We were increased in numbers so that we could hold services in Welsh, with Welsh singing.  The country people were well pleased to hear the Welsh singing of gospel hymns.  Welsh children were often invited to sing at other churches around on Sundays.  There were always crowded houses to hear them sing.  There were many good voices and all loved to sing.  And also there were many musicians among the men and women with good voices.  It was a real singing camp, making good cheer to all who loved music.  High class music like "Heaven Are Telling" and "Hallelujahs", choruses, and many other songs, quartets and solos would be sung in competition with Knoxville Welsh singers who were very good in music.

There were many Welsh singers in Knoxville in the years 1880 to 1900.  When I left Pennsylvania, I came with the intention of following my usual occupation of coal mining in case I should find conditions agreeable.  If not, I would move on to the territory of Washington State, where new coal mines were being developed.  Many miners from Mahanoy City had gone there.  Although mining in Tennessee was quite different from that of Pennsylvania mining.  Anthracite coal mining is done by blasting, but in Tennessee by pick mining.  Mining here was less hazardous.

After working four months, Manager DAVIS asked me to accept a position as mine foreman in the place of Evan PHILLIPS, who was then foreman.  After considering the proposition, I told him that the salary was not satisfactory to me, $70.00 per month.  I could earn $40.00 or more per month as a miner.  He came back with the advantages of house rent and coal free and household goods 10% above cost.  He was anxious that I accept the position.  I accepted the place with the explanation that I was not sure that my wife would come here.

After four months, Welsh families moved into the mining camp from Wales and other states.  Camp conditions were improving, but the surroundings were still rough.  The equipment of the mines was not completed for lack of funds.  Manager DAVIS asked me to take some stock in Tennessee Coal Companies.  Coal prices were very low.  There were hopes that it would get better.  After some hesitation, I took 15 shares at one hundred dollars per share.  I sent word to my wife to send me fifteen hundred dollars.  This amount was placed to the credit of the East Tennessee Coal Company, and now since I had stock in the company, it kept me from thinking of going elsewhere.

Knowing that my wife had not made up her mind to move here, I wrote her that now I would have to stay here and that if she could not feel like moving from Mahanoy City, I would provide for her wants and would make a trip to see her as often as I could get off.  In our correspondence my wife wrote me that she had decided to come to Tennessee.  In the fall of 1884, she arrived in Jellico with the children, Maggie, Louis, and Mary.  The families of LEWIS, WYNN, and LEYSHON lived on each side of us, all from Mahanoy City, acquaintances of my wife, making it easier for all of us in our new surroundings.  A schoolhouse was built close by, then church and Sunday School services were held regularly in both languages, English and Welsh, all striking for better conditions.

There was one Welshman named Jonathan JENKINS, a one-legged man, who came to Dowlais with another miner named PIETON.  Both of them came from Maryland.  They worked at Frostburg Coal Mines.  PIETON drank a good deal.  In one of his drinking sprees, he laid down on the railroad track and was killed.  JENKINS was a religious man.  When the schoolhouse was built, you would always find him taking a leading part, no matter how bad the weather would be.  He would ring the bell for Sunday services and also for the weekly services.  His faithfulness was often spoken of in the camp.  He mined coal for a few years and then he was offered a position as mine foreman at the Mountain Ash mine, six miles out from Dowlais.  He married there and had one child, a daughter.  She is now married and living in Knoxville.  Later on JENKINS moved to Jellico and died there from a severe cold.  He was buried at Williamsburg, Kentucky.  He was reliable and perfectly honest.  Many times have we talked together in and around the mines.  He loved to sing Welsh hymns, songs he learned in his native land, Wales.  He called on me often to come to the services and play the organ for him.