation’s door, and sometimes perished from want. They were never dainty as to what they ate. All kinds of animals, and every part of the animal, afforded them nourishment. The early pioneers remember how a dead horse or dead cow would be relished by the Indians as a big feast.
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The Sioux were the hereditary foes of the Chippewas, who dwelt north, about the head waters of the Mississippi; and for ages war parties were constantly going out from one nation against the other. The fair fields of Minnesota have been literally drenched in gore, and there is scarce a spot but has been the scene of a bloody conflict. The old settler can recall how he was horrified, when passing an Indian village, at the site of a number of fresh human scalps, painted, combed and stretched upon a hoop which was fastened to a pole in front of the wigwams. Sometimes the heads of their victims might be seen placed in a hideous row upon stakes. Around these bloody trophies, for many nights, would be held the savage scalp-dance, with such howling, hooting and yelling as would wake the echoes of Gehenna. They observed many dances and feasts, and

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often spent all night in these wild orgies, much to the terror of the early settlers before they became used to their customs. Though the braves disliked all labor, deeming it ignoble for a man, yet they were inured to the severerst hardships, fatigue and bodily pains. To endure physical suffereing with them was the chief characteristic of manhood. From childhood the males were taught to despise pain, and feats of endurance were always the special feature of their feasts and dances. Major Stephen H. Long, who made a survey of the valley in 1823, thus describes a “Dance to the Sun,” performed by a young brave named “Wanotau,” as witnessed by him at Lake Traverse: This dance consisted in making three cuts through his skin - one on his breast and one on each of his arms. The skin was cut in the manner of a loop, so as to permit a rope to pass under the strip of skin and flesh, which was thus divided from the body. The ropes being pased through, their ends were secured to a tall, vertical pole planted at about forty yards from his lodge. He then began to dance around this pole, at the commencement of his fast, frequently swinging himself in the air, so as to be supported merely by the cords which were secured to the strips of skin cut from his arms and breast. He continued this exercise, with few intermissions, during the whole of his fast, until the fourth day about 10 o’ clock a.m., when the strip of skin from his breast gave way, notwithstanding which he interrupted not his dance, although supported merely by his arms. At noon the strip from his left arm snapped off. His uncle then though he had suffered enough, and drew his knife and cut the remaining strip from his right arm, upon which Wanotau fell to the ground in a swoon. The heat at the time was extreme. He was left exposed in that state to the sun until night, when his friends took him some provisions.
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During the summer of 1820 two of these Sisseton Sioux murdered two men on the Missouri river. The government demanded the murderers for punishment. The aged father of one volunteered to die instead of his son, and with the other murderer, started for Fort Snelling to deliver themselves up to the authorities. Before entering the fort both pinioned their arms and thrust wooden splinters through the flesh above their elbows, to show their contempt of pain and death.
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Thus the stoic red man cultivated and exalted in his indifference to suffering and death.
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On the opposite side of the river from Friend’s Village, in Judson, on a high bluff overlooking the river, was situated the
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old Indian cemetery. It was formed by placing a number of crotched posts in the ground, and laying out a net work of poles across from one to the other; and on top of those, wrapped in skins or blankets, the dead were deposited. This ancient burial place was cut down and destroyed as a nuisance by the early Welsh settlers. The Indian, however, was gone. For the past thirty years he has not set foot upon the land of his fathers. A mighty change has taken place; his bark villages have disappeared without leaving a ruin; his paths are obliterated; there is no trace of the powerful race which filled the land just thirty years ago; no one can even find a trinket in the fields; it is as though oblivion had drawn its hand across the slate of their existence, and blotted out forever their every slight mark. The land, where his forefathers lived, and moved, and had their being for a thousand years and more; where they loved and hated, joyed and sorrowed, fought and bled and died; where ambition stirred and victory crowned full many a nameless hero - the land where he was born and reared; where he played and won his first achievements of the chase and war, knows him not. And should he return today and behold it, dotted with busy marts of trade, sprinked with farm-houses, school-houses and churches, chequered with waving fields of golden harvests, striped with roads and railways, and teeming with strange population, he, likewise, would know it not.
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12 BLUE EARTH COUNTY - EARLY DISCOVERIES
The first account we have of this great country dates back to the year 1700, when a Frenchman, by the name of Le Sueur, having intimation of a copper mine in this region, and having received authority from the French Government, ascended the Mississippi with a small sail boat, two canoes, and nineteen men, entering, on September 20, 1700, the mouth of the Minnesota, which river he called St. Pierre, in honor of a French officer then in command at Lake Pepin. On October 1st he entered the Mahkato or Blue Earth river. About a league up this river, in the vicinity of the supposed copper mine. Le Sueur and party landed and built a fort, which was completed on October 14th and called Le Huillier, after the Farmer General at Paris. That the valleys and prairies adjoining the Blue Earth and Minnesota rivers then afforded pasturage to immense herdsd of buffalo, is evidenced by the fact that a few of Le Sueur’s party in a short time killed four hundred of these animals, whose flesh, preserved
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by being quartered and being hung up to dry within the fort, formed the chief sustenance of the party during the winter. In the spring Le Sueur began working the mine. According to Penicaut, who was one of the party, and afterward wrote an account of the expedition, the ore was scratched out with a knife, and, in twenty-two days, more than twenty thousand pounds was obtained, of which Le Sueur selected four thousand of the best. This he landed in his shallop (any of various vessels formerly used for sailing or rowing in shallow waters, especially a two-masted gaff-rigged vessel of the 17th and 18th centuries. French “shalopue” < German “Schluppe” = sloop, akin to Old English slûpan = to glide. Webster’s Dictionary) , and with three canoes full of furs, among which were four hundred beaver robes of nine skins each, obtained in trade from the Indians, started about the first of May for Louisiana and France, leaving one D’Eraque with twelve men to guard the fort. D’Eraque remained at his post that summer and winter, until the spring of 1702, when, being out of provisions and ammunition, and three of his men having been killed by the Fox and Mascouten Indians, he abandoned the fort and sailed down the river for Louisiana.
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The sight (sic = site) of the ancient Fort Le Huillier is now very much in doubt. Some place it about a mile below the juncture of the Le Sueur river with the Blue Earth. Penicaut described it as being a league up the Mahkota, on a point of land a quarter of a mile from the woods, and the mine was three quarters of a league distant, on the bank of the river, in a bluff, where the green earth was a foot and a half in thickness; and a map of the period puts the fort on the right bank of the river. To tally with the description, many think the Blue Earth at that time, flowed west of its present channel, through the village of South Bend, where traces of its ancient bed are plainly visible; and that the fort stood on the elevated tableland to the east of the village. As to the copper ore discovered, this seems to have been the Indian pigment of green clay. What became of the ship-load carried to France history saith not.
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There is a tradition of an ancient and magnificent cave, in the vicinity of this bed of green clay, hewn into the solid rock in the sides of the high bluff on the farm lately owned by Mr. Jas. P. Thomas. The entrance to the cave is said to be very small, so that one would have to crawl in on hands and knees; but the interior is an immense chamber, whose sides and high ceilings glitter with the sheen of a peculiar metal. In one corner stands a huge chest with a skeleton on the lid to guard the French valuables hid by d’Eraque, while scattered about the cave are heaps of treasures, concealed by the Indians. Two or three of the earliest settlers claim to have seen the mouth if the cave, or a hole which might have been such, but a land-slide soon after
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their arrival covered it up. Occasionally some curious antiquarian, with pick and shovel, makes a feeble search, but no systematic exploration has been attempted, and the wonderful cave still remains a mystery.
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13 THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF MANKATO
For a hundred fifty years after the abandonment of Fort Le Huillier this fair and fertile country was destined to continue in the wild beauty of nature. The buffalo grazed upon the prairie, the deer bounded through the forest, the wolf howled from the hillside, and the smoke of the wigwam rose from the valleys undisturbed by the approach of the white man; save for the occasional visit of some wandering French hunter; save that in May, 1820, a company of Scotchmen, under one Laidlaw, passed up the Minnesota river, from Prairie Du Chien, with several boats full of grain for the Selkirk Colony, at Pembina, whose crop had been entirely destroyed by grasshoppers; and save for the occasional passing of some Government survey or exploring expedition.
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On the morning of the 24th July, 1850, the first steamboat passed the mouth of the Blue Earth up the Minnesota river. It was called the “Yankee,” and on board was an excursion party from St. Paul. Just above the mouth of the Minneopa creek the cry of buffaloes was raised, and the old hunters got their guns ready; but the buffaloes proved to be a number of huge boulders half hidden in the tall grass. During the day the heat was excessive, the murcury (sic = mercury) getting as high as 104 degrees in the shade. The night was passed at the mouth of the Big Cottonwood, and a terrible night it was. In addition to the stifling heat, clouds of mosquitoes filled the air, against whose attack no smoke or switches of leafy boughs availed. So completely exhausted were the excursionists by morning that they were glad to beat a hasty retreat for home. Among this company of pleasure-seekers were P. K. Johnson, Col. Robertson, Henry Jackson and Daniel Williams, who were so impressed with the great beauty of the country and with the location of the great bend of the Minnesota as the natural key to this vast region, that they determined to build there a town.

(“Jackson Street -This street was named after Henry Jackson, one of the original founders of Mankato” - see Streets of Old Mankato Website http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/history/oldmankato/commonlinks/streets.html)

Accordingly, on January 31, 1852, P. K. Johnson, Daniel Williams and John James left St. Paul with a team to locate the new city. About a mile below the mouth of the Mahkato, or Blue Earth, there was a good boat landing on the Minnesota, and here our adventurers determined to found their city, and at once began by putting up a long shanty. On the 4th of February a town site company was organized at St. Paul, consisting of fourteen members,
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Eight photos: Welsh Business Men, Mankato, Minn.
Wm. H. Jones,
David S. Evans,
Richard F. Jones,
John B. Richards,
John R. Thomas,
Wm. R. Hughes,
Edward Jones,
Wm. W. Davis, Jr.
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Eight photos: Welsh Business Men, Mankato, Minn.
Owen E. Richards,
Evan D. Jones,
Henry I. Parry,
Wm. F. Hughes,
Wm. Davis,
Byron Hughes,
David J. Jones,
Hugh Evans
 
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(x13) who, in the following May, had the town site surveyed and platted, and called the new town Mankato, from the Mahkato or Blue Earth river, though some maintain that the name came from the that of the water-spirit in the German Legend of Undine. But the name Mankato does not occur in Undine. The fact seems to have been that Mrs. Col. Robertson, who chose the name, had been reading Nicollet’s account of the region of the Blue Earth of Mahkato, where it is compared to the Undine region of the German Romance. The good lady in some way misunderstood the passage and got the impression that Mankato was the name of a water-spirit in the German Romance and so named the town.During that year (1852) about a half dozen log shanties were built. This was the first settlement in Blue Earth county, and the origin of the present city of Mankato.
(The name is from Dakota name ‘blue earth’, makHhá = earth, to = blue, and was written down as Mahkato. It seems that on some map or document it was miscopied as Mankato, the ‘h’ having been mistaken for a ‘n’, and that this erroneous form took the place of the genuine form).
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As to two of the founders - Daniel Williams and John James - their names indicate them of Welsh desent, though the former was born in New York and the latter somewhere in England.
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14 THE FIRST WELSH SETTLERS IN ST. PAUL AND LE SUEUR
Who was the first Welshman to settle in Minnesota is not known, but prior to the organization of the territory in 1849 a few Welshmen had located in St. Paul and vicinity.
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In May, 1849, Maj. John P. Owens came to St. Paul from Cincinnati, O., and started the Minnesota Register, the first newspaper in the territory. About 1849 one Thomas Thomas, of Pont-y-pool (Pont-y-pwl) , Wales, came from New Orleans and located in St. Paul. He was a stone mason and contractor by trade, and helped to lay the first foundations of the future capital of our state. Four Welshmen, named John L. Jones, Griffith Jones, John Roberts and Enoch Mason, nephew of the late Rev. John H. Evans, came to St. Paul in 1850. Mason died there in the summer of 1852, and was buried on Dayton’s Bluff, and as far as known was the first Welshman who died in Minnesota. In 1851 these were joined by four other Welshmen, at least, viz: David Jones (now of Le Sueur county). another David Jones, and one Evans, who had a drug store there, and Williams, in the employ of the Pioneer.

John Roberts, David Jones, Griffith Jones and John L. Jones went about four hundred miles northeast of St. Paul and located upon
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farms. The four were natives of Denbighshire, Wales. In August, 1852, John C. Evans, now of Le Sueur county, joined this embryonic Welsh settlement, making his claim in Section 10 of New Canada township. He was soon joined by his two sisters, Rose and Margaret. The following April (1853) Mr. Evans’ father, Edward Evans, and mother, and his brother, Edward S. Evans, and his other four sisters, Elizabeth, Mary, Maria and Liza, all came to the new settlement. Though there was then plenty of government land in Ramsey county, still the soil was of such poor quality that our Welshmen very soon concluded to abandon it and seek a more favorable spot. The region of the Blue Earth was then famed as being the richest and most desirable farming land in the world. Accordingly about the first of May, 1853, John C. Evans, David Jones and John Roberts, finding a boat at St. Paul going up the Minnesota river to Ft. Ridgely, embarked on it for the Blue Earth country. The boat’s name was Tiger. The first day it got as far as Ft. Snelling. The next day it reached Home Landing (now Shakopee.) The third day brought them to Brown’s Landing (now Henderson), where there was but one cabin and one man in it. The fourth day they reached Le Sueur, where a few people had settled. The fifth day found them at Traverse de Sioux, which in that day was the largest city by far in the Minnesota valley. It was the metropolis of the Sioux Indians. Situated at the main ford of the Minnesota river, it had been prominent in Indian history from the first and trading posts were located here by the whites as early as 1829, and in 1843, the great Sioux missionary, Rev. S. R. Riggs, established a mission here. At the time of this visit from our Welsh friends, Nathan Myrick conducted the principal trading post while Rev. M. N. Adams ministered to the spiritual wants of the community. On the sixth day our travellers past Rock Bend (now St. Peter) and Babcock’s Landing, at each of which places there was but one shanty. Frequently the boat would stop while all on board, passengers and boat hands, went out and cut wood for the engine - the captain having thoughtfully brought along a few extra axes for the passengers. On Wednesday morning, the seventh day since they began their journey our Welsh friends landed at Mankato, then a city of three log cabins, and distant from St. Paul 350 miles according to the boat’s schedule, but which today is only 86 miles distant and about two hours ride by rail. On enquiry they learned that the fertile prairie land they were seeking lay six or seven miles to the west and south. The three struck  
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4 Photos: Early Welsh Settlers of Le Sueur County, Minn.
Edward Jones,
David Jones,
W. E. Jones,
Evan T. Jones
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4 Photos: Early Welsh Settlers of Le Sueur County, Minn.
John C. Evans,
Mrs. John C. Evans,
David Hughes,
Mrs. David Hughes
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(x15) out through the woods to the south inquest of the promised land, but had not gone far when a heavy cold rain set in, which continued with some snow all day. Turning to the west our travelers soon came to the Blue Earth river, but as the water was deep and cold, they could not cross it, and after walking for miles along its bank looking for a ford, they gave up the project and turned back to return to St. Paul on foot. Having walked until dark in the cold rain and finding no house to shelter in they were obliged to camp out in the woods.
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They placed a few strips of bark over their heads to ward off the biggest drops. Thus our pioneers passed a night of misery long drawn out, between the rain, the cold, the loneliness and the dread of the wild beasts, whose cries frequently broke the silence.
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The next day they found a well-beaten track which they supposed led in the direction of St. Paul and they followed it many miles, when it terminated suddenly in the remains of a large Indian village situate (sic) on a large and most beautiful peninsula almost surrounded by the waters of a large lake. The Indians had all left, but indications pointed to a recent occupation. The teepee poles were all up and their number showed the village to have been very large. On the lake were a number of canoes and round the teepees were many cooking utensils, made of birch bark, while near the centre of the village were a number of empty whiskey barrels, showing that the devil’s missionaries from the land of the pale-face had already found the red man even in this hidden retreat. The lake was either Lake Washington or some other large lake in the near vicinity, and the good path referred to led between it and Traverse de Sioux. Our travelers now found that their good path had led them directly away from St. Paul. Retracing their steps they discovered a new road which one Captain Todd was cutting through the Big Woods, and which is known as the Todd road to this day. The second night they camped by a creek where the village of Cleveland now stands. The next day they followed the new road until late in the afternoon when they caught up with Captain Todd and his force of eleven men at work on the road. These were the first white men our Welshmen had seen since leaving Mankato, and as the supply of crackers they had brought from St. Paul was nearly exhausted they were very glad to get a small loaf of bread from the captain’s scanty stock.
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From this point on our travelers had neither road nor path to guide them, but after wandering many weary miles through
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the tangled labyrinth of timber, lakes and sloughs they finally, about noon of the next day (Saturday), reached Canoe (now Cannon) river at a point a little north of Faribault. Our travelers had no idea where they were, but after crossing the river to the prairie beyond they encouraged each other with the assurance that when they reached a certain high knoll off in the distance they could certainly see St. Paul, so they hurried toward it with high hopes. but alas for many a human high expectation. The top of that knoll only revealed the valley of the river stretching mile upon mile until it was lost in the distant horizon, with a boundless prairie on one side, and the endless forest on the other, without a human habitation or path save an occasional Indian trail. Tired and hungry our travelers would fain rest and refresh themselves, but the crackers and bread had all been exhausted since morning, and there was an uncomfortable doubt as to where or when they would get more.
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After traveling for some distance they found a fairly good trail, which, fortunately, proved to be the one leading between Faribault and St. Paul. Night came, but they dared not rest, for as yet they knew not whence their next meal would come. So they pressed on all night. The woods on their left seemed alive with wolves, whose loud and dismal howls often sounded startlingly near and reminded our travelers that they too might be looking for their supper.
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Across the path lay numerous creeks whose cold and unknown waters they had to ford in the dark, and many of them proved to be quite deep. After traveling all night and until 1 or 2 o’ clock in the afternoon of the next day, to their great joy they came to the house of a Frenchman, where they obtained some food and learned that St. Paul was but seven miles distant.
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Our Welshmen now determined to remove from their settlement near St. Paul to the country they had seen near Traverse de Sioux. Accordingly after a few days rest and preparation on May 31, 1853, five of them, namely John C. Evans, Edward S. Evans, Elizabeth Evans (their sister), John Roberts and Griffith Jones started with three wagons drawn by four yokes of oxen for the new country. They went from St. Paul to where the present city of Faribault now stands, and where then a few Indians and half-breeds, dwelt together with one white man who had just arrived, thence they passed through the Big Woods to where now stands the village of Kasota.
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Their wagons were the first to pass through most of this
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country and slow and tedious was the journey - cutting their way through the dense tangles forest, crossing bottomless sloughs, going up and down steep ravines and fording creeks and rivers. Many were the accidents and thrilling adventures of each day.
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After a few days spent in the exploration of the country they finally chose Le Sueur prairie as the site of their new home, and there accordingly located their claims.
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This was the origin of the present Welsh settlement of Le Sueur or “Big Woods” as it is commonly called. The government had not yet surveyed the land, so our settlers built their cabins and plowed the prairie to suit themselves with no boundaries to interfere. In the following August Griffith Jones left for Wisconsin, never to return, and in October John Roberts died suddenly after a short illness, and was buried on a corner of his claim, Rev. Adams, of Traverse de Sioux officiating at the funeral. Roberts was an honest, religious young man and a member of the Welseyan Methodist church. To compensate for this loss to the settlement of two-fifths of its population, the next day after Mr. Roberts’ death, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Evans, parents of John C., Edward S., and Elizabeth Evans, arrived with their other two daughters, Maria and Liza. In the following May, Thos. Davis and family arrived from Pomeroy, O., and located in the same neighborhood. During 1855 came David Jones, Evan Jones and Wm. Humphreys, with their families, and settled on the opposite side of the river, in Sibley county.
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Let us now leave this embryo settlement of Le Sueur county and trace the beginning of its much larger sister settlement in Blue Earth county.
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15 THE FIRST WELSH SETTLERS IN BLUE EARTH COUNTY
About this time there lived in La Crosse, Wisconsin, two Welshmen: D. C. Evans, Esq., and Rev. Richard Davies.
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Mr. Evans was born in Meivod (Meifod), Montgomeryshire, April 28, 1820; emigrated to Palmyra, O., in 1836: thence, in 1843, to Dodgeville, Wis.; and thence to La Crosse, in 1850. In his mental make-up he was more of an American than a Welshman - and a western American at that - thoroughly imbued with that sanguine enthusiasm which is the virtuous fault of our typical westerner; which makes him see millions in everything, build the city of a century in a day, and transform in an hour a savage wilderness into a smiling civilization.
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Rev. Richard Davies was a native of the same shire in
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Wales, born in Llanwaddelan (sic = Llanwyddelan), January, 1805. (In the Biographies section, his birth year is stated to be 1804) ; emigrated to Jackson County, O., in 1837; began preaching there with the C. M. church in 1840; moved, in 1852, to Racine, Wis., and ten years later to La Crosse, where he labored as a missionary with the Congregationalists.
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These two men were of the opinion that they could better their fortunes more readily by moving farther west, and they were also desirous of bettering the fortunes of their countrymen, by founding a new Welsh settlement. Heretofore, nearly all of the Welsh colonies had been made in poor, barren agricultural districts, and our two Welshmen were very anxious that one settlement, at least, should be planted in some of the rich farming lands of the West.
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When in the real estate office of Col. T. B. Stoddard, at La Crosse, in the spring of 1853, Mr. Evans had his attention first called to the great bend of the St. Peter, or Minnesota, river as a natural point of importance. This Col. Stoddard used to study the maps of the northwest in those days, with a view to discover (sic = discovering) the natural points, where, in his opinion, great cities must arise; and foremost among these points was the big bend at the mouth of the Blue Earth.
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About this time wonderful accounts began to circulate of the magnificent country in the valley of the Minnesota, which, by treaties with the Wapeton and Sisseton bands, of Dakota, at Traverse de Sioux, July 23, 1851, and with the Medawakon and Wapekuta bands at Mendota, August 5, 1851, had all been ceded to the Government. These treaties, on the 14th of February, 1853, were ratified by Congress, and this vast territory was thrown open for settlement.
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All these things coming to the ears of our Welsh friends at La Crosse, fanned the western flame within them all the more, and at last, on the 26th of July, 1853, Mr. Evans started from La Crosse to spy the promised land. On the way he fell in with one Gen. Matthews, who was also drifting westward. They spent one day at St. Paul, then a village of a dozen shanties, and went to see the great falls of St. Anthony, and visited the only white inhabitant in then in that region, a Col. Stevens (in those days no American came west unless he was a General, a Colonel, or a least a Captain). This Col. Stevens had just built a squatter’s shanty on the land adjoining the falls, but lived in daily apprehension of being driven off, as a trespasser, by the military at Fort Snelling; for St. Anthony Falls, with its adjoining territory, then belonged to the Indians. Standing beside
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this magnificent water power in its primitive greatness and grandeur, Mr. Evans remarked, “Here some day will be the Lowell of the West.” How well this prediction has been verified let the city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, which supplies the markets of the world with flour and timber attest.

At St. Paul, Evans and Matthews met Samuel Humbertson, captain of the “Clarion,” a small boat plying on the Minnesota river. Two or three weeks before, this man had gone ashore, about a mile above the mouth of the Blue Earth, where a narrow valley, the ancient bed of that stream, comes down to the Minnesota, bewteen two prairie plateaus of the second bench. Finding at this spot a fine place for a boat landing and levee, Capt. Humbertson decided to found a city in this valley and on the adjoining plateaus, which should rival Mankato and become, eventually, the city of the great bend. Accordingly, he left Thomas Lamareaux, his nephew, with a pile of boards, to hold possession, while he should get up a townsite company at St. Paul. Meeting Evans and Matthews he quickly induced them to join him in the enterprise. The water in the river that year being low, the “Clarion” failed to ascend further than Babcock’s Landing, a little above the present city of St. Peter. From there, on the 1st of August, 1853, Humbertson, his clerk, Alden Bryant, his engineer John Mann, with Evans and Matthews, walked on the present site of South Bend. There they found Thomas Lamereaux and a bottle of whiskey lying under the pile of boards. There they also found J. S. Lyon and family, who had arrived from Iowa a day or two before, in a prairie schooner, (a wagon with a tented cover of sheetting (sic = sheeting)). Lyon was taken into the townsite company, making the sixth member, each having an equal share.
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At the suggestion of Mr. Evans the village was called “South Bend,” from its position at the great bend of the Minnesota.
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16 THE ORGANIZATION OF BLUE EARTH COUNTY
On Saturday, August 6, 1853, was built for Mr. Lyon, on the tableland east of the present village, the first log cabin.
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It is to be noted that Mr. Lyon brought the first cow west of the Blue Earth, and on this day was done the first churning. This item has still more interest since the recent wonderful development of the dairy industry in this region. On this same 6th of August (1853) the first Board of County Commissioners met at Mankato and organized the county of Blue Earth and established the voting precincts of Mankato and Kasato. On the 7th of August (1853) Mr. Evans started back to La Crosse, to arrange his
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affairs there in reference to his new home, and to report the good country he had found. When just ready to return to South Bend on the 17th (August 1853), intelligence reached him that his father, at Palmyra, O., was seriously ill. So Mr. Evans hired a Welshman named Owen Herbert to go to South Bend to look after his interests, while he went to attend his father in what proved to be his last sickness. October 11th (1853) was held the first election precinct of Mankato only. There were eighteen votes cast, eleven of which were republican and seven democratic. By the 15th of November (1853) Mr. Evans had returned to South Bend and on the 22d (November 1853) went after D. T. Turpin, a surveyor at St. Paul, to survey the new townsite, which survey was completed on the 2d of December (1853). The weather had been exceedingly fine during all of this fall, and on the last day of the survey there was no frost in the ground, while even on Christmas day, when a party of Mankato people came up to visit South Bend, the ice upon the Blue Earth was not strong enough for them to cross upon it. By the first of January, 1854, however, there was a change in the weather program, and a very cold spell was experienced, lasting six months.
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About this time the provisons at South Bend gave out and none were to be had nearer than St. Paul - ninety miles away. Mr. Evans had bought a span of horses of Capt. Humbertson, which, by the way, were the first, and, for two years, the only horses west of the Blue Earth. It, therefore, devolved upon Mr. Evans to take his horses and sleigh after provisions.
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With deep snow upon the ground - drifted in places to mountain heaps - with the mercury down to the twenties, and the danger of being caught in a blizzard without a road or a human habitation, the journey was anything but desirable. It took Mr. Evans eleven days to make the trip, and the hardships attending it were the severest he experienced in all his life. On the evening of the 24th of January (1854) he was overtaken by a terrible storm, far away from any house, and gave himself up to perish. Unhitching his team, he made the best shelter possible for them with the sleigh, and put before them all the fodder he had. Kindling a fire, he sat down beside it, not expecting to see the morrow. He fell into a sort of doze from which he woke to find his fur cap lying upon a few embers before him, apparently intact, but upon the touch of his hand it fell to ashes. This aroused him from his stupor, and the storm fortunately having
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abated, he took courage, and with head tied up in some flannel shirts he had bought at St. Paul, he eventually managed to reach Shakopee, where he and his team were hospitably cared for at the hostelry of the old pioneer, Jos. Reynolds. “Uncle Joe,” as he was called, confidentially told Mr.Evans of all the wonderful advantages possessed by Shakopee, and how some day, not far distant, it was bound to be the London of America. Mr. Evans listened with a compassionate smile as he thought that Mr. Reynolds had never seen the great South Bend, and while ignorance was bliss, it would be folly, thought Evans, to disturb his dreams by revealing the glorious future of this mighty city at the wonderful bend, so he left him and heroically pushed forward through the snowdrifts, until he finally reached his prospective city, and its hungry inhabitants, who were prayerfully looking for him and his load.
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Toward the last of February (1854) the weather grew very warm, and a thunder storm on the first of March (1854) took away all the snow and broke up all the ice in the river. After this so mild was the temperature that Mr. Evans had no more need to shelter his horses, but left them out pasturing day and night. By the 4th of April (1854) the snakes and the mosquitoes were out.

During the winter Mr. Evans had the logs hauled for his two-story house, which was built during the summer (of 1854); but, while Mr. Evans and his employee, Owen Herbert, were busy raising the walls of the would-be metropolis (South Bend), our old friend, Rev. Richard Davies at La Crosse, was equally busy, by the public press and by private letters, making known its greatness and glory throughout the Welsh world. So well, indeed, did he advertise the new settlement that in a year (there was) no Welshman in the land but had heard of the fame of South Bend, and the golden acres in the valley of the Minnesota.
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The first Welshmen induced to visit the new settlement were John Jones and his son-in-law, Griffith Jones, from near Oshkosh, Wis., who came to view the land on the 24th of July, 1854; and on the 17th of August (1854) following arrived with other families and settled on claims near Rush Lake, three miles southwest of South Bend village. They brought with them all their stock and farm implements. On the 6th of July, 1854, the election precinct of South Bend was created, comprising all the country west of the Blue Earth. D.C. Evans, L. Matthews and N.G. Bangs were appointed election judges. Evans, however,
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(x23) did not serve, being a candidate for County Commissioner that fall. The election occurred on the 10th of October (1854), and South Bend cast five votes and Mankato forty-five, and Mr. Evans was elected with a good majority
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During the summer of 1854 was laid out the first military road by Capt. Reno, from Medota, through Mankato and South Bend in a southwesterly course, to the mouth of the Big Sioux river. During this summer, also, J. S. Lyon built, on Minneopa creek, the first saw mill, which he began operating on the 8th of August (1854). This Lyon was a queer character with all the crude notions and ways of a typical backwoodsman. He dressed in a buckskin suit of semi-barbarous style, and the least restraint of civilization galled him, and caused him half the time to be at loggerheads with those whom he came into contact.
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The death of his son, John Lyon, which occurred September 9, 1854, was the first in the settlement. The funeral services were held in the open air near the present South Bend Cemetery, and were conducted by the Rev. James Thompson, a Presbyterian minister, who then and there preached the first sermon ever heard west of the Blue Earth, from the text found in 2d Cor., 5th chap. and 1st verse. (Most certainly an English sermon. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with the hands, eternal in the heavens”: In Welsh, the corresponding verse is “Canys ni a wyddom, os ein daearol dŷ o’r babell hon a ddatodir, fod i ni adeilad gan Dduw, sef tŷ nid o waith llaw, tragwyddol yn y nefoedd”). John Lyon was 21 years old when he died, and for his amiable character was much esteemed by all.
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September 22, 1854, the South Bend plat was recorded, when it appears the proprietary was divided, 1/4 share each, to D.C. Evans, Lyman Matthews and Samuel Humbertson, and 1/8 each to Alden Bryant and A. Thompson. The first census, taken and preserved in his diary by D.C. Evans, shows South Bend to contain, on the 8th of August, 1854, 5 houses, 6 families comprising 26 souls, 1 span of horses, 4 yoke of oxen, 6 cows, and 2 dogs. Had the water been higher in the river this year, so that Capt. Humbertson could ascend it in his boat, this population might have been many times doubled. In the spring he started from St. Paul with fifteen American families for South Bend, but they failed to pass the rapids near Carver, and all turned back disgusted, except Mr. Thompson.
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The pen of our old friend, Rev. Richard Davies, at La Crosse, proved mightier, however, then Capt. Humbertson’s boat. The glowing descriptions of the valley of the Minnesota, which appeared in the Disgedydd, Drych and Cyfaill (three Welsh-language periodicals) fired the Welsh mind throughout the country with a desire to see these golden Hesperian fields.
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About the first of February, 1855, three persons left Emmet, a Welsh settlement near Waukesha, Wis., for South Bend.
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Their names were John A. Jones, David J. Lewis, and Evan J. Lewis. Crossing the Mississippi at La Crosse, and being provided with blankets, a bag of provisions and a gun, they struck out afoot through the great wilderness. Now they would come upon a trail which sometimes led them aright and often astray, and now they would wander through the unbroken forest, where there was not the ghost of a path anywhere. Sometimes they would stumble upon a lonely cabin in the woods, and share over night the pioneer’s generous hospitality. At other time they would travel all day without seeing a single soul, and would have to pass the night round a camp fire in the open air, - and this, too, in mid-winter: but it was a mild winter, without much snow. Finally, after many hardships and adventures, they reached South Bend - liked the country, located claims, built cabins - and on the 2nd of March (1855) returned home to tell their neighbors what they had seen and to prepare for emigrating as soon as the weather became favorable.
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About March 22 (1855), also, Mr. Evans, finding it not well, even in this western paradise, that man should be alone, departed for his old Palmyra home in quest of a fitting helpmate. About April 10th, of this same year (1855) eight Welshmen met at Galena, Ill., all going to the valley of the Minnesota. They were Wm. C. Williams, Wm. Jenkins and Ed. Pierce, from Big Rock, Ill.; Thos. Y. Davis and Humphrey Jones, from Pomeroy, O.; John Watkins and William Jones, from Youngstown, O.; and Anthony Howells, from Palmyra, O. Thus thrown together they journeyed henceforth in company. Arriving at St. Paul they found no boat ready just then to take them further, on account of low water, so they hired a man and a team for $3.00 apiece to drive them to Mankato, where they arrived April 14th (1855), and that same afternoon walked the balance of the way to South Bend. The famous metropolis they would have passed without knowing it had they not turned to inquire at a little rough board shanty, nearly covered with the skins of wild animals that hung about it to cure. What, however, was their astonishment of our friends to learn that they then stood in the midst of the great city itself, of which they had read so much from the gushing pen of our friend Davies; yea, and that they stood at the principal entrance of the only first class hotel in town (the other entrances being where the boards had weathered and shrunk, and were used mostly by the wind, rain and mosquitos).
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This company of Welshmen, after traveling about several days in quest of farms in the vicinity of South Bend, finally, on
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the 28th of April (1855), located upon claims ten miles further west - in the present town of Judson. The eight claims, of 160 acres each, were on the upland prairie, and ranged in a row along the edge of the timber from the old Wm. C. Williams place to that of the Rev. John Roberts. After marking the claims the parties drew lots for them. April 30th (1855) they hired a son of Mr. Lyon to take them up in a wagon, with a second-hand stove and a few provisions, to the new settlement. The next two or three weeks were spent building a house on each claim. It did not require much labor or expense to build a residence in those days. A site was chosen in the brush where timber was most convenient; some cut the logs, others carried them together and plied them upon each other in a rectanglar shape, to the height of six or seven feet, one side being made higher than the other for a roof slope. The roof of poles and bark was then put on and the house completed. There was no glass, so windows were dispensed with; there was no lumber, so terra firma answered for a floor, and a blanket, hung over the entrance, served the purpose of a door. At his leisure the pioneer would fill the cracks between the logs with chunks of wood, and plaster them over with mud. Such was the mansion primeval. After a year or two this gave place to a larger log cabin, plastered with clay, with one or two small square windows, with a two-sided roof covered with ax-split clap-boards, with a floor of wide, rough planks (sawed or hewn), and with a stout door of the same material, fastened with a strong wooden latch. Sometimes a fireplace and chimney, huge enough for a pair of oxen to pass through, would be built first, and the house above described appended to it as an addition. I the course of a few years this house would be superseded by a more tasty and commodious one of hewn logs, plastered with lime, roofed with shingles, floored with matched boards, partitioned off into rooms, and having an up-stairs and a paneled front door. In another decade, this house in turn had to give place to the present comfortable edifice o frame or brick. Such is the evolution of the modern farm house in the Minnesota valley.
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17 THE FIRST SETTLERS IN JUDSON
But to return to our stout-hearted pioneers, whom we left fashioning the promordial germ of the house species. Having finished their shanties, all except Humphrey Jones, Thos. Y. Davis and Wm. Jones left for their respective homes after their goods and families; and in a few days more Wm. Jones departed upon ther same errand, leaving Thos. Y. Davis and Humphrey Jones alone in the new settlement. Let us leave them for a time , while we see how
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(x26) South Bend is progressing. About the middle of April, 1855, Evan D. Evans and family arrived from Blossburg, Pa., and on the 27th of the same month (27 April 1855) came Evan Evans (Pant) and Thos. Jones (Maes Mawr) on a visit from Waukesha, Wis.
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They all boarded with Joshua Barnard, and the bill of fare consisted only of salt meats and Indian corn, boiled together.
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April 22d (sic = 22nd) (1855) was held the first prayer meeting west of Blue Earth, and the first Welsh prayer meeting, probably, west of the Mississipi. The place was the cabin of Mr. John Jones (Oshkosh), on Rush Lake in South Bend township, and those present were Mr. Jones and family, Wm. Jenkins, Wm. C. Williams, Humphrey Jones, Thos. Y. Davis and the others of their party before named. April 29th the first prayer meeting in South Bend village was held at D. C. Evans’ house, then occupied by Evan D. Evans. The service was partly in Welsh and partly in English, both nationalities being present. Those taking part were Evan D. Evans, Owen Herbert, Joshua Barnard and Evan Evans (Pant).
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A Bible class had been held for a few Sundays the preceding February, when D.C. Evans, Joshua Barnard, Owen Herbert, John A. Jones and David and Evan J. Lewis used to gather together on Sundays at Mr. Evans’ house and read a chapter of the Scriptures, each one commenting and questioning upon his own verse after the Welsh method. Mr. Barnard, who was a very religious man, and who since has become an efficient minister of the M.E. Church, usually began those Bible studies with prayer. There were none among our pioneers much versed in music, so Mr. Barnard, who had learned to play the fiddle in his youth, would lead the singing by first humming the tune over on an old bass-viol, then all would join in with lusty voices.
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On the 5th of May (1855), Edward Thomas, Esq., arrived with his family from Pomeroy, O.; and on the second Sabbath of that month was started at D.C. Evans’ house the first regular Sunday school, with Edward Thomas as superintendent.
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May 21st (1855), Thos. M. Pugh and Thomas Phillips reached South Bend from Dodgeville, Wis. They traveled from Shakopee on foot in company with two Germans. Failing to reach a house by night, they had to lodge under the twinkling stars. The four laid them down in a row on a blanket and, being tired, soon fell asleep. Toward midnight Pugh was awakened by the loud howlings of the wolves in the surrounding forest. After listening awhile to their dismal cries, at times sounding  
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(x26a)
4 Engravings:
Hugh Edwards,
Evan Williams,
David J. Williams (Bradford),
Evan Jones 
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(x26b)
4 Engravings:
Evan H. Evans,
Hugh W. Williams,
Lewis D. Lewis,
John I. Jones
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(x27) viciously near, he began to think his outside position not he most desirable. Next to him lay a sleek, fat Dutchman, and Mr. Pugh, getting up, crawled in on the other side of him, saying as he pushed the Teuton outward, “The Dutchman first, Mr. Wolf.” Mr. Wolf, however, went for other game and left Dutchman and Welshman alone.
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The early settlers will remember how numerous the wolves were during the first few years and how they made night hideous with their howlings. They were a small, harmless, kind however, and so timid as to be seldom seen, and with the settling of the country they almost entirely disappeared.
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18 THE COLONY FROM EMMET (WISCONSIN)
In the month of June, John A. Jones, David and Evan J. Lewis returned to their claims, bringing with them a large colony from Emmet, near Watertown, Wis. Of this colony were Evan H. Evans, Hugh Edwards, Wm. J. Roberts, John Pugh, Sr., Griffith Roberts, Robert R. Williams, Thomas J. Jones (Bryn Llys) (Bryn-llys) and David Evans (Creek). They came across the country by way of La Crosse and Rochester in eleven covered wagons with their families, household goods, farming implements and cattle, making a great multitude, so that David Lyon, of La Crosse, told D.C. Evans, who happened to be there in a few days after they had passed, that there were thousands of them. They were six weeks making the journey. A religious people, too, were they, who in all their weary wanderings did not forget the worship of God a single Sunday. Crossing the Mississippi at La Crosse on Saturday, they encamped on the Minnesota shore for the Sabbath (May 27, 1855), and Rev. Richard Davies came across in a skiff and preached for them there in the wilderness. Thus was the first Welsh sermon preached in Minnesota and probably the first west of the Father of Waters.
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Near Straight river they met the Winnebago Indians, en route to their new reservation, located that spring three miles south of Mankato and South Bend, in the very heart of Blue Earth county. The sight of so many savages, and the thought that they were to be such near neighbors, rather intimidated our colonists and they halted for a few days, in much doubt whether to advance or retreat. John A. Jones, Evan and David J. Lewis, Thomas J. Jones and John Pugh concluded in a short term to go ahead and they reached South Bend on the 21st of June (1855). The others left their wagons and families near Faribault and went ahead on foot to reconnoiter the country, going as far as the cabin of John E. Davis, in the present town of Cambria.
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(x28) Returning, all were satisfied to proceed, except Evan H. Evans and David Evans, who sold some of their stock and started back, while the others went forward. The fates, however, were against our faint-hearted emigrants, and Pharaoh-like, their chariot wheels were broken, and they had to put into Faribault for repairs. Next morning they changed their minds and turned again to follow after their companions, arriving in South Bend five days after them, July 4th (1855). Most of this colony settled along Minneopa creek. About this same time another company from Ixonia, Wis., composed of John Francis, John Williams and others, reached South Bend.

June 24, 1855, Rev. Wm. Williams, a Baptist minister from Big Rock, Ill., visited South Bend and preached the first Welsh sermon in Blue Earth county. About July 8th (1855), our old friend, Rev. Richard Davies came to South Bend from La Crosse. About the same time William R. Price and family arrived from Cambria, Wis., and D.C. Evans returned with his worthy helpmate from Ohio.
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August 23d (sic = 23rd) (1855), Evan Evans (Pant), John Jones (Maes Mawr) and Hugh R. Wiliiams arrived with their families from Waukesha, Wis., and settled on claims in the vicinity of South Bend.
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19 SOUTH BEND CHURCH ORGANIZED
On the 1st of August, 1855, Rev. Richard Davies organized, at his own house in the village of South Bend, the first church in the settlement. It was an Union church, with five deacons and forty-three members. Rev. R. Davies, was pastor; Edward Thomas, Sr., clerk; and the deacons were Evan H. Evans, Evan Evans (Pant), William R. Price, William J. Roberts and Edward Thomas, Sr. September 2d, we find the first record of baptism, by Rev. R. Davies, the baptized being Thomas, son of Evan D. Evans, and Sophia Hannah, daughter of William R. Price. Three Sabbath services were regularly held this summer and fall, in South Bend: two being devoted to preaching and prayer and the other to the Sabbath school, and all the people being united in one church, there was good attendance, and many manifestations also of the divine presence.
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20 THE FIRST SETTLERS OF EUREKA
Let us now visit Judson which, in those early days, was called “Eureka” from a paper city of that name, situated on the opposite side of the river from it, in Nicollet county. At this upper settlement we left Thomas Y. Davis and Humphrey Jones, all alone; yet not entirely alone, for, between the Indains and mosquitoes, they often thought they had more company than was needed. None but the oldest pioneers can form any idea of what a plague the mosquitoes were in the early days.
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 (x29) The rank grass of the prairie encircling so many lakes and sloughs, and the thick underbrush of the forest, with the many brooks and rivers, bordered by dense growth of reeds and rushes, seemed a very paradise for these blood-thirsty little pests. Should it be cloudy, one could hardly endure them during the day; but when evening came the atmosphere was alive with them - a million to every cubic inch - and as hungry were they, and ferocious, as though they had fasted for a year and a day.
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The other obnoxious company were the Indians, then very numerous in the land, and regarded with much distrust and fear by the settlers before they became used to them. Sometimes a number of dusky braves, much to the terror of the women and children, would come to a cabin, peer in at the window or door, walk into the room unbidden and, drawing their blankets about them, sit in a row against the wall upon the floor, smoking their long stone pipes in silence. Then, rising, by signs and Indian speech, they would ask for something to eat, which usually would be gladly given in order to get ride (sic = rid) of them. After awhile (sic = a while) every settler provided himself with a good, savage watch dog, which the Indians always respected, and they never approached a house so protected without first calling at a distance for someone to take charge of the dog, which from religious veneration, the red man seldom killed. When on a drunken spree or when holding their wild dancing feasts, the Indians were very noisy and demonstrative, and often in the weary watches of the night would the pioneer shudder as he heard the tumult of their savage revelry.
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One beautiful moonlight night in July as our two Eureka friends were sitting in their cabin with Owen Roberts and Morris Lewis, who had just arrived, they were startled by the most blood-curdling yells and shrieks in the direction of an Indian camp, situated about a quarter of a mile distant. Running out they could see that the whole Indian village was in the wildest commotion. Men and women running, leaping and yelling, like raving demoniacs, and beating upon kettles, pans and Indian drums, with a hubbub like a pandemonium, just broke loose. Our frontiersmen spent a night of terror in their hut, expecting every moment to be murdred by the savages who, all night long, with unabated fury continued their hideous riot. When morning came, however, all was smiling and peaceful, without a sound to be heard. During the day an Indian boy, disposed to cultivate the acquaintance of the pale-faced strangers, paid them a visit, and of him they inquired the cause of the night’s
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(x30) uproar. “Sick, so big” (measuring about two feet from the ground with his hand), was the laconic reply. They finally understood that a papoose had been taken very ill the previous night, and the savages thought that the Evil one was prowling around trying to steal his soul, and the noise was made to scare him away.
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Thus amid Indians, wolves, mosquitoes, and wild nature in general, our sturdy pioneer began the work of bringing the savage wilderness into a civilized subjection. A great work, too, it was - much greater than we of today can ever appreciate. No houses, no lumber, no fields, no fences, no farming implements, no seed, no schools, no churches, no higways, no bridges, no mills, no food, no towns wherein to but the necessaries of life, and no railway to bring in a few hours these things from afar; but with a slow ox-team plodding through the tall grass of the prairie and the thick, tangled underbrush of the unbroken forest - now fast in some bottomless slough, and having to carry on his back the load and wagon out by piece meal - now descending at the peril of his neck into some ravine, and again with much labor climbing the steep precipice out of it - here having a narrow escape from drowning in attempting to ford a river - there almost dashed to pieces by the upsetting of the wagon over the precipitous edge of some narrow hill-side trail - ever from one adventure and peril to another on the long, long journey of one hundred miles to St. Paul after a little flour and some prvisions. Three weeks are spent going to this nearest market and back, without shelter from summer’s heat and rain, and from winter’s cold and stormy blizzard. He may perish in the snow and storm; his family in the little bark-roofed shanty far off in the wilderness may perish from cold and hunger.
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All honor to the sturdy pioneer! Worthy are they of long remembrance! Nobly they suffered - bravely they struggled in the strife with savage nature and savage men; and one by one, ere scarce the batlle ceased, they fell - covered with the scars of toil and hardship, leaving to us, who follow, the fruits of their glorious victory, in happy homes, fields, smiling with cultivation, and a rich prosperous commonwealth. The modern pioneer, however, preceded by railroads, telegraphs, and all the modern conveniences, knows nothing of pioneer life forty years ago, when all these things were not.
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Our two friends of the Eureka settlement began farming with an ax, a grub-hoe, and a bushel of potatoes. With the ax and hoe they cleared a small patch of ground in the brush,
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(x30a)
Photos:
Thos. Y. Davis, Mankato, Minn.;
Humphrey Jones, late of Judson, Minn.;
Morris Lewis, late of Cambria, Minn.;
Owen Roberts, Judson, Minn.
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(x30b)
Photos:
Residence of J. Roberts, Judson, Minn.;
Residence of Rev. Thos. E. Hughes, Cambria, Minn.
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 (x31) where the soil was loose, and there planted their potatoes. Just below them in the Judson valley a few families of Americans and Swedes had settled the preceding autumn (in 1854). One of these, named Hill, our Welshmen hired with his team to meet a boat at Traverse and bring up some provisions for them. They bought three barrels of flour for $18.00 per barrel. It was miserably black stuff, but in lieu of something better it answered the purpose. They purchased a few other things, also; but salt they could not get for love or money, and hence they had to do without it, just as the French at Le Huillier had been obliged to live without the same commodity, and just as the Indians during all the centuries had done without it. At first it made them very sick, but after becoming used to food without this common article of seasoning, they got along very well. For meat they caught prairie chickens and partridges in traps, as they were not provided even with the proverbial pioneer rifle.
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The late Humphrey Jones built his residence upon the identical spot where his first cabin stood, and he and Thomas Y. Davis loved to talk of the good old time when they first batched it together in Judson, and many were the adventures they had to relate. Sunday, May 27 (1855), the two took a walk into the terra incognito further up the Minnesota river, as far as the western edge of the present town of Cambria. There they discovered the bottom land known as the “Little Prairie” (Prairie Bach) 1984, also Cambria creek and the Little Cottonwood, and the long neck of upland prairie between the two streams, where Horeb church now stands. This strip of prairie from half a mile to a mile in width, wedged in between the two belts of timber, was, they thought, the most beautiful spot they had ever seen. Large spreading oak trees standing singly and in groupes (sic) like lordly sentinels of the place, clumps of hazel bushes and red-topped sumach (sumac, also sumach - any of several anacardiaceous shrubs or small trees of the genus Rhus. Middle English < Medieval Latin < Arabic summâq. Webster’s Dictionary) , and small groves of the dainty poplar, were scattered over the prairie as if by design, while the dovetailing of prairie and woodland and the deep indenturers and recesses winding far into the forest like the avenues of a mighty labyrinth, gave the appearance of a magnificent park.
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21 THE FIRST SETTLERS OF BUTTERNUT VALLEY
About the latter part of May, 1855, David J. Williams and family arrived at St. Paul from Bradford, Pa. There they met Morris Lewis and David Evans - the former from Pennsylvania and the latter from Ohio - both bound, like themselves, for Eureka. They all came by boat as far as the rapids near Traverse de Sioux, when the boat, because of low water, was obliged to unload and return.
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Includes a photo captioned:
The Welsh Settlement of Eureka, Nicollet Co., Minn. The clearing to the left of river marks cite (sic) of Chief Friend’s Village, the high bluff beyond, cite (sic) of Indian Cemetery

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(x32)
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Thos. D. Williams, Griffith Williams, John Williams and Hannah Williams, the grown up children of D. J. Williams, together with Morris Lewis and David Evans went forward on foot reaching Caywood’s House at Eureka on June 1st (1855).
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The following Monday they found at South Bend David Williams (Banker), who had, also, recently come from near Bradford, Pa.
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On Wednesday, June 6th (1855), Morris Lewis, David Evans and David A. Davis located claims in the present town of Cambria. Evans in a few months sold his claim to Wm. R. Lewis and left the country. Williams (Bradford), and his sons after looking over the country on both sides of the river finally on June 9th (1855), bought a claim on the Nicollet side, a mile west of Eureka townsite.
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About the 12th of June (1855), John E. Davis and family arrived in Judson, from Big Rock, Ill., and for a few days staid (sic = stayed) at the shanty of William C. Williams, Judson, while erecting on their claim, in the present town of Cambria, one of the fashionable mansions of the day. The architectural plan of which was as follows: Two forked posts were put up about ten feet apart, a ridge
of dry tipi poles, and the whole covered with hay, except one end over which a quilt or blanket was hung for a door. This was the first residence in the town of Cambria, and John E. Davis
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(x32a)
Photos:
(1) Mrs. John E. Davis, Mankato, Minn. First white woman in town of Cambria, Minn.;
(2) Mr. Wm. Harris, late of Cambria, Minn;
(3) Salem Congregational Church, Cambria, Minn
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(x33) and family were the first residents. Soon after this Morris Lewis and David A. Davis built the second mansion in this town. It consisted of a hole on the hillside, a hay-stack roof and a basswood log front. Here the two pioneers dwelt like two badgers in a hole.
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The very first Sunday after his arrival (June 17, 1855) John E. Davis gathered the few settlers together at the cabin of Humphrey Jones and started a Sabbath school - the first in the town of Judson. Mr. Davis acted as superintendent, and Morris Lewis taught the Bible class. A few weeks later this school was more fully organized with David J. Rees, who had just arrived from Pomeroy, O., as superintendent, and Wm. E. Davis as secretary.
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About the sixth of July (1855), David J. Davis and David J. Williams came from Palmyra, O., and located claims in the bottom lands three or four miles still farther west, at the mouth of the Little Cottonwood. Davis immediately returned for the families, while Williams remained to fit up a shanty and cut hay. A pony, which they had brought with them to ride alternately on the way, Williams retained, and he rendered valuable services that fall keeping up communication between the upper and lower settlements.
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Later in the same month (July) (1855), Owen Roberts and David Y. Davis came to Judson from Pomeroy, Ohio. The latter having taken a claim between Cambria creek and the Cottonwood, on the upland prairie, where was the garden spot of our two Sunday explorers, returned to Ohio; the former took a claim in Judson and tarried with Humphrey Jones and Thomas Y. Davies.
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In September (1855), David T. Davis and family, from Big Rock, Ill., settled in Judson. John Watkins and William Jones about this time returned to their claims, bringing their families.
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Monday, October 1, 1855, Rev. Jenkin Jenkins arrived at St. Paul, on his way to visit the Welsh settlelements. There he met Thomas Jones (Maes Mawr) and John Pugh, who had come to St. Paul after flour, meat and other provisions for South Bend. They were also joined by Hugh J. Roberts and Henry Jones, and that evening the five Welshmen took the same boat for South Bend. It had been a dry summer, and the river was very low, so that the boat could make but little progress. Mr. Jenkins, however, beguiled the tediousness of the journey by composing a poem to Hugh and Henry on their first visit to Minnesota. On the afternoon (Thursday) of the 4th of October (1855), the boat stopped,
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Includes a photo captioned: Horeb Neighborhood, Cambria, Minn. View looking East from D.P. Davis’ Hill

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(x34)  having failed to pass the rapids near Traverse. It was necessary to bear tidings of this to South Bend that night, in order to have teams sent for the flour and provisions. On Mr. Pugh fell the lot, and Jenkins and Roberts voluntered to accompany him. They reached the Blue Earth late at night, and failed to find the hut of the German boatman. After tramping through the woods until midnight, John A. Jones in his cabin on the other side of the river heard them halloing, and rising from his bed went to their aid. Learning that they were Welsh men, he plunged into the cold water and swam across - “for ford there was none” - and led our tired friends to the boatman’s hut, and thence in the boat to his own cabin.
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22 THE FIRST SETTLERS OF THE HOREB NEIGHBOURHOOD
The following Sunday (7 October 1855), Mr. Jenkins preached in English at South Bend. He then went up to the Cottonwood settlement to visit his old friend John E. Davis, and Hugh J. Roberts and Henry Jones went with him to look for claims. Mr. Davis showed him the country as far as the mouth of the Little Cottonwood, and directed Roberts and Jones to David J. William’s hut, where they were conducted by Mr. Williams to the upland prairie between the Cottonwood and Cambria creek, and located on the claims afterwards sold by them to David P. Davis and Daniel P. Davis.
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The previous week Hugh R. Williams had arrived with his family from Wisconsin, and located on the Richard Morgan
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(x34a)
Photo: Early Welsh Ministers of Blue Earth County, Minn.
(1) Rev. Jenkin Jenkins (Shenkin Ddwywaith),
(2) Rev. William Williams,
(3) Rev. Richard Davis,
(4) Rev. Robert D. Price
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(x34b)
Photo: Early Welsh Ministers of Blue Earth County, Minn.
(1) Rev. John W. Roberts,
(2) Rev. Wm. Roberts,
(3) Rev. Richard G. Jones,
(4) Rev. Richard W. Jones

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(x35) farm, building his hay hut on its southwestern corner. This shanty and that of David J. Williams were the first two houses built and occupied in the western part of the present town of Cambria.
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23 SALEM CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZED
In the meantime Mr. Jenkins and John E. Davis had been busy planning to locate a new claim for the Lord in this new country. In the Eureka or Judson settlement, religious services had been held for the first two or three months at the shanty of Humphrey Jones, and then move to John Watkin’s cabin, because it was larger and more convenient than any other place. Rev. R. Davies had preached to them once or twice and was about to organize them properly as a church, when Rev. J. Jenkins made his visit. As it was a Congregational society, and Mr. Jenkins a minister of that denomination, to him was accorded the honor of organizing this, the first church in the town of Judson, the first denominational church west of the Blue Earth, and at present the oldest Welsh church in the state. The organization took place October 14, 1855, at the house of John Watkins. The hand of fellowship was given to thirteen members, and the two deacons chosen were John E. Davis and David T. Davis. Immediately after organizing this church, Rev. J. Jenkins returned to Illinois to prepare for moving out to the settlement in the spring.
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October 9th (1855), Rev. William Williams, who had visited the country the preceding June, came with his family, and bought a claim in Judson. In the same month Evan J. Davis and his mother, his brother-in-law, Henry Hughes and family, and the family of Owen Roberts arrived together from Pomeroy, Ohio. The Minnesota being unnavigable by reason of low water, at St. Paul they had to hire a team, which brought them to Traverse de Sioux; but the driver refused to go further, saying he did not know the way. Leaving the women and children, therefore, at Traverse, early next morning (October 27) two men started afoot for the city of Eureka, fifteen miles distant; in whose vicinity on the opposite side of the river was the Welsh settlement. From the prominence given it on maps and the glowing accounts they had heard and read of it, our pioneers had been led to believe that Eureka was a great city. After following Indian trails all day, late in the afternoon they came to a valley on the Minnesota river where they expected to find Eureka. Turning to a very primitive log hut with a still more primitive blacksmith shop attached, they inquired the way to Eureka. The Swedish smith could talk no English, but

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(x36)
pointed down the valley to a log shanty, larger than common, standing on the river bank. Going to this house they again inquired the way and distance to Eureka. A number of persons were at supper in the room at the time, one of whom perceiving from Mr. Hughes’ brogue that he was a Welshman, jumped up and shouted in Welsh: “Fachgen, yr wyt ti ynddi pan yn y ty (sic = tŷ) yma.” (Boy, you are in it when in this house). The person who made this surprising announcement was Evan Bowen, who, with his family, had newly arrived from Pennsylvania, and claimed on the Nicollet side of the river, adjoining the family of Williams (Broadford). The house belonged to H. Caywood, sole owner and occupant of the great Eureka townsite. Crossing the river in a skiff, rowed by a strong barefooted Welsh maiden (then probably the belle of Eureka), our two travelers found Thomas Y. Davis (E.J. Davis’ brother), Owen Roberts, Humphrey Jones, and others, at a log raising for Rev. William Williams. Early Monday morning, a wagon with old Buck and Berry, an ox-team which several of the Judson settlers had combined to purchase for breaking their lands, was dispatched to Traverse after the families.
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Early in November (1855), David J. Davis returned, bringing his family and David J. Williams’ mother and his brother, Daniel L. Williams - the other brother, William J. Williams, having come a few weeks prior. At the Winnebago Agency, fifteen miles beyond Mankato, the bread supply became exhausted,and Mr. Davis bought a corn bread loaf of a Winnebago squaw. The filthy appearance of this dusky matron prejudiced the women against her bread and they would not touch it. Arriving at Mankato, Davis searched every house in that city then, and failed to find a loaf of bread for sale, and so South Bend had to be reached before any could be obtained. The Davis and Williams families passed the fall and winter in a shanty, originally built by some steamboat wood-choppers, about two miles above the mouth of the Cottonwood on the Frazer claim.
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In November (1855), also, Rev. Wm. Roberts from Waukesha, Wis., first visited this country. With him came John Owens (Ty Coed) (modern spelling: Tŷ-coed) , who having passed much of his life among the higher classes in England as steward, had imbibed many of the notions and eccentric ways of the typical John Bull. From St. Paul to Mankato the two had to foot it. At the latter place the two met Mr. Roberts’ old friend and neighbor, Evan H. Evans, who, in his lumber wagon drawn by two ox-teams, took them through the mud of the sloughs and the deep waters of the Blue
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(delw 4059) (tudalen / page 36a)

(x36a)
Photo: Early Welsh Ministers of Cambria, Minn.
(1)David J. Davis,
(2) John Shields,
(3) David J.Williams,
(4) Wm. J. Williams
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(delw 4060) (tudalen / page 36b)

(x36b)
Photo: Early Welsh Ministers of Cambria, Minn.
(1) David S. Davies,
(2) John S. Davies,
(3) Richard Roberts,
(4) Owen Morris

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(delw 4061) (tudalen / page 37)

(x37) Earth to South Bend. The hardships of the way and the wildness of the country had long put Mr. Owens upon the silent pinnacle of offended dignity; but when South Bend finally burst on the view - a miserable collection of half a dozen shanties in the little valley below - so different from the magnificent city expected, then the volcano of his wrath could be restrained no longer, but burst forth with such an explosion of oaths as almost scared poor Evans out of his wits, for he had half suspected the fine appearing old gentleman of being a minister or a deacon at least. The very next morning, Mr. Owens commended South Bend to the care of his majesty of the nether world, and in high dudgeon took his departure forever from the barbarous land. Rev. William Roberts took a more charitable view of the country, made a claim in the Judson settlement and tarried with his friend in South Bend until the following spring, when he departed not again to return for three years.

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On to the next page - “The Jackson Colony” – Welsh people who moved west from Ohio
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LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES:

LAKOTA-DAKOTA-NAKOTA
(1) http://www.lakotaoyate.com/welcome.html Lakota Oyate
To defend and preserve Lakota culture from exploitation.”
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(2)
http://www.enter.net/~drutzler/intro.htm Welcome to Spirit’s Place
“So yeah, I am Native American. Lakota actually. I do “Indian stuff”, but I am a human being first and foremost. I created this set of pages for many reasons. First, to help keep Native information easily available for all... The Lakota Language Page will be updated monthly with a new subject. This month’s lesson: “Animals”. Check it out for basic grammar and phonetics. There is no charge for these lessons, no club to join or anything else to “buy”. This is for you, the curious, the seeking and the informed”
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(3)
http://207.254.63.58/language1.htm Introduction to Lakota
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(4) Hau! Tima hiyu wo! ‘Greetings! Come inside!’ Hokahe, hel iyotaka. ‘Welcome’ to the Lodge of šung’manitu-Išna, ‘ Lone Wolf ‘. The intent of these pages is to honor a proud and noble people, the Oglala Lakota, of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. http://207.254.63.58/i-welcome.htm#sitemap
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(5) Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe’s Homepage http://swcc.cc.sd.us/homepage.htm
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(6) Sota Iya Ye Yapi - http://www.earthskyweb.com/news.htm - bringing news of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe / Dakota Nation and Lake Traverse Reservation to the World Wide Web. Weekly, with updates when appropriate during the week.
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(7) KILI Radio, the Voice of the Lakota Nation. http://www.lakotamall.com/kili/schedule.htm
KILI Radio (pronounced “KEE-lee”) is the largest Indian-owned and operated public radio station in America. We broadcast in English and Lakota 22 hours each day to homes on three reservations in the Black Hills. Our listeners are spread out over 10,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of Delaware. KILI means “cool” or “awesome” in the Lakota language. KILI Radio is cool, but it’s much more than that. It’s a vital force of preservation for Lakota people and our culture.
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(8) Lakota newspaper. EYAPAHA - allies of the Lakota. http://www.lakotamall.com/allies/Eyapaha/99F/
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(9) Links to Lakota-Dakota-Nakota (Sioux) Indians Sites http://members.tripod.com/~PHILKON/links12lakota.html
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(10) http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/Dakota_excerpts.html
In Their Own Words: Excerpts from Speeches & Letters Concerning the Dakota Conflict
SPEECH OF HDAINYANKA IN FAVOR OF CONTINUING WAR
LETTER FROM GENERAL POPE DECLARING HIS GOAL OF EXTERMINATING SIOUX
LETTER FROM BISHOP WHIPPLE CONCERNING DEGREES OF GUILT
ADDRESS TO CONDEMNED PRISONERS BEFORE THEIR EXECUTIONS
STATEMENT OF TAZOO AT THE TIME OF HIS EXECUTION
LETTER OF HDAINYANKA WRITTEN SHORTLY BEFORE HIS EXECUTION
LETTER FROM REV. THOMAS WILLIAMSON TO REV. STEPHEN RIGGS
LETTER FROM COL. HENRY SIBLEY
LETTER FROM REV. STEPHEN RIGGS
LETTER FROM COL. HENRY SIBLEY TO HIS WIFE
GEORGE CROOK’S (WAKANAJAJA’S) ACCOUNT OF JOURNEY TO PRISON CAMP
CALL OF JACOB NIX, COMMANDANT OF NEW ULM, FOR DAKOTA BLOOD
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The above is a section form
(11) The Dakota Indian Conflict
http://www.ic.mankato.mn.us/reg9/nul/tour/dakota.html
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(12)
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/originals/sioux.html “The Black Hills of Dakota are sacred to the Sioux Indians. In the 1868 treaty, signed at Fort Laramie and other military posts in Sioux country, the United States recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people. However, after the discovery of gold there in 1874, the United States confiscated the land in 1877. To this day, ownership of the Black Hills remains the subject of a legal dispute between the U.S. government and the Sioux...”
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HO-CHUK
(9) The Ho-Chunk (‘Winnebago’) Nation
http://www.ho-chunk.com/index.htm
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(10) (Ho-Chunk History - http://www.ho-chunk.com/culture_history_page.htm For example, 1856 Winnebago mission founded at Blue Earth and is attended by diocesan priest residing at Saints Peter & Paul Church in Mankato).
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(11) Ho-Chunk newspaper http://www.ho-chunk.com/dept_newspaper_page.htm
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(16) Indian Circle Web Ring, maintained by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. List of websites of federally acknowledged tribes in the contiguous 48 states and in Alaska.
http://www.indiancircle.com/links.shtml
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INDIAN COUNTRY

(1) http://indiancountry.com Indian Country - America’s Leading Indian News Source. Weekly online edtion
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(2)
http://airos.org/grid.html Programme Schedule for AIROS (American Indian Radio On Satellite)
“The AIROS network is a national distribution system for Native programming to Tribal communities and to general audiences through Native American and other public radio stations as well as the Internet. Alter*Native Voices / California Indian Radio Project / Different Drums / Earthsongs / National Native News / Native America Calling / Native Sounds-Native Voices National / New Letters on Air / Voices from the Circle / Wellness Edition

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(3) Minnesota Indian Affairs Council http://www.indians.state.mn.us/stats.htm

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Edrychwch ar ein Llÿfr Ymwelwÿr!
View our Visitors' Book!
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Hoffech chi lofnodi ein Llÿfr Ymwelwÿr?
Would you like to sign our Visitors' Book?
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LINKS TO OTHER PAGES IN THE "WALES-CATALONIA" WEBSITE:

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Geirfa Lakota (Dakota)-Cymraeg-Saesneg
Lakota (Dakota)-Welsh-English vocabulary

kimkat0855e
Rhestr o gynnwÿs y llÿfr 'History of the Welsh in Minnesota...'
List of the contents of 'The History of the Welsh in Minnesota...' 
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kimkat0894e
Ein mynegai i'r llÿfr (heb ei orffen)
Our index to the book (incomplete)
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kimkat0895e
ychwanegiadau diweddaraf o 'Hanes y Cymrÿ ym Minnesota...'
latest additions from the 'History of the Welsh in Minnesota
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kimkat0856e
ein rhestr o'r enwau yn 'Hanes y Cymrÿ ym Minnesota...' (heb ei orffen)
our list of the names which appear in the 'History of the Welsh in Minnesota...' (incomplete)
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kimkat0859e
y Cymrÿ yn erbÿn y Sioux a'r Winnebagos - gwrthryfel 1862
the Welsh against the Sioux and the Winnebagoes - the 1862 uprising
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kimkat0550e
mynegai i'r hÿn sÿdd gennÿm yn y Gwefan 'Cymru-Catalonia'
index to the pages in the "Wales-Catalonia" website
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kimkat0596e
adrannau'r Gwefan 'Cymru-Catalonia'
siteplan - list of sections in the "Wales-Catalonia" website
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kimkat0008e
cyntedd croeso y Gwefan 'Cymru-Catalonia'
the reception area of the "Wales-Catalonia" website
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kimkat0001
tudalen blaen y Gwefan 'Cymru-Catalonia'
front page of the 'Wales-Catalonia' Website




Adolygiad diweddaraf / Latest update: 25 09 2001, 2006-11-06

Ble'r wÿf i? Yr ÿch chi'n ymwéld ag un o dudalennau'r Gwefan "CYMRU-CATALONIA"
On sóc? Esteu visitant una pàgina de la Web "CYMRU-CATALONIA" (= Gal·les-Catalunya)
Where am I? You are visiting a page from the "CYMRU-CATALONIA" (= Wales-Catalonia) Website
Weø(r) àm ai? Yùu àa(r) vízïting ø peij fròm dhø "CYMRU-CATALONIA (= Weilz-Katølóuniø) Wébsait

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CYMRU-CATALUNYA