Jack Edwards
Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, held on the fourth Thursday in November, is one of the most celebrated holidays in the United States. For millions of Americans it is a time for family and friends to come together to give thanks and share a special dinner.
Jack Edwards, a bookseller from Aberystwyth, got his first taste of the Thanksgiving tradition in the 1880s when he emigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio. In one of the letters he sent home, he describes a typical Thanksgiving feast:
“We had a turkey for dinner today, it is more common here than geese. They begin in November at Thanksgiving day. We had Buckwheat cakes and honey that day, buying the honey in the combs, Oysters boiled in milk, lemon pie &c;”
Jack corresponded with his family back home in Wales on a regular basis. The collection of letters he sent from Cincinnati between 1880 and 1887 is held at The National Library of Wales and has been digitized as part of the Wales-Ohio Project.
The project’s website, sponsored by Evan E. and Elizabeth F. Davis, of Oak Hill, Ohio, chronicles the history and experiences of the Welsh settlers in Ohio in the 19th century and displays images of emigrant letters, diaries, registers, photographs and printed materials.
My favourite letters without a doubt are the ones sent by Edward Peat to his brother, David, in Llanbryn-mair between 1868 and 1883 (NLW 14111D). Edward and his family settled near the village of Gomer in northwest Ohio and bought forty acres of flat, fertile land to farm. His letters home provide us with a fascinating insight into their new life in the Midwest.
For more information on the Welsh in Ohio, visit http://www.ohio.llgc.org.uk/