The first Welsh settlement in Ohio began on June 29, 1801, when William and Morgan Gwilym purchased land in what is now Morgan Township at the Cincinnati Land Office. Welsh settlers, who had first settled in Pennsylvania in the late eighteenth century, moved westward and settled here in 1802, and the area also became the major terminus for the 1818 migration from Montgomeryshire and Cardiganshire in Wales. A Congregational Church was organized in 1803, with services first held in members' homes or outdoors, and a brick Meetinghouse with a Welsh death door leading to the cemetery was built in 1824 and now serves as the Community House, while the present brick church was built in 1854. A library formed in 1852 was for many years housed in the New London Special School District building that stood on this site. A post office established in 1831 was named for a nearby stream called Paddy's Run after the local name New London was rejected by the Postmaster General. Younger residents, objecting to being called "Paddies" outside the community, pressed for a change, and the community became Glendower in 1886, then again Paddy's Run in 1888 after citizens boycotted the post office in 1887, before the compromise name Shandon was adopted in 1893. From this first Welsh settlement grew Gomer and Venedocia in northwest Ohio and communities in northeastern Indiana, and Welsh communities in east Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin also traced their roots to Paddy's Run. The community was also the birthplace of influential Ohioans including Murat Halstead, journalist and editor known as a war correspondent; Albert Shaw, editor of the Review of Reviews; Dr. Mark Francis, a pioneer in veterinary medicine; and Dr. Edward Francis, a researcher with the U.S. Public Health Service.