Calvinists Incorporated: Welsh Immigrants on Ohio’s Industrial Frontier by Anne Kelly Knowles (review)

Reviews William Ellis. The Kentucky Rivei·. Fc,rward by Thi,mas D. Clark. Lexingtcm: University Press of Kentucky, 2000. 116 pp. ISBN: 081 3111523 ( cloth), $ 29-gi. Readers beware! This is noi a hocik tc)]· peciple who think that history has to be dull, boring, or indecipherable by nonhistorians . In The Kentucky River, William Ellis has written a popul: ir history that is engaging, readable, and informative. It is alsi) a lestament to his wideranging interests and abilities:is an historian lh: it he is able tc) effeclively sew together the threads of the unvironmental, cuttural , ccon(, mic, : ind s{, cial history of: river:ind the pcapic who lived around it in n way th,it, shall wc say, 11(iws easi. ly from me subject to the next. Ellis acctimplishes this by Ircaking the htioka Part of the Ohio River Valley Series published by the University Press of Kentuckyinto eight chapters, : irranged them: itically . The first chaliter sci·vcs as a basic introductitin u) the river and the economic processes that shaped it frcim the Plic, cene era to the mid-twentieth century. Chapter tw(, reviews the geolb,gica] processes that br rincel> n University Anne Kelly Knowles. Calvinists Inct ) rp{) rated' Weigh Immigrantx ri)( irate(/ ft) CllseS till a C{) 111]linity i)j Welsh immigreints in st}uthern C) hio's 1,icks)11 , ind (;, illia counties during the first half tif the ninetcenth Celitury. In this ho<, k, Anne Kil(, wles mi,ves adeptly between li,cal, Spring 2002 Reviciws 43 illl j i j 1. 1.11 national and international frames of discussion, placing her detailed study of this community soundly within the larger· 1 context of Welsh immigration. The opening chapter, " Historical Geography of Welsh Emigration to the United States, 179 5-I 8 50," serves as ati excellent introduction to this cY,niiilex topic. Indeed, scho]ars and students will he compelled to return to this partic. ular chapter again and again for years to come. The two chapters that follow focus on a specific group of pc() pie before and after leaving Wales. Here, Anne Knowles pri,vides a penetrating study of the el'( mcimics of imliligraticli by analyzing the materi: 11 circumstances of individuals and families in relation to their transAtlantic movement. In a later chapter,she examines Welsh involvement in the charcoal iron industry of southern Ohio, providing a localized study of rural capitalist transfc, rmation during the first half of the nineteenth century. Her study concludes with " The Moral Context of Migration," a chapter that discusses ways in whicli these capitalist ventui·es challenged the re' ligii,us identity of (primarily) Calvinistic Methodist immigrants. Anne Knowles concludes thitt the Welsh of Jackson and Gollia counties " organized an elaborate and creative scheme for pooling community capital, and set to work building companies the likes of which they never could have owned in Wales." She argues convincingly that these immigrant farmers chcme to participate in entrepreneurial industrial investment in order to defend and strengthen what they considered to be 11110r: 11 economy." Anne Knowles criticizes " the familiar metaphors that immigratjon writers so often employ," arguing that a focus on " sibling networks"can be much more productive than relying on worn phrases such as " emigration fever" and wnves" to describe emigration. She relies for primary sources mainly on ohituaries written by Welsh immigrants themselves for publication in ftilir Welshlanguage journals printed in the United States between 1838 and INs 3. Knowles'research iii these journals has yielded : 1 rich database , including biographical inkirmation on I,771 individual Welsh migrants. In describing this material, she moves easily from broad statistical analyses to individual personal histories, ensuring that her study has breadth, depth and texture. Calvinists Incorporaced alst,engages iii a very sensitive . ind intelligent m. inner with an intricate conste]1. 1tion of concepts centering on the relationship between the religious identity of Welsh immigrants and their capitalist ventures. The author' s use, however, of the word " conservative "to describe Welsh inimigrants' religious practices beci)mes, at times, diiachi·onistic and misleading