Welsh (Cymry) Tales

Forward. History of a Welsh (Cymry) Family The people who came to the region of Great Britain, now known as Wales, were made up of Celtic tribes who called themselves Cymry (comrades) and their land Cymru. In the case of the Family Jones the history can only start many centuries later in a small village called Penydarren Merthyr, in the Rhondda Valley in the region of Wales known as Glamorgan—just north of Cardiff in the southern part of the country. There lived a poor, but happy, family with the name attributed to the father of the family, David Jones, who was born in about 1840. The name Jones was almost certainly a variation of the family tradition in the rest of England where the son of John was named Johnson. In Wales the son of John became Jones. Just as his parents and grandparents, David Jones had been a farmer getting the best out of somewhat unyielding soil and defending whenever possible his homeland rights. He also participated in the vast musical tradition of Welsh families. This tradition emerged in many ways, but the main expression came as people gathered together to express their joy in the form of choral music. Then the industrial revolution arrived in Wales, as the demand for coal and iron arose. To fuel the revolution David Jones, like so many others in his village, became a coal miner. This all happened in about 1860. The projects expanded rapidly as the now famous David Davies in 1866 successfully drilled one of deepest coal mines ever, and, in addition, started a highly successful international shipping company to transport the coal all over the world. In 1875 David Jones and his wife Mary Watkins had their first child---a son they named Griffith Jones. Two other children were born, both girls, one of whom died at a young age. But then, in 1881 tragedy struck as David Jones was killed in a mining accident. With no financial future, Mary boarded a ship with her children bound for a small town in the USA. This town was known to the family because one of Mary`s friends had moved there several years before. The town, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was well known to the Welsh because it too was a mining town. It was there that Griffith Jones and his sister grew to adulthood—thus continued the Jones family. The family will be described in detail in the next chapters of this book. Of note is that each family member participated in many social activities, but in particular there was always a strong line of the musical tradition which Griffith Jones displayed in his chosen profession of choral director of student choruses while head of music in Cleveland, Ohio and director of the Chorus of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Several of his children and grand-children became physicians and teachers, as you will note in the following. Below is a photo of Griffith Jones and his wife Mary Lloyd long after their marriage in Pennsylvania in 1902, and after creating four very Welsh children. Figure F-1. Griffith Jones and Mary Lloyd in the USA in 1930. The following two photos show the children of Griffith and Mary. Figure F-2. Three sisters, Carol (a flutist), Ann (a cellist), and Mary (a harpist and singer), and John Lloyd Jones (viola). Chapter 2. Griffith Jones Grows Up in Pennsylvania As a young 6 year old boy transported across a large ocean with his mother and a sister after the death of his father in 1881, one must wonder what could hold his emotional health together. We will never know the answer to this exactly, but as it emerged, music, and his love particularly of vocal music, must have been a powerful factor. Griffith began to organize choral music in his high school in Wilkes-Barre as a teenager. He then went on to study music at the Wyoming Seminary and to conduct choral groups in churches, and at the Shriners. He also began to write some choral music. He graduated from Wilkes-Barre College of Music in 1897. He began teaching and he continued to study voice, music theory, instrumentation, composition, and to play the organ. In 1902 he married Mary Lloyd, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Lloyd. They had a son (John) in 1903 and a daughter (Mary) in 1906. In 1907 they moved to Lorain, Ohio and Griffith became the supervisor of the Public School Music. His other two daughters, Carol and Ann were born in 1914 and 1917. He conducted the Lorain Choral Union, as well as several other choral groups in Lorain and Elyria. In 1913 he brought his 100 voice Lorain male chorus to Lakeside, Ohio where in the presence of representatives from every state in the USA and foreign guests he participated in the dedication of the now famous Perry`s Monument. In 1917 he began his conducting career in Cleveland, Ohio which spanned the next 25 years. He became director of high school choruses, including the first high school a cappella Choir, and a high school girls’ band of 60 players. He directed church choirs and the prestigious Glenville Choral Club. In 1918 he began to spend summers at Lakeside, Ohio. He was director of the Chautauqua Chorus and the orchestra in Lakeside, Ohio. In 1926 he became the Chorus Master of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra (a position he held for 15 years). He was also Supervisor of Music in the Shaker Heights schools and taught at Western Reserve University. Griffith had great musical knowledge, great energy and unbounded enthusiasm, and an ear that could easily detect any discord or minor deficiency.