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Biography
Edward Jones Williams (1857-1932) was born in Durham on 19 July, to Welsh parents from Flintshire and Denbighshire.
He was educated at Holywell Grammar School, but since his father was unable to afford an university education for him, his father apprenticed him with Joseph J. Williams, the leading mining engineer in the area, for three years as a mining engineer and surveyor. After his first year as an apprentice, he wrote a long essay entitled 'The Mineral Resources of Denbighshire and Flintshire' which was published in the Journal of the Geological Society in London. During his third year of apprenticeship he won a medal and £20 in the National Eisteddfod held in Birkenhead in 1878 for a Welsh handbook on Geology.
Despite his qualifications, Edward failed to gain a suitable post and he emigrated with his parents and family to the Welsh Settlement in Patagonia. Edward remained in Buenos Aires to arrange an introduction to the equivalent engineering institutes in Argentina and to master the intricacies of Spanish terminology. During that time he made valuable contacts in Government, business and commercial circles.
In the Welsh Settlement, he drew upon his experiences to construct irrigation canals and survey the land and in 1884 he went in search of a suitable track for the new railway. His notebooks contain precise measurements and detailed plans and sketches.
In 1890, he returned to Wales to marry Mary Elizabeth Price on 9 December and they had 6 children.
A tribute written by the Rev R J Jones, Prestatyn, stated that he belonged to the generation of settlers who had the life of the Settlement in both commerce and religion. Together with others, he established the Agricultural Exhibition that led to the development and improvement of agriculture and gardening. He was a staunch supporter of eisteddfodau and literary meetings; he worked tirelessly to nurture in the young a love of Welsh literature and to foster the Welsh language. He was chairman of the Chubut Mercantile Company and was a Sunday School teacher in Tabernacle Chapel, Trelew.
The family left the Settlement in July 1907 and returned to Wales but in April 1908 Edward returned to the Chubut for a year to carry out the extension of the railway to Gaiman. He took two of his sons, Iorwerth and William Penri with him. He continued to work on extending the railway and n plans to build a water mill.
After returning to Wales, the family lived at Grange Mount, Rhyl, before moving to Pendyffryn in March 1914 and Edward Jones Williams died there on 3 July 1932.