Cylchgronau Cymru

EZEKIEL HUGHES'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY IORWERTH C. PEATE In my writings about Ezekiel Hughes, the Llanbryn-Mair clockmaker (see my Clock and Watch Makers in Wales 3rd edition 1975 and the Montgomeryshire Collections, XLVIII), I deplored the absence of any form of biography of this eminent Welsh American. Recently in looking through some of my father's papers I came across a local newspaper cutting dated 1910, which is concerned with Ezekiel Hughes's autobiography. Unfortunately the writer of the article does not divulge his name nor is the location of the autobiography mentioned. The National Library of Wales have no knowledge of it and all searches have so far proved fruitless. A copy of the article is printed here and I shall be very grateful for any information concerning it: "Llanbrynmair, which Mr. Lloyd George says is safe from a bombardment by German Dreadnoughts, has given not a few distinguished sons to the world, and amongst them Mr. Ezekiel Hughes, who was born in that Montgomeryshire village on August 22nd, 1767. Hughes is said to have been the first Welsh settler in the Miami country, if not the first in Ohio. He wrote out an account of his immigration from his native land, and his adventures and travels during his first year or two in America. His journal was fragmentary and ended abruptly, but fortunately was preserved. It was written in a blank book, with a copy of 'Poor Will's Almanac' for the year 1796. In April, 1795, with many other of his countrymen, he left the mountains of his native country to find a home in the new American Republic. After a voyage of thirteen weeks he arrived at Philadelphia, where he remained until the next spring, when he visited Washington, D.C. He found the Capitol and the President's house both unfinished. In April, 1796, in company with Edward Bebb, he started on foot for the North-west Territory, which was already attracting emigrants from the British Isles and the Continent of Europe. On arriving at Redstone (now Brownsville, Pa.), the travellers determined to take a boat down the river. At Redstone he wrote: