In a message dated 98-10-12 17:40:01 EDT, you write: << I visited Buckingham County a number of years ago and discovered a cemetery with numerous tombstones written in the Celtic tongue of the Welsh. I notice there is a SLATE river. Welshmen mined slate and coal, etc. I also notice many names of Welsh decent, i.e., JONES, RICE, WILLIAMS, EVANS, HOWELL, etc. Was there a reason, time period, settlement for the Welsh-ness (if you will) in Buckingham county? >> During a brief spurt of Fall Cleaning (:>) I found a back issue of a Historic Buckingham Newsletter. The following is PART of an article on Buckingham Slate. Buckingham slate is known world wide as a top quality roofing material. It is noted for its hardness and long lasting blue-grey color. The quarrying of slate, one of the early industries of the County, is believed to have begun between 1780 and 1796. Quarrying of the mineral continues today. The year of 1870 was an important one in the history of Buckingham Slate quarrying. That was the year that two brothers Evan Raud and John R. Williams immigrated from Wales and purchased a small tract of land along Hunt's Creek near the present site of Arvonia. These brothers were natives of Caernarvon Shire, Wales, one of the world's foremost slate-producing areas. Following the Williams brothers, many other Welshmen emigrated to Buckingham Co as word filtered back to their homeland that prospects in VA were very good indeed. By 1881 the williams quarries employed 100 laborers, most of them Welsh. These workmen soon embellished Buckingham's houses, barns, woodsheds, even privies, with slate roofs. Amid all this, the Welsh families, with surnames such as Williams, Jeffrey, Thomas, Jones, Pierce, and Davis, gave the area a new name. The area of the slate quarries became known as Arvon, a derivative of Caernavon, the native shire of the Williams brothers and many of the other settlers. The Williams brothers constructed impressive homes in the Arvon area as advertisements for their slate products. Bryn Arvon (bryn is Welsh for hill) was built by Evan Williams, and Gwyn Arvon (gwyn is Welsh for white) was built by John Williams. These homes make extensive use of slate for roofing, sheathing, flooring, mantels, and other uses. The Arvonia Memorial Cemetery contains the graves of many of those Welshmen who gave their talents and energy working with Buckingham slate. Most of the slate tombstones were crafted by one of their own, Morris R. Jones. On the intricately carved headstones, the names and dates are carved in English, the epitaphs are carved in Welsh. ************* This was in a 1992 newsletter. Sometimes it pays to be a "pack-rat"! Ruby Talley Smith