ABRAHAM Matthews is remembered as one of the founding fathers of a Welsh colony in Argentina in 1865.

Abraham was born in Llanidloes in 1832 and worked as a craftsman and preacher before meeting Michael Jones, the principal of Bala College in 1856.

Jones had visited Welsh settlements in America and in 1861 had hosted a meeting of men who had discussed founding a new Welsh colony with Patagonia in Argentina mooted as a potential site.

Abraham spent time as a minister in Merthyr Tydfil where he married Gwenllian Thomas.

Abraham shared his dreams of Patagonia with his wife and brother-in-law John Thomas, both of who joined Abraham in boarding the Mimosa ship in Liverpool in a party of 150 bound for Argentina in May, 1865.

However the settlers were dismayed upon the discovery of a barren and inhospitable land.

They had expected Patagonoa to have green and fertile lowlands like Wales but instead arrived at a land with no water or forests and the settlers were forced to dig the soft rock of the cliffs for shelter.

Help had been provided by the native Teheulche Indians who shared their knowledge with the settlers and their own scant provisions which had encouraged the desperate settlers to endure.

Abraham became seriously ill during this time as the settlers made their way 40 miles across the pampas to a place which they called Camwy Valley.

Life had been no less forgiving inland and by the end of 1866, Abraham was part of a party who made the trek to Buenos Airies to seek government assistance to relocate their colony to Santa Fe.

The Argentinian Government pressed the party to spend another year in Patagonia.

Abraham had argued to abandon Patagonia the following year with a majority of settlers also agreeing with him.

As Abraham and two other men headed back to Beanos Aries to procure ship the men had met fellow settler Lewis Jones who had succeeded in changing Abraham’s mind and return to Camwy Valley.

Abraham convinced the settlers to endure for one more year.

Ever after Abraham had been a chief figure as the colony began to flourish and was known as Esgob y Wladfa, the Bishop of the settlement, with Welsh the dominant language among the settlers.

By 1873, Abraham had realised the settlement needed new blood.

He ventured to Wales and to Welsh colonies in the United States of America where he gave lectures on Patagonia.

Two years later the population had trebled with Welsh immigrants from America and Wales making a new home in Patagonia.

Abraham continued to be a prominent figure in Argentinian politics though arrested in 1899 for defying a military decree which had ruled all men should be drilled on Sundays.

He died not long afterwards and was buried in Moriah cemetery where he had been a minister for 20 years.