Migrant culture maintenance among the Welsh in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, USA, 1870–1920

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an analysis of the nature of the Welsh ethnolinguistic community in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The study considers culture maintenance, and suggests that Welsh ethnic integrity was initially maintained due to linguistic necessity, high levels of endogamy, occupational specialization, and the creation of popular cultural institutions. Ultimately, however, the community was undermined, not only by economic change, the cessation of immigration from Wales, and the general forces of acculturation, but also by specifically Welsh factors. The paper suggests, therefore, that while the Welsh experience in Blue Earth County differed sharply from that of the other nationalities of the United Kingdom, it did not simply mirror the experience of other non-Anglophone groups.

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Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Thomas E. Hughes et al., History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston and Lime Springs, Ia. Gathered by the Old Settlers (Mankato: Minnesota, 1895), 541.

2 For an analysis of the emigration decision, see Brinley Thomas, Migration and Economic Growth. A Study of Great Britain and the Atlantic Economy (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1973). More specifically, see William E. Van Vugt, ‘Welsh Emigration to the USA during the Mid-Nineteenth Century’, Welsh History Review 15, 4 (1991): 545–561 and W. Ross Johnston, ‘The Welsh Diaspora: Emigrating around the World in the Late Nineteenth Century’, Llafur 6, no. 2 (1993): 50–74.

3 For a contemporary account of Welsh settlements in the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century, see R. D. Thomas, Hanes Cymry America (Utica, New York: T. J. Griffiths, 1872). An English translation of this work is Hanes Cymry America (1872): A History of the Welsh in America, trans. Martha A. Davies and Phillips G. Davies (Wymore, Nebraska: Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project, 2008). For a general survey of Welsh immigration into the United States, see Edward George Hartmann, Americans from Wales (Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1967). All statistical evidence for this paper is drawn from the United States Federal Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

4 These were the coal bearing counties of Luzerne and Lackawanna, and the steel capital of Allegheny centered on Pittsburgh.

5 For a history of the district’s early years, see Hughes et. al., History of the Welsh in Minnesota and Thomas Hughes, History of Blue Earth County and Biographies of its Leading Citizens (Chicago, Illinois: Middle West Pub. Co., 1901).

6 1920 Census Mankato Ward 4, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 4B.

7 Hughes, History of Blue Earth County, 378–9.

8 W. D. Jones has addressed this phenomenon in Wales in America, Scranton and the Welsh 1860–1920 (Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press, 1993).

9 1870 includes all those born in Wales regardless of parentage.

10 Thomas, Hanes Cymry America, 46. All translations from the Welsh language in this article are my own. I have endeavored to adhere as closely as possible to the original meaning.

11 Jones, Wales in America, xviii.

12 Henry Richard, Letters on the Social and Political Conditions of the Principality of Wales (London: Jackson, Walford and Hodder, 1866), 23.

13 Ieuan Gwynedd Jones, Explorations and Explanations, Essays in the Social History of Victorian Wales (Llandysul, Wales: Gwasg Gomer, 1981), 26–27.

14 John Davies, A History of Wales (London: Penguin, 1993), 427.

15 For a discussion of this see, for example, Prys Morgan, ‘Keeping the Legends Alive’, in Wales the Imagined Nation: Essays in Cultural and National Identity, ed. T. Curtis (Bridgend, Wales: Poetry Wales Press, 1986), 19–41.

16 An excellent contemporary explanation is provided by The Cambrian: A Magazine for Welsh Americans, June 1886, 145. From 1880 to 1919, The Cambrian, published in English, was one of the most popular magazines read by Welsh Americans.

17 This was, of course, true of other immigrant groups. J. Neale Carman considers the Germans and Swedes in Lawrence, Kansas, Foreign Language Units of Kansas, Vol. 2: Account of Settlement and Settlements in Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1974), 574–583.

18 Y Drysorfa, August 1854, 266–7.

19 Hartmann, Americans from Wales, 173

20 Thomas, Hanes Cymry America, 46–48.

21 Thomas et al., History of the Welsh in Minnesota, 305.

22 Hartmann, Americans from Wales, 103–104.

23 Thomas et al., History of the Welsh in Minnesota, 305.

24 For an explanation of the style and significance of the eisteddfod, see Hartmann, Americans from Wales, 139–155.

25 For a history of Y Drych, see Aled Jones and William D. Jones, Welsh Reflections: Y Drych and America 1851–2001 (Llandysul, Wales: Gwasg Gomer, 2001).

26 St. Paul Daily Globe, February 19, 1891.

27 New Ulm Review, January 6, 1907.

28 New Ulm Post, January 8, 1915.

29 Y Drych, March 16, 1916.

30 The intricacies of Welsh language poetic composition are addressed by Alan Lloyd Roberts in Anghenion y Gynghanedd (Llandysul, Wales: Gwasg Gomer, 1974).

31 1920 Census Cambria, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 11B; 1910 Census Butternut Valley, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T624_690, Page 1B.

32 1920 Census Mankato Ward 4, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 3A.

33 1920 Census Lake Crystal, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 4A.

34 1910 Census Garden City, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T624_691, Page 7B.

35 1920 Census Lake Crystal, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 11A; 1920 Census Judson, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 2A; 1920 Census Lake Crystal, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 1A.

36 1900 Census Lake Crystal, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Page 3.

37 1920 Census Judson, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 1B.

38 1920 Census Judson, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 2B; 1920 Census Lake Crystal, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 6A; 1920 Census Lake Crystal, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 5A.

39 1920 Census Mankato Ward 5, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 14B.

40 1920 Census Shelby, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 15A; 1910 Census Judson, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T624_690, Page 7A.

41 1920 Census Judson, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 7B.

42 1910 Census Butternut Valley, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T624_690, Page 1A.

43 1920 Census Lake Crystal, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 11A; 1920 Census Shelby, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 15A.

44 1910 Census Lake Crystal, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T624_691, Page 11A; 1920 Census Cambria, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 9B.

45 1920 Census Lake Crystal, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 3B.

46 Jon Gjerde, The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830–1917 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 237. Leornard Dinnerstein, Roger L. Nichols, and David M. Reimers, Natives and Strangers: A History of Ethnic Americans (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 111.

47 Census of England and Wales 1891, vol. IV, General Report, 81–82.

48 Ian Mate, ‘Changes in the Celtic-language-speaking Populations of Ireland, The Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales from 1891 to 1991’, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 18, no. 4 (1997): 321–22.

49 Thomas Darlington, ‘Language and Literature of Wales’, in The Welsh People: Chapters on Their Origins, History, Laws, Language, Literature, and Characteristics, eds. J. Rhys and D. B. Jones (London, 1900), 548–549.; E. G. Ravenstein, ‘On the Celtic Languages in the British Isles: A Statistical Survey’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 42 (1879): 579–636.

50 For a comprehensive study of all issues relating to the Welsh language in nineteenth-century Wales, see Geraint H. Jenkins, ed., The Welsh Language and its Social Domains, 1801–1911 (Cardiff, Wales, 2000).

51 The Cook County Herald, February 3, 1900.

52 Y Drych, April 19, 1894.

53 Census of England and Wales, 1921: General Report with Appendices (London, 1926), p. 184.

54 Monolingualism appears to have been far more evident elsewhere. See, for example, Robert Llewellyn Tyler, ‘Occupational Mobility and Social Status: The Welsh Experience in Sharon, Pennsylvania 1880-1930’, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 83, no. 1 (Winter 2016): 9.

55 1920 Census Cambria, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 11B.

56 1920 Census Butternut Valley, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 5A.

57 Carman, Foreign Language Units of Kansas.

58 Cherilyn Ann Walley, ‘The Welsh in Iowa’ (PhD Thesis, Iowa State University, 2003), 65–83.

59 Quoted in Robert Owen Jones, ‘The Sociolinguistics of Welsh’, in The Celtic Languages, eds. Martin Ball and James Fife (London, England, 1993), 547.

60 Quoted in John Aitchison and Harold Carter, A Geography of the Welsh Language (Cardiff, Wales, 1994), 33.

61 Evan Pan Jones, Oes a Gwaith y Prif Athraw y Parch. Michael Daniel Jones (Bala, Wales, 1903), 252. Jones was the biographer of Michael D. Jones, the driving force behind the establishment of a Welsh colony in Patagonia.

62 See, for example, Ieuan Gwynedd Jones, Mid-Victorian Wales: the Observers and the Observed (Cardiff, Wales, 1992) and Gwyneth Tyson, The Language of the Blue Books, Wales and Colonial Prejudice (Cardiff, Wales, 1998).

63 1920 Census Eagle Lake, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 9B; 1920 Census Judson, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 4B.

64 1930 Census Eagle Lake, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Page 1A; 1930 Census Mankato, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Page 18A.

65 1920 Census Judson, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 1B; 1920 Census Mankato Ward 5, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 11A; 1920 Census Judson, Blue Earth, Minnesota, Roll T625_825, Page 1B.

66 New Ulm Review, March 13, 1907.

67 Y Drych November 18, 1909. Quoted in Emrys Jones, ‘Some Aspects of Cultural Change in an American Welsh Community’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1954): 28.

68 Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd, July 1890 in Robert Humphries, ‘“Yn eu hiaith eu hunain” / “In their own language”. The settlement and assimilation of the Welsh in Iowa County, Wisconsin, 1840-1920’ (master’s thesis University of Wales, Trinity St David 2012), 78.

69 Dinnerstein et al, Natives and Strangers, 74.

70 Gjerde, The Minds of the West, 107-109.

71 Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1990), 152.

72 Ibid., 163.

73 Norman E. Saul, ‘The Migration of German-Russians to Kansas’, Kansas Historical Quarterly XL (Spring 1974): 57.

74 From 1880 to 1919, The Cambrian was one of the most popular magazines read by Welsh-Americans. Through a content analysis Emrys Jones charts the switch from Welsh to English in Y Drych in ‘Some Aspects of Cultural Change’, Transactions:18-24. Jones’ analysis clearly shows the linguistic change in the paper beginning during the War. It is, unfortunately, impossible to establish a direct relationship between this phenomenon and the upsurge in loyalty during the War.

75 Carman, Foreign Language Units of Kansas, 575. Brian W. Beltman, ‘Ethnic Territoriality and the Persistence of Identity: Dutch Settlers in Northwest Iowa, 1869-1880’, The Annals of Iowa 55, no. 2 (Spring 1996): 101–137.

76 Carman, Foreign Language Units of Kansas, 411–412.

77 Emory Lindquist, ‘The Swedish Immigrant and Life in Kansas’, The Kansas Historical Quarterly XXIX, 1 (Spring 1963): 9; Carman, Foreign Language Units of Kansas, 577.

78 For a consideration of the relationship between the workplace and social networks among the Welsh in the USA see, for example, Tyler, ‘Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Granville, Washington County, New York, 1880-1930’, New York History (Winter 2018): 99–120 and ‘Culture Maintenance, Occupational Mobility and Social Status: The Welsh in a Pennsylvania Slate Town 1900-1930’, Welsh History Review 28, no. 1 (July 2016): 115–145.

79 Quoted in Thomas, Hanes Cymry America, 48.

80 See Tyler, ‘Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh Experience in Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio, 1900–1940’, Ohio History 1 (Spring 2018): 70–94 and ‘Culture Maintenance, Occupational Change, and Social Status: The Welsh in San Francisco, 1880-1930’, California History 94, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 6–25.

81 Gjerde, The Minds of the West, 240.

82 See, for example, Gwilym R. Roberts, New Lives in the Valley: Slate Quarries and Quarry Villages in North Wales, New York, and Vermont, 1850–1920 (Portland, Maine: Maine Printing Company, 1998), 260–263, 325–329, 332–339. In comparison to the Welsh experience, Roberts discusses the negative attitudes held towards these groups in their host communities.

83 Gjerde, The Minds of the West, 236, 243 and 233-34.

84 W. D. Jones, ‘Welsh identities in Ballarat, Australia, during the late nineteenth century’, Welsh History Review 20, no. 2 (December 2000): 302.

85 Dinnerstein et al, Natives and Strangers, 75. It should be noted that the UK at that time included Ireland!

86 Paul O’Leary, ‘When Was Anti-Catholicism? The Case of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Wales’, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History (2005): 308–325; Alan Conway, The Welsh in America, Letters from the Immigrants (Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1961), 16.

87 Hartmann, Americans from Wales, 112–122.

88 R. D. Thomas, Hanes Cymry America, 68.

89 Hughes et al., History of the Welsh in Minnesota, 43.

90 Ibid., 53.

91 Dinnerstein et al, Natives and Strangers, 156.

92 Rowland Tappan Berthoff, British Immigrants in Industrial America 1790–1950 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953), 140.

93 Rowland T. Berthoff, British Immigrants in Industrial America, 1790–1950 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953), 5.

94 Dorothy Schwieder, Iowa: The Middle Land (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1996), 201.

95 Hughes et al., History of the Welsh in Minnesota, 158.

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Robert Llewellyn Tyler

Dr. Robert Llewellyn Tyler is from Newport, Wales. He received his BA from University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, his MA from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, and his PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has taught in Japan and Argentina, and at universities in the UK, Eastern Europe, China, and the Middle East. For the academic year 2009-2010, he was the Fulbright Professor at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2011. He has been widely published, and continues to research Welsh communities overseas.