Oral History of Mildred Banget March 13, 2003
Kara
Kara
March 13, 2003 Oral History of Museum
Mildred would you like to start by telling us where you live and about yourself
Mildred To give my Welsh connection my fathers name was Jenkins so I’m half Welsh
sometimes I think I’m more welsh and sometimes less. At least I’m supposed to be half.
Live right across street from museums makes me handy. Call me a curator but I feel it’s
more of a glorified janitor. People have learned to knock on the door if they want in.
Taught school for 30 years husband and son are dead. I have 2 daughters and 3
grandsons and soon to have a great grandson. Call him Eliga and for short Ellie. Bible
name. Connect with chamber of commerce and festival of lights cometti when can do
things welsh. Have a choir church, and teach a women’s Sunday school class. Write a
column weekly since 1967 every week since called around town trying to keep people
aware of what is happening around the village. Use people’s names because regardless
of what they say they like to see their name in the paper. A few years ago when I was
sick I was laying around thinking what can I do to beef up my column? So I invented an
imaginary male. And started writing about the village mule. It escalated and I was kinda
gonna kill it off after a while. But I would have people in the groceries store ask me
about the mule if I didn’t write about it. Now this is the honest truth many people
thought it was real. Guy who does the cartoons for the news paper Glen Cherelar form
Wellston, he told me it was the best scam he had run across in years, it was several years
before he realized it wasn’t
Kara What did you write about?
Mildred Pick on people in the town and yes their names if I knew they could take a joke.
And for example I would say. Ray Thomas was in his back yard yesterday and he scared
away the village mule probably wanting something to eat. And I would do different
things like that and put him in different peoples houses and yards. Some said we had to
name it and though the paper we had a naming contest. And I had 3 gentlemen picked
for judges. Chose the name Jeremiah. He is still alive and kicking I was going to retire
him out to a farm here in the area. And people said no you gotta keep writing about him.
So I am kinda known as the mule of the town I guess. I guess I could be worse thing the
horse’s tail end which I probably am too. So it’s kinda fun. You got to have fun in life a
little bit.
Kara. You said your father is from Jenkins?
Mildred
Yes
Kara Do you know what part of Wales did your family come from and a little about
them?
Mildred
We have no body there, no relatives that are alive. I am the fourth
generation and I do know where I come from but I can’t pronounce it. I call it
Langwsrih. And there was Gomer Jenkins David Jenkins came over first and he named
his son Gomer and he named his son David. So that was my father David. And then he
named my brother Gomer. So it was David, Gomer, David, Gomer. But the Present
Gomer has a girl so I don’t think there is another Gomer to come along so it’s a welsh
thing they did. Ya we’ve been there, we have a friend Bet Davies Uncle Erik Jones. He
found a place for us and we got to work where our ancestor worked and saw the
Tempeblen Stone house and took pictures.
Kara So tell me about you trip. When did you go? Where did you go?
Mildred
We took three trips the first was a tool we went with my brother Gomer
and his wife Sheryl. We knew a few people there, Bet’s relatives and we stayed in a bed
and breakfast. But we decided to go on our own. So we rented a car and went strait to
Wales we didn’t spend any time in England. On our second trip we wanted to stop in
Scotland and Ireland just to say we had. Gomer wanted to go to the St. Andrews golf
course. So we went and stayed over night in Scotland. Well we go on a fairy for a oneday trip to go over to Dublin. So we got there and we had to take a train, it was one of
those ramble old trains that didn’t go very fast and all of a sudden we were just ambling
along and bang the lights went out and the awfulest crash and it came to find out we had
gone into this tunnel and it happened to find out there were these 14 cows that decided to
get out of the weather and we just smashed them flat. For 2 hours we were stranded we
had knocked the engine out till they came and got us another engine and we hurriedly got
to Dublin just in time to eat and rush back to the fairy. This train going back had two
engines and it was a good thing because one of the engines caught on fire. That was my
trip to Ireland. The last trip was about 94 somewhere in there. Saw the things we wanted
to before and we did or we probably wouldn’t have gone back again. So that was it
Kara So you don’t know anything else about your family about when they came over
from Wales.
Mildred
Oh, ya, dad wrote a history of it and I do have a copy of that. I forget it
was 1830 he wanted to come from Wales so he got a job on a neighboring farm and made
just enough money to come over and that’s how he came over. But he didn’t have much
family left there. I don’t know much about that but there is nobody left there now.
Kara Lets see the museum is always the big part of your life and the Welsh community
all over America. Do you just want to start when it was established or the history of the
building?
Mildred
Well it was the Welsh congregational church of Oak Hill 1869 of local
made brick. It cam to a point where you couldn’t get work around here so the young
people left and old people mostly died off. And then a first Baptist church purchased it
and they held church here until they out grew it. And then there was talk of them selling
it and if they sell it, it may get torn down. Then Rreverand. Hana, he’s the prespitarian
minister, he and I got up in arms and decide it wasn’t getting torn down. So we ran all
around went to banks went to people Davies trying to convince them it needed to be
saved. So we managed to come up with enough money to perches the property which we
did in 1971 and things stayed the way they were until we got enough money to try and do
something with it. Rreverand hana came up with the name. And people liked it. People
started bringing in souvenirs and stuff. Nothing of monetary value. Family keepsakes.
They knew that when they died their kids would not be interested in these old books and
they would pitch them. So they thought they would bring them here so other people can
enjoy them. So that is how it all began and it kinda just caught on after a while. We just
enjoyed keeping it going here in the village and I feel it’s earned a place here for it’s self.
Kara I think so. Now what kind of things do you have in here all together? What are
perhaps some of the more unusual things?
Mildred
We do have a few books to have value do to their age or the type of book
they are but a lot of them are in Welsh. So if you don’t speak welsh you are in trouble.
But we have some artifacts that came from Wales that people gave us and they held on to
and gave to us. We kept the original pews of the church and furniture because we didn’t
want to change too much in here. But we have so Brick history and some local hand
made bricks. It is a conglomeration of things. We have some document and blue prints
of things of early welsh buildings and early welsh land of the area. We have a partly
good history of all the local church and we have the books from some where they kept
the Sunday school records.
Kara What about things like the gamanfa? I know that is kinda broad but can you talk
about the gamanfa through the ages as far back as you can go until up to till today?
Mildred
I don’t know how long the gamanfa is going on. I know were up to the
120 something that we have here. But it has been rotating through churches 3 or 4
churches in a weekend like Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But presently we do Saturday
night and Sunday. The only three places it goes between are Nebo Church of Gallia
County which was a Welsh congregational church Tyn Rhos which is in Gallia county
and the museum. Which all there were churches. We still try and have welsh ministers
not welsh so much speaking we still have scripture and prayer.