DAVIES, DAVID STEPHEN (1841 - 1898), preacher, temperance reformer, man of letters, and colonist

Born at Brynffynnon, Plas-marl, Swansea, 14 February 1841, son of John Davies (1803 - 1854), minister of Mynydd-bach, Llangyfelach. In 1854 his father was killed in the mine, and the boy was forced to leave school and go to work as an engine-driver at Aberdare. In 1857 there was a strike, and he emigrated to the U.S.A., where he began to preach at Holidaysburg. He then underwent training at the Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, and the Western Theological Seminary, Allegany, and in 1862 was ordained minister of Emmett and Ixonia; he married G. Stephens of Wisconsin in the same year. He moved to Denton in 1864, then to Centreville, and, in 1872, to New York. Here he formed a company to promote emigration, the ship Rush was purchased, and twenty-nine emigrants were sent off to Patagonia. They got no further than Montevideo, where they dispersed. Another company was formed comprising forty-two emigrants, himself among them. The ship Electric Spark, 200 tons, was purchased, and sailed with a company and a cargo of 250 tons of agricultural implements. This ship was wrecked off the coast of Brazil, the cargo was lost, and it was only after great tribulations that the emigrants reached Patagonia, penniless. It was rumoured in the U.S.A. that they had all been drowned, and a memorial service was held for D. S. Davies, and obituary notices were published. Four months later he returned from the colony to Wales and, in 1875, was invited to become minister of Ebenezer, Bangor, in succession to Robert Thomas (Ap Vychan, 1809 - 1880). He went to New York to fetch his family and there arranged for a third ship, the Lucerne, to sail for Patagonia. This voyage also was a failure. In 1886 he went to Carmarthen to take charge of the church at Union Street, and there he remained until his death, 29 October 1898. He was editor of Y Celt and published a number of books: Llawfer (Shorthand), Ystyr Bedydd (The Meaning of Baptism), Adroddiad, 1875, which gave details about Patagonia, and two others designed to appeal to intending settlers in that country, Y Cymro: Llawlyfr y Wladfa, 1881, and Atodiad i'r Cymro, 1882.

Author

• Reverend Richard Bryn Williams, (1902 - 1981)

Sources

• NLW Archives: NLW MS 2381-2407, 4611-9
• R. Bryn Williams, Cymry Patagonia (Aberystwyth 1942)
• R. Bryn Williams,Rhyddiaith y Wladfa (Denbigh 1949)

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: David Stephen Davies

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20732888

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/