Occupational Mobility and Social Status: The Welsh Experience in Sharon, Pennsylvania, 1880–1930

This article identifies the Welsh as a distinct ethnolinguistic community in Sharon, Mercer County, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and provides an analysis of intragenerational and intergenerational changes in socioeconomic status, as indicated by occupational shifts. The study provides a clearer picture than the images promulgated by contemporary Welsh leaders who strove to emphasize the industry and upward mobility of their fellow countrymen.