Mr. John Roberts Jones, of Allen County, Ohio, was a partner of Messrs. Bebb and Roberts.  In March, 1858, Mr. Jones wrote this letter:¹

"I am sorry that our venture has caused and is causing so much ill feeling as there is between us as relations.  I wish that I had never seen Mr. Bebb and E. B. Jones and that I had never heard of Tennessee.  Undoubtedly, we have all been disappointed in our venture.  It would be a blessing if it could be sold and if each one had his money back.  It was terrible indeed of Mr. Bebb to persuade us to buy land in Tennessee without knowing more about it and with the titles being so uncertain.  He should have been the first settler according to his promise.

"When I heard Mr. Bebb in Wales sighing and groaning that we were suffering such oppression, living on hopeless and sunless farms, boasting of the great fortune that he had made for us and the paradise that was to be had on this side of the Atlantic, who would not have expected something from him!!  I have not sen him proving any of his claims and I judge that he had nothing in view except his own pocket.  We have heard nothing of Saxton since we left Tennessee" (pp. 115-116).

Mr. John Hughes, of Beverly, New Jersey, wrote this to Samuel Roberts on 18 May 1858:¹

"I very much fear that in spite of all my desire and hope, with a large family and young, that I shall be obliged to relinquish the idea of coming to Tennessee except I could make my trade available for my support during the interval of preparation and growing etc.  Some seven or eight hundred dollars for transit, building, enclosing, clearing, manuring, together with seed, implements, horse, cart, cow, sheep, etc.  I fear would require as many pounds as I have dollars.  And yet my own trade (a tailor) is so very bad here through the introduction of machines and the opposing influence of large readymade clothing establishments, I cannot get half sufficient work and it goes but a small way toward the support of my family.  Had I money I would not hesitate to come to Tennessee but my small capital has been decreasing since I came to this country.  I shall be glad if you can effect a sale and return me the money" (p. 116).

From Scott County, Samuel Roberts wrote a bit of explanation of the issues surrounding the settlement to his nephew on 22 June 1858:¹

"The Virginia and East Tennessee Railway is now finished -- the last link was opened in the beginning of this month, completing the communication by railway through east Tennessee between the cities of the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi and making now one of the longest and best lines across this great country; and its traffic we find is increasing every day.  Knoxville commands a capital position on that line and ought to thrive fast.  A thirty-mile branch from Knoxville toward here is more than half done, but unfortunately they have no money at present to go on with it.  When that branch is finished we shall be within less than twenty miles of a station.

"We have actually to keep away from here parties who might have been useful here but who cannot start themselves, nor can we afford to help such beginners.  Mr. Saxton was much to blame in not making his surveys and titles clear before we came and E. B. Jones, as he had been so long here, ought to have intimated to us that there might be definiciencies but we trust Saxton will make all good" (pp. 116-117).

The organizers of the settlement took advantage of the strife-torn people of Wales and then "took the money and ran."  The Welsh people who came here were then left to make it on their own in the new (and relatively rough) land.  Luckily, they were a solid and ambitious people.  Because of the perseverance of those first pioneers who stayed in East Tennessee, later immigrants found a welcoming, homelike community awaiting them on their arrival in the region.