A Minister and his family in the 1890s

Description

The first photograph was taken by J.H. Moody of Aberavon in the early 1890s, when Rev. (later Dr.) Dan(iel) Evans (1850-1929) was the minister at Zion/Seion Independent chapel in Cwmavon / Cwmafan (1889-1901). Born in Llanycrwys and educated at Bangor Normal College, he worked as a schoolmaster in Cwmbach, Llanwinio (Carmarthenshire) before becoming the minister at Moriah, Blaenwaun in 1885 in succession to Rev. John Davies (‘Siôn Gymro’). While there, he founded a grammar school in Whitland with his friend and ex-pupil Rev. Lewis Evans, and was active in the tithe wars (‘Rhyfel y Degwm’) in the area. In 1901 he was called to the pastorate of Hawen and Bryngwenith in Cardiganshire, where he remained until his retirement in 1927. Already involved in local government while at Cwmavon, he became Chairman of Cardiganshire County Council in 1911.

With him in this photograph are his wife, Mary (née Davies) (1853-1932), who was born in Llanwinio, and their eight children.

Back Row, left to right: Siân (1884-1965), who became a teacher in Cardiff and Cardiganshire and married the Welsh nationalist activist D.J. Williams; Eben (1881-1916), a teacher, who was killed in the battle of the Somme; David (1877-1951), also a teacher, who later farmed at Pengelli, near Newcastle Emlyn and became Chairman of Cardiganshire County Council in 1935-36; Evan (1874-1905) who before his early death became the minister of Hope Chapel, Cardigan; John (1879-1960), who became the Headmaster of Llandovery County School; and William (1883-1968), the Congregational Minister, poet and broadcaster Wil Ifan, who was the Archdruid of Wales from 1947 to 1950.

In the front, with their parents, left to right, are Anna (1886-1980), a teacher and writer who married Percy Davis, a headmaster in Coedybryn and Aberystwyth, and Margaret (1888-1984), a musician and writer who married a secondary schoolmaster, Thomas Davies, and lived in Borth.

The second photograph shows the illuminated address presented to Rev. Dan Evans when he left Cwmavon: it is now in the schoolroom of Bryngwenith chapel.

The other two photographs are of Rev. Dan Evans and his wife Mary.