An extract from 'A History of The Parish of Ystradyfodwg'

The Rhondda has produced many famous sons. Yet some others, of distinction, have gone relatively un-sung.

In this latter category I would include Moses Owen Jones who came to the Rhonnda in 1863 and spent the rest of his life there. He was the schoolmaster of Treherbert Boys (Mrs Jones looked after the girls) and was the musical director at Carmel, Treherbert. Beyond that, he was an accomplished choirmaster and composer. A local historian, he also composed several essays and was successful in both National and other eisteddfodau.

For the 1902 National Eisteddfod he wrote, under his non-de-plume 'Silarist', a 300+ page essay - 'A History of the Parish of Ystradyfodwg'. This document is retained at The National Library of Wales. For anyone with an interest in this it is a most fascinating read. Like many of his peers, he does rely on that version of history somewhat altered by Iolo Morganwg but he can not be blamed for that. More eminent historians, at that time, were equally fooled.

Of interest to this site is an entire chapter devoted to the development of Nonconformity in the parish. As well as the text, the essay includes tables of the chapels over three decades. There are some errors in the tables - maybe geography was not on the curriculum of the school. Neither are they complete. But these should not detract from the overal value of them which contain information which can not be readily obtained, with ease, from other sources. I have, with written consent of The National Library of Wales, transcribed the entire chapter which can be read on the following pages.

[Note: There is a document in the Treorchy reference library which purports to be a transcript of this essay. However, this document bears no similarity whatsoever to the original]