Probably because of metal mining, refining, and fabrication in southeastern Tennessee, Hamilton County had a substantial settlement of Welsh immigrants.

The following paragraphs contain immigrants' impressions of the area.

Soddy, Hamilton County, Tennessee

From D. I. Jones, "A Visit to Soddy and Chattanooga, Tennessee" Cambrian II (Jan.-Feb. 1882), pp. 5-10:¹

In 1866, just months after the close of the Civil War, a number of Welsh miners from Brookfield, Ohio, organized themselves into a coal company.  In 1867, the company sent out three men to scout for a mine site.  These men discovered evidences of rich coal formations at Soddy.  This, plus the fact that the Cincinnati Southern Railroad planned to serve the area, encouraged them.  They opened the mines in 1874, after which miners and their families flocked into the area.  However, it was years before the railroad was finally built, so many became discouraged and left.

Abram Lloyd had confidence in the mining operation and the community, so he bought out the rest with few exceptions.  Now the chief owner of the mines, Lloyd became very prosperous once the railroad was finally built and the mines began to function.  At that time, approximately 50 Welsh families lived in the area, and the number increased.  Most came from Aberdare.

Lloyd was born in 1845 at Mt. Pleasant, Cowbridge, Glamorgan, and came to the U. S. in 1863.  He first settled at Broadtop, Pennsylvania, then Pittsburgh, then Brookfield, Ohio, where he was part of the group of Welshmen who formed a coal company.  Lloyd was manager of the Soddy mines from their opening until his death.  He was one of principal coal operators in the South; the value of his mines was ever-increasing and, with it, Lloyd's wealth.  Lloyd died in 1911.  [His obituary and photo appear in Cambrian XXXI (August 15, 1911), p. 13.]

A church was first organized at Soddy by Rev. Thomas Thomas; it was Congregational.  The church changed to a Union church with the influx of Welsh immigrants who were Baptists and Calvinistic-Methodists.

G. D. Hopkins, a Welsh immigrant miner, wrote home to Wales 06 April 1882 from Missouri after migrating there from East Tennessee.  Hopkins had a different view of the Soddy mine:²

"I left Argoed, Monmouthshire on 9 August 1881, on the Erin of the National Line and reached New York on 23rd of the same month.  From there I traveled three nights and two days until we reached Soddy, Tennessee, about 314 miles south of Cincinnati and twenty miles north of Chattanooga.  In Soddy nothing grows but a little Indian corn.  It is impossible to raise wheat, hay, and such things because there is no land for it and the houses have been built on large rocks.  One can see cows here living on nothing but the leaves of the trees.  There is only one mine here and all the coal for miles has been taken up by the company so that no other company can set foot in the place which is a great disadvantage to the workmen.  The seam runs two to four feet thick and must all be blasted.  The room is about fourteen feet wide with roads on either side where they should be in the middle, which makes the work more difficult.  The company has a store here and everyone who works here must buy from there.  Two and a half cents is paid for every bushel cut in the summer and a little over that in the winter.  The winter is the best time for work.  Many Welsh live there but their circumstances are poor or they would leave."²

Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee

Jones, D. I.  "A Visit to Soddy and Chattanooga, Tennessee" Cambrian II (Jan.-Feb. 1882), pp. 5-10, 20.¹

There are 45 or 50 Welsh families in Chattanooga, but there is no church.  This is not a Welsh community in the usual sense.  The Chattanooga Welsh are active in the Powell Iron works and other industries.

References

¹Edward G. Hartmann, Personal research notes provided to Billie McNamara, 1984. Issues of Cambrian are at Weidner Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

²Alan Conway, ed., The Welsh in America: Letters from the Immigrants (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1961), p. 199.