John Lowry Morgan Owen (cntd.)
In 1837
Lewis Edwards
had helped to found a school for Calvanistic Ministers in Bala, which, towards the end of that century, had become the Calvinistic Methodist College for north Wales and had relocated to Bangor, though it retained the name, Athrofa'r Bala
. In August 1907, The Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald and Northern and South Wales Independent reported that 34 of the college's students had sat the examination for the ministry and that Jack was one of the 23 who had passed; the examiner's report was critical of the standard of Welsh from some of the students, fluency in which was deemed important by the college. The article stated that Jack was of Carneddi, Bethesda, Carneddi being a small community just north of Bethesda. It has been said of the above-mentioned Lewis Edwards that he may fairly be called one of the makers of modern Wales. Through his hands there passed generation after generation of preachers, who carried his influence to every corner of the principality.
In fact, his influence spread much further, with gradutaes such as Jack travelling abroad as missionaries. Jack and his sister, Sally, sailed to Chile in 1906
(details
on Sally's page) and on the ship’s manifest Jack was listed as a missionary.
If the report in the Gwalia, 16 Jan. 1906 is accurate, then he was actually a clerk with a Pwlhelli solicitor, Cledwyn Owen, until he left for Chile:
YMADAWIADAU.-Yr wythnos ddiweddaf ym adawodd Mr J. L. M. Owen, clerc yn swyddfa Mr Cledwyn Owen, a mab i'r diweddar Barch. Elias Owen, M.A., Llan-y-blodwel, am Chili. Bydd colled fawr mewn llawer cylch ar ei ol, yn enwedig yn nglyn a'r clwb cricket a clwb y bel droed. -Aeth hefyd Mr Burridge oddiyma i Oldham. Gyda Mr Cledwyn Owen y dygwyd ef i fyny yn gyfreithiwr.
Translation: DEPARTURES: Last week Mr J. L. M. Owen, a clerk in the office of Mr Cledwyn Owen and son of the late Rev. Elias Owen, M.A., Llan-y-blodwel, left for Chile. He will be sadly missed in many spheres, especially in connection with the cricket and the football clubs. Mr Burridge also left here to go to Oldham. Mr Cledwyn Owen was training them as lawyers. >