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Disgrifiad
Photography by John Ball - 3:00 pm 24th May 1998 (with Agfa ePhoto-307 digital camera)
Scenes taken on a Sunday afternoon drive, north of Clydach in the Lower Swansea Valley.
Image 1:
Looking northwards towards Cwm Gors in the valley of the Upper Clydach River.
Image 2:
In Wales, sheep always have the right of way!
Image 3:
Looking down Cwm Clydach southwards towards Swansea Bay. Cwm Clydach is the valley of the Lower Clydach River.
Image 4:
The lonely Baran chapel beckons on this bleak and windswept hilltop near Bryn-chwyth Farm.
Image 5:
The chapel and its graveyard.
Image 6:
The graveyard.
Image 7, 8:
Many of the gravestones are heavily overgrown (Image 7). Anchored against the chapel wall (Image 8) was this fascinating memorial or "cenotaph" (see detail below).
Image 9:
A cenotaph in remem-
brance of John William
Rhydderch who was
born lived and died at
Nantmole Feb 14 1784 at
the age of 100 years.
Image 10:
This gravestone records a tragic year for the Bevan family:
In memory of William, son of Llewellyn and Elizabeth Bevan,
Clydach Woolen Factory, died Feb 25 1859, aged 12 years
Also Elizabeth, sister of the above, died June 2 1859 aged 2 years..."
Image 11:
An old gravestone almost lost in this overgrown thicket. The name Daniel John can just be deciphered.
Daniel John is a distant relative of my friend Rina Callingham whose family has strong links with Baran Chapel going back several hundred years. She has kindly provided the following account of a mass emigration of chapel members to the USA early in the 19th century.
The Baran Pennsylvania Connection
In 1831 the congregation of Baran Chapel, Llangyfelach was severely depleted after approximately fifty members left Wales to join a growing agricultural community of Welsh settlers in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Aboard the Brig, Elizabeth Clark, they arrived in New York on 5th November 1831 and travelled via the Delaware and Hudson Canal to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Here, they were met by men with horses and sleighs, who drove them to their new home in the Endless mountains region of northeast Pennsylvania.
Although some pioneers had settled in the area as early as the 1780s, the first Welsh farmers arrived in 1824. Others followed and the settlement slowly developed around an area that was originally dense forest. In 1828 a Welshman called David Williams joined the community. In 1831 he went home to Wales and returned with the party from Baran chapel, which included his widowed mother and two brothers. Many of the new immigrants settled in the Bradford townships of Pike and Warren, while a few others made their homes in Middleton township in the neighbouring county of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. The Welsh Settlement, as they came to be described, established a church at Pike, under their minister, Rev. Daniel Jones of Pentwyn farm, Llangiwg. In 1870, when a Post Office was established in the vicinity of East Pike/South Warren, this area became known as Neath.
A rebuilt church still exists at Neath and along with the names in the township's graveyard is evidence of this early Welsh community. They integrated with other nationalities, fought in the American Civil War, and some, along with their descendents went on to forge prestigious careers and make their mark on America's history:
William T. Davies (1831-1912) was elected District Attorney in 1865. He also served as a Republican State Senator during 2 terms of office, 1876-1884 and was the Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania from 1887-1891.
Evan William Evans (1828-1874) attended Yale University and became the first professor of mathematics at Cornell University, New York.
Alice Catherine Evans (1881-1975) worked for the US Department of Agriculture where she identified the bacterial infection in cows (later known as brucellosis) that caused undulant fever in humans. She was later elected the first woman president of the American Society of Bacteriologists.
Norman Thomas (1884-1968) studied at Princeton and ran six times as a Presidential candidate for the minority American Socialist Party during the period 1928-1948.
Visit Rina's own website for lots more material on her family connections with Baran Chapel
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