Patagonia – The Melting Pot

Merthyr’s Chapels: Adulam Chapel

Adulam Welsh Independent Chapel, Merthyr

In 1829, David Williams, an elder at Pontmorlais Chapel, became dissatisfied with the form of worship at the chapel and led a breakaway group of worshippers and began holding meetings, originally at the Bush Hotel, Caedraw.

Mr Thomas Powell, Sadler, High Street was one of the staunch supporters of David Williams, It was Thomas Powell who negotiated the land required, and the finance for building their own place of worship. Representation was made to the land owner William Thomas Esq. of the Court Estate to lease a parcel of land to build a chapel for 99 years for the sum of 2½ pence per annum. When sufficient money was raised, a chapel to be called Adulam was built in 1831 on Tramroadside North at a cost of £250.

A painting of Merthyr from the early 1800s. The original Adulam Chapel and its graveyard can be seen at the bottom right

The ministers of Zoar and Bethesda were opposed to David Williams and his people, and many of the ministers outside Merthyr felt the same, but several favoured him and went to Adulam to preach, and invited him to their pulpits, and eventually in Tretwr Assembly, he and the people under his care were recognized as a regular church. The chapel applied to the Methodist Union for membership but were refused; but then applied to, and were accepted into the Independent Union. David Williams was duly installed as Adulam’s first minister.

The church was burdened with a large debt and little effort was made to clear it during David Williams’ lifetime. The cause did not increase much. The fact that it was an old Methodist cause meant that Congregationalists who came to the area did not feel drawn towards it, especially in view of the fact that there were Congregational chapels in the area already. Mr Williams did not live long after joining the Congregationalists, dying on 12 June 1832.

Following Rev Williams’ death, the chapel depended on visiting ministers from other local chapels until Rev Joshua Thomas was ordained on 12 April 1833. Under Rev Thomas, the congregation at Adulam began to grow. Joshua Thomas was also instrumental in the starting of the causes at Bryn Sion Chapel in Dowlais and Horeb Chapel in Penydarren.

By 1856 the congregation had grown to such an extent, that when Lower Thomas Street was being built, it was decided to build a larger chapel with the entrance now on Lower Thomas Street. The new chapel was completed in 1857 at a cost of £1200. To save money, the chapel wasn’t built on the street, but set back behind two houses with a small courtyard in front of the entrance. The new chapel also incorporated a small vestry and stables for visiting ministers which were situated beneath the chapel. The stables were later converted into two small cottages.

Within five years of the new chapel being built, Rev Abraham Matthews was inducted as the minister at Adulam Chapel. Rev Matthews became the minister of the chapel in 1862, but he left Adulam in 1865 when he and his family left Wales and became one of the first group of settlers to start up the Welsh Colony in Patagonia.

Unlike many other chapels in Merthyr, Adulam was one of those chapels frequented by working class worshipers; its membership did not include an array of financial benefactors and throughout its history struggled to maintain its religious survival. Following the death of Rev Daniel T Williams in 1876, Adulam could not afford to pay for a new minister until 1883 when Rev D C Harris became minister. One of the first things he did on becoming minister was to set about alleviating the debt on the chapel. In 1884 he sent out appeals for aid to relieve Adulam’s financial burden to every household in the area – see above right. It is interesting to note that the name of the chapel is spelt in the English way with two ‘L’s rather than the more usual Welsh way with a single ‘L’.

By the 1960s, due to falling attendances, services began being held in the vestry beneath the chapel. In 1972, the congregation had dwindled to just nine people, and the sad decision was reached that the chapel should close. The final service was held on 24 September 1972. Following its closure, several plans were put forward to use the building for a number of different projects, but none of these came to fruition. By the 1990s the building had fallen into such a derelict state that it had to be demolished.

A new development of flats has been built on the site of the chapel and is called Adulam Court.

A Year in Patagonia – part 2

Continuing the fascinating account from our previous post…..

My father went out hunting sometimes with my cousin and one day killed a puma. Its skin was made into a mat which we girls had in our bedroom. I had four cousins out there living miles away – Mylyrfyn, Reene, Llewellyn, and Callan. Their father was killed by the Indians. Mrs and Miss Rowlands were other friends of ours from Abercanaid – they lived a long way from us, and father would take us sometimes in a buggy, a farmer had lent it to him, to visit them. I used to stay with them for a holiday sometimes. Miss Rowlands had a sweetheart, a Spaniard named Antonio Miggins – he was much darker than our people I often wondered why. One night when we were sitting round the fire I asked him why he was so dark, the answer was that he always drank strong tea. They all laughed, they were very nice people I did enjoy my visits to them.

One day my father did not go to work as there were many things needing to be done around the home, and he wanted to do some fishing. Being away all the week he could not do much, so he took my sisters and myself with him we gathered a lot of sticks and lit a fire as we were so far away. Father knew mother was very timid so we hurried home. Although we were so many miles away we could see quite plain as the country was so flat, but before we reached our house we saw an Indian ride away. He only wanted to know the way to Chubut, Mother could not understand him so said Lo ken savvy , meaning I don’t understand you, the, Indian made to dismount she got very frightened and went into the house for a gun and showed him she could use it he then rode away. Mother stood the ordeal very well but she was glad when we were all together again.

Every farmer in Patagonia had an enclosure attached to his farm called a corral where he had his cattle put at night to protect them from wild beasts, or when the Indians knew they were well stocked. They were very cruel and would come down from the Andes and steal their stock. there was no way to stop them as they came in large numbers unaware. Father made mother an oven to bake in, it was made in the shape of a beehive it was baked without lime. Mother was very disheartened at times, she would travel for miles to the mill then could get no flour, and butter too she could not buy although she had plenty of money.

Life was not very easy in many ways so when father came home at weekends, they would discuss ways out of the difficulty. They found out there was a sailing vessel leaving Chubut for Buenos Aires. They decided to book a passage on her. Mother sold all our household furniture and we went to the Chubut village for a while until the vessel was ready to sail. I went to school for the first time in Patagonia, the first thing they did was to take my shoes and stocking off to see if my feet were clean, but did not bother about my hair as they do in this country. I learned to count up to ten in Spanish, also to sing Oh click a dak a pana Novama. My father again had a buggy to take us to the vessel at the mouth of the River Plate, and I remember when we reached the ship there, a sailor helped us up a rope ladder as he put us on deck he counted una piccaninny dos piccaninny tres piccaninny, and for mother he said Senorita. It took us less time to get home- about five weeks. Father had to forfeit his £5 guarantee. We eventually reached Pontypool Road Station, where friends and my dear Grandfather who I thought I would never see again were meeting us. There was great rejoicing when we met. Well dear children the year is now up and I do hope I have not tired you so Good night and God bless you.

Martha Thomas (née Protheroe) in later years

Many thanks to Thomas Gwynder Davies for sharing this document with us.

A Year in Patagonia – part 1

This account, donated by Thomas Gwynder Davies, was written by his grandmother, Martha Thomas (née Protheroe) about the year she lived in Chubut, Patagonia. She was born in Abercanaid 1878. Her family were members of Sion Chapel, Abercanaid, and they emigrated to Patagonia in 1887, but returned to Abercanaid in 1888.

One year of my life written by an 8 to 9 year old
Martha Thomas (née Protheroe)
1887 to 1888
in Patagonia, South America

My father and mother often wished to travel. They talked much about it and when father was offered a government job in 1887, to build a railway from Chubut Valley to the Andes Mountain, they decided to accept it. The government wanted £5 from each settler as a guarantee that they would stay until the railway was finished. There was much preparation to be made and although I did not understand much of what it involved, I was very excited. Mother was presented with a Bible from the members of Sion Chapel Abercanaid, and I was presented with a large book on behalf of the scholars of Abercanaid mixed school by Mr Evans, schoolmaster.

I felt the parting very much especially from my dear Grandfather whom I loved very much. He lived next door and we had never been parted before. Well the morning for going away arrived at last. Father and Mother my two younger sisters and uncle and two aunts from Swansea came with us to Liverpool to see us off. We stayed there two days and went to many places of interest. We visited the museum and had our photos taken on the steps outside and when we boarded the ship for Patagonia we again had to part with loved ones and friends who had come to wish us well in our new home and surroundings and a safe journey. It took six weeks to go on our journey.

One morning mother looked very tired and sad and thanked God that we had slept through the night, as there had been a terrible storm in the night, and every passenger and crew had worked very hard, as the implements that the ship was taking as cargo in the bottom of the ship had got loose, and they had to put sand bags between the irons to steady the ship as it rolled so, at the mercy of the storm. At last we reached our Chubut. We were taken in little boats to the landing stage. We still had a long way to reach the village, so were taken in wagons drawn by oxen. We did not travel very fast in those days, and had to sleep in the open three nights, and the men had to light fires to keep the wild beasts away while we slept. By and by we reached the Chubut village where a large tent was put up with long tables and benches where we had tea of bread and treacle, and a beverage called Valka made out of a native tree which we sucked through a straw.

We soon settled when father had a 4 roomed homestead built of mud and straw. Evan Hopkins who came with us from Abercanaid was a carpenter and he made us a table and benches for our kitchen and we had mats made by the Indians of animals skins and dyed with vegetables that grew on the Andes. We had two dogs – ‘During’ a house dog, and pet called ‘Fancy’, two hens and cockerel. Father now had two horses to take him to work as he worked a very long way from home and only came home at weekends. When he went back to work he rode the one horse until it became tired and picked up the other to ride the rest of the way, so he would have it to ride half the way home next weekend – the first horse having eventually returning to us by itself. My sisters and I would go for long rides as it was quite docile.

The weather was very extreme. When it rained it tore up the earth into holes, and they would soon fill with water, but in a few days it would be quite dry again. When it snowed it came down in great lumps not like our flakes. When there was a thunder storm the lighting was like a huge picture in t he clouds. As the grass grew, the wind and the sand caused it to burn and became yellow. There was little green grass to be seen anywhere, therefore there was no pasture for the cattle to eat and they were very thin. There was very little butter in the shop as the farmers could only make a little in the summer when the grass was at its best.

To be continued in the next post……