Drowned on the Way
My last post was about my 4th great-grandmother, Dorothea Koontz, and her first husband, Peter Neufang, who had been captured by the natives as a child. Dorothea’s nickname, apparently, was “Charity,” as seen in at least one of the family letters. Charity’s father, Felix Clodfelter, had faced trials in his childhood as well. He was born to Johann Peter Glattfelder and his wife Salomea on February 2, 1727, in Glattfelden, Eglisau, Switzerland (near Zurich).
The family, which included at least four living children (three had died previously), immigrated to the United States in 1743. But tragedy had marred their journey. On April 21, 1742, Felix’s father, Peter Glattfelder, drowned in the Rhine River. They had only begun their journey to Pennsylvania with Peter’s brother and family, Casper and Elizabeth Glattfelder and their six children. Saddened by their loss, Casper returned to Glattfelden with both families, uncertain about how to proceed. After the birth of yet another child in 1743, it was decided that they would still make the move to the states and bring Peter’s wife and children along. It is not known what happened to Peter’s wife, Salomea. She may have remarried or died along the way. Tragedy struck again when Casper’s wife and new baby died enroute on the second attempt. Nevertheless, Casper arrived in Pennsylvania with both groups of children on August 30, 1743 on the ship called the Francis and Elizabeth. Today, he has a large number of descendants who keep in touch even with our distant cousins in Switzerland through a wonderful website — the Casper Glattfelder Association of America. If you go to this site you can see photos and other details about Glattfelden and the family there.
Our ancestor, Felix Glattfelder, son of the deceased Peter, was sixteen years of age when he arrived in the states. Seven years later, in York Co., Pennsylvania, he married Maria “Sarah” Myers, who had immigrated with her parents and brothers from Wurttemburg, Germany. By 1763, they were living in Davidson Co., North Carolina with several children, including Charity. Somewhere along the line the name spelling was changed to “Clodfelter,” but only for those who went to North Carolina. They had at least nine children, including Jacob, a cabinet maker. Jacob Clodfelter and his son, Joseph, have been credited with making the beautiful pierced tombstones of Davidson County, because one stone in particular was signed by Joseph Clodfelter. The two are known to have been cabinetmakers who used these types of designs in their workwork, and so historians have concluded that they probably made all of the pierced stones, which are found only in Davidson County, North Carolina.
In my next post, I will share with you Felix Glattfelder’s interesting will of 1809.
Sheep Fold