Welsh Journals

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BIOGRAPHICA ET BIBLIOGRAPHIC^ The following biographies of Welsh Americans, written by Henry Blackwell, New York, who died in 1928, have been chosen from his unpublished 'Dictionary of Welsh Biography' (now N.L.W. MSS. 9251-77) and are printed exactly as Blackwell wrote them.-EDITOR. WILLIAMS,' HARRY EVAN (1867-1918), Wales's sweetest tenor, better known as Evan Williams', was born at Mineral Ridge, Ohio, on Sep. 7. 1867, and was the son of David Evan and Gwendolyn Williams, both natives of Wales. Educated in the public schools of Akron, Ohio, his beginning was marked by the sternest struggles, by unfailing courage and sharpest sacrifice. It isn't true that my boyhood days in the coal mines were weighed down by poverty, however", he used to say. I was rich then, I was a big strong fellow and I got man's wages and I had as many good times and took as many buggy rides as anybody in East Akron The period of struggle came when it was discovered that the boy coal miner was a marvelous natural tenor. First public attention was called to his voice when he was about seventeen and came to Akron to sing at a Welsh Eisteddfod there. Attorney Frank M. Atterholt, then leading the Methodist Church choir, was among those who heard him and who felt immediately a great faith in him. Atterholt found a place for him in the choir at two dollars per Sunday, the young singer's first earning as a musician. Working in the mines all week and making the trip to Akron Sundays was inconvenient, so Jerry Long, head of the old Akron Rolling Mills, got a job for him as assistant puddler. And there and at the old Webster Camp and Lane plant he worked for a year and a half, singing on Sundays. His financial prospects were so much brighter by now that Evan Williams, or as he was called Harry Williams, thought it time to get married. He was nine- teen, and making good money. Accordingly in 1886 he married Margaret J. Morgan, a Welsh miss from Akron. This marriage was the best thing he ever did, for to his wife Evan Williams owed more than to anyone else his success in life. She shared every hardship with him, made the sacrifices easier, and was his inspiration. For instance Madame von Frilitsch, a music teacher, came along about this time and believing in Evan Williams offered to give him free lessons if he would move to Cleveland, so he got a job there running the elevator at a dollar a day and his room rent. Mrs. Williams stayed at Thomastown, kept up her house and took care of the baby that had arrived, and the three of them lived on that six dollars a week. For an hour every day the janitor ran the elevator and Evan Williams spent that time in his vocal work. Next he went to New York with the assistance of two local men who believed in him and studied under James Sauvage (1851-1922), a well known Welsh musician. One day some Akron people saw him in New York. Things are fine he said. Sauvage has the highest hopes for me. But I've got to go back home." I Why ?', they asked him in surprise. I'm down to my last 25 cents and am on my way to telegraph for money to go home. I'll go back to the mines a while and get some money ahead and come back. I don't like to take any more money from the two men who have helped me so much The Akron people told him that he must stay and continue his work, advancing him a small loan and guaranteed to raise funds in Akron to keep him going. As Williams tells the story I went first to a restaurant and had a great big breakfast, steak and fried potatoes and coffee and-oh, it was a big breakfast, I tell you. Then I got 1 See Journal, I, p. 61, for a note as to the purpose and scope of this section.-Editor.