The settlement of Gwynedd township, Montgomery county, by the Welsh two centuries ago is to be made the occasion of a celebration, a few months hence, the charaeter of which will be in keeping with the dignity of the township corporation and the proud ancestry of many of its residents.
The bicentennial anniversary of the settlement of the township will occur in November, the month in which the band of fifteen immigrants from Wales entered into possession of 820 acres of land which they purchased of William John and Thomas Eyan, who preceded them from Wales by a year as representatiyes of the Welsh company. The land was originally deeded by Penn, March 25, 1681, to Robert Turner, by whom the title was conveyed to John and Evan, March, 1689.
The bicentennial celebration, however, may occur in July, when the settlers reached Philadelphia, having sailed from Liverpool in April. In the eleven weeks consumed by the voyage, says the narrative of Edward Foulke, which has been made a part of Howard M. Jenkins' exhaustive sketch of Gwynedd's early settlers, forty-five passengers and three sailors died of an epidemic that broke out on shipboard soon after they sailed.
The women and children of the colonists who had made the voyage to escape persecution, found homes among kinsfolk in Philadelphin and Merion, while the sturdy Welsh man, husbands and fathers, were preparing places of shelter for their families and their cattle, hence the fact that the formal occupancy of the land was delayed until November. The coming of the colonists was hastened by Hugh Roberts, who had come to this country from Wales some years before, with a colony of 100 persons. A direct descendant of this enthusiastic Welsh- American, Ellwood Roberts, of Norristowu, was the prime mover in the agitation for the bicentennial observance. The oldest landmark of colonial days in Gwynedd was a house that, until a few weeks ago, stood along the turnpike leading to West Point, about a fourth of a mile in from North Wales.
The date stone in the gable wall bore the inscription, "W. J. 1714." In that year the house was built by William John, one of the representatiyes of the Welsh company. For years it was owned by the Dannehowers, descending from one generation to another. Recently the property was purchased of George Dannehower by J.W. Clare, who a few weeks ago, demolished the building to make room for a more modern structure.
Another instance of long continued family possession is furnished by the Gwynedd store, which has been in the possession of the Jenkins family for 102 years, four generations managing it in succession. Edward Jenkins opened the store in 1796. He was succeeded by Charles F. Jenkins and then William Jenkins. At present Walter Jenkins is the proprietor. There has been postoffice at this place tor 80 years. Within 100 yards of the store is the Gwynedd meeting house, which was erected in 1823, on the site of the first built in 1709, and the second in 1712. The latter was occupied by the Friends until it gaye way to the present modest structure, whose capacity is far beyond the attendance ordinarily.
The Gwynedd Monthly Meeting of Friends was not established until 1714, two years after the first meeting house went down before the march of progress. While history records no depredations by Indians in Gwynedd, the township, as late as the Revolutionary period was the abiding place of remnants of some tribe of xxxx [indigenous Americans]. It is related on the authority of persons who haye preserved the records and correspondence of some of their ancestors that while the British occupied Philadelphia a number of Indians yisited the smithy of Samuel Wheeler, a cutler and tool maker, who made swords for the Continental Army. The Indians had obtained a number of guns, which they wanted Wheeler to repair, but at that time he was kept so busy turning out swords for the fathers of the present sons of the American Revolution that he could give the guns of the wiley xxxx [indigenous Americans] no attention, which seems to indicate that almost a century and a quarter ago Gwynedd was enjoying a business boom.
At the time of its settlement and for many years afterwards the township was known as North Wales, a name that was transferred to the flourishing borough a mile away, Gwynedd, a geographical designation among Welsh people more than a thousand years ago, was eventually applied to their block of Pennsylyania land, and from that application the township took the name it bears to day. (from The Lansdale Reporter, February 10, 1898)
