Before we find George Candee in Toledo we find him in a little place called Paddy's Run.

"In 95 years the pastors numbered 18. Beginning with a membership of 13 in 1803, at the end of the first quarter of a century, it numbered about 90. By 1850 the membership was over 400!" (202 OHIO HISTORY, Volume 16).

In reading about the Congregational Church at Paddy's Run, we get some more clues about George Candee...and also about Paddy's Run as a spot in America where Welsh emigrants/immigrants gathered in those settler days of the late 1700s, early 1800s. About 22 miles northwest of Cincinnati on a small stream called Paddy's Run (a village named Shandon in 1907) a few Welshmen hailing from Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire, North Wales..."squatted on the east bank of the Miami River near the mouth of the Blue Rock Creek until the government should survey the west bank of the river and open the country for settlement" (199).

Those first settlers included Ezekial Hughes, Edward Bebb, William Gwilym, Andrew Scott, John Vaughn, David Francis and others. By 1804 it is where we find James Shields from Ireland (educated at Glasgow University and elected to Congress in 1828). In this OHIO HISTORY--a book form of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Quarterly, Volume 16, No. 1, of January 1907--we also hear about Reverend John T. Griffiths of Edwardsville, Pennsylvania, "the most useful writer of Welsh history living in America" (footnote, pg. 198). Griffiths, for example, compiled the letters, diaries, sermons, and speeches of Morgan J. Rhys. We are also urged to read: HISTORY OF PADDY'S RUN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH by Reverend C.A. Gleason.

Of the Welsh settlers first to homestead in Paddy's Run, it is said they "passed through experiences similar to those of other pioneers of their times. The opening of the public road from Cincinnati to the Miami furnished a market for their produce at Cincinnati, and the fact that that city was located along a great artery of traffic made the market a good one. The 22 miles to market had no terrors for the Welshman. As a result, the earliest settlers became landowners, their lands became more and more valuable with the increase of facilities and the descendants of the pioneers are for the most part well-to-do, if not wealthy" (200).

Apparently Llanbrynmair in North Wales was known to be one of the most moral and religious places in Wales and the authors write, "When they came to America they did not leave behind their Bibles or religious tenets, and with the ring of the ax they mingled the sound of thanksgiving and praise. The cabin preceded but a short interval the house of worship; indeed, from the beginning it served as a habitation and a house of worship as well" (201).

 It was an Englishman, J.W. Brown who was at first an itinerant preacher in the county and then gave the first sermon in Paddy's Run (1802). The first meetings were held in the open and in 1803 a committee was formed to draft a constitution and articles of faith.

And it wasn't until 1823 that a building was specifically built for the church. Finished in 1825, it served the people until a new church was built in 1855.

By 1850 the membership was over 400 people according to Ohio History (pg. 202).

George Candee is mentioned as being a pastor in this church sometime after 1843, possibly in the 1870s. And he wasn't the only man to spend some time at Paddy's Run before moving elsewhere. "Scores of men have gone out from this Welsh settlement to gain prominence in their chosen professions" (203).



George and Eliza gave birth to their daughter Gertrude while at Paddy's Run.  That was on the 2nd of March 1874. I found this book online at Google Books. There's even a picture of the church!