George Craft Clewell homestead

Homestead of George Craft CLEWELL (1726-1793) in Schoeneck, Northampton Co., Pennsylvania.

Source of image unknown.

From Arne Clouse's "Genealogy of John Clouse and His Wife Tempy Miller":

"The hegira of the Protestant families soon continued to Baden in Germany and another stop was made at Auerbach in that province. Here Francois Clavel and Louise Frache were married in 1718 and their sons (two) were born. The husband died in 1730. About a year later the widow married Johannes G'Fallern and 1737 the family, taking ship from Amsterdam, sailed for America. A tradition says that the husband was drowned at sea and no further mention is made of him. The family in Baden had become members of the Reformed Church but on coming to America, through close association, they became members of the Moravian Church and in that communion the majority of the family remains today. Here the two sons, the oldest seventeen and the youngest eleven, became "redemptioners" (that is they were "sold" for five years service to pay for their passage to America which cost about $50.00 in the money of today....
Elizabeth's father, George Craft Clewell, became the servant of a button maker in Philadelphia and learned that trade. After their period of servitude they all settled in Northampton Co., Pa. And became prosperous citizens. Here is recorded a peculiar coincidence. In Baden they were neighbors of Johannes Keuchle. Both families came to America in the same ship and settled in the same neighborhood. Keuchle was a widower and had two daughters and the Clavel family consisted of a widow and her two sons. Keuchle married the widow and his two daughters married the two Clavel boys. Franz, the older had three sons and nine daughters and George had nine sons and three daughters. Both Franz and George died of Dropsy, the former at the age of seventy-eight and the latter at the age of sixty-seven. Both men prospered to a remarkable degree considering the day and opportunities. Franz left an estate of $15,000 and one of $9,000 was left by George. The mother and her sons are buried in the graveyard at Schoeneck and their head-stone inscriptions are given in the appendix as is also the obituary of George's wife Anna Keuchle Clewell. The complexion and temperament of the Clewells showed their Gallic origin. They were a very dark haired and black eyed race. Their vivacity of disposition and temper, their versatility and eccentricity, indicate that they descended from the Latin or Celtic race rather than from the phlegmatic Germans. Our ancestor George appeared to possess more of these characteristics than his brother. He was a quick tempered man of many and diverse interests. A city man in his youth he later became an Indian trader and then a farmer, and as his home was on the frontier, he was a medicine man and a tooth puller for the Indians and for his neighbors."