The Welsh people in Knoxville have a long and profound history.  As time permits, this site will explore various facets of the people, their culture, and their impact on the city.

Copies of this map are available at ReevesMaps.com

The Knoxville Welsh community began in the 1860's when John H. Jones, one-time part owner of a rolling mill, convinced Joseph and David Richards and their brother-in-law, Thomas D. Lewis, to come to the city, where the three were put in charge of the rolling mill.  The Richards brothers and Lewis recruited Welsh immigrants in Pennsylvania to join them in Knoxville.  By 1868, 104 immigrant families had settled in the community now called "Mechanicsville."  They prospered and, by 1930, became affluent enough that their descendants dispersed to different sections of the city.  Today, more than 250 families in greater Knoxville can trace their ancestry back to these original immigrants.¹ ²

Map of Atkin Street area of Knoxville (see red star)

In 1868, Knoxville's Welsh community established the Welsh Congregational Church, which met in borrowed space at the Second Presbyterian Church.  In 1869, they decided to build a church of their own.  At first, the church was Union; later it was Congregational.  Reverend Thomas Thomas became the first pastor in 1870.  The church flourished until 1898-99 when the property was sold.  Afterward, Knoxville's Welsh only gathered once a year to observe St. David's Day.¹

The Richards brothers and their in-laws founded the Knoxville Iron Works along the L&N Railroad tracks a few hundred yards north of the depot.  That area is today known as the World's Fair Park.  The restaurant known as The Foundry, which was called the Strohaus during the 1982 World's Fair, is the only part of the original Welsh building complex that remains.  The Welsh laborers made square-headed nails.  A weathervane on top of the building is made from those square-headed nails.  The Welsh also had shops in Knoxville where the built coal cars, slate roofing companies, a marble company, and furniture companies.  All of these represented skills the immigrants brought with them from Wales.

In the East Tennessee section of this Web site, the TNGenealogy.net Albums Web site, and the Knox County Genealogy & History Web site you will find a variety of on-line essays, historical articles, databases, and photos that will give you some background on the Welsh immigrants who settled in Knoxville and the immediately surrounding area.

Some years ago, Professor Anne Knowles received a grant to study the iron industry in the United States during the period circa 1830-1870.  She is always interested in learning about East Tennessee's iron workers from this period.

References

¹Research notes of Edward G. Hartmann sent to Billie R. McNamara in 1984.  Cited sources:

• D. J. R. "Heroic Work of Welsh Pioneers: Struggles of the Early Cymry in Knoxville to Worship in Their Own Tongue" Druid III, No. 33 (August 19, 1909), p. 1.  [Issues of Druid are available at Brigham Young University Library, Provo, Utah, and Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.]
• Watrous, Margaret E. (owner).  Church Book (unidentified).  Book furnished to Dr. Hartmann by Ms. Watrous, who lived in Knoxville.

²Archives of Knoxville Welsh Society, in possession of Mrs. Audrey Duncan (1999).