MY ANCESTORS WERE FRIENDS OF BETSY ROSS

The history of my family in America

I’ve said that with the current situation, we need to know who we are - who we came from and why they came here and what they did. We should do it to stay in touch with the real country, not the made-up TV bullshit of a TV bullshit artist.

This past month, I was given the documentary history of my family in this country. It consists of a small notebook created a century ago by my grandfather, Dr. Louis K. Cleaver, DDS, from extensive research he did in the archives of the Quaker Church and the archives of Pennsylvania as well as in several family bibles. It covers the Cleaver and Thomas familes, my paternal line from beginning to my father. There is also research in a separate large notebook done by my mother 60 years ago, that covers the Weist and McKelvey families, my maternal line.

I now know the names of all of them. I know who they married and when. I know the names of all the children, who they married and who their children were. I know what they did in their lives. I know what their contemporaries thought of them. It’s remarkable how many of them were remembered by those who knew them thus: “His word was his bond.”

I know that the family goes back in America to 1684, when Peter Klever, a Quaker from Frankfurt-am-Main came to the colony of Pennsylvania as part of an organized group from that city, the Frankfort Land Company, founded by “ten gentlemen living in Frankfort on Mayne.”

I know that Peter Klever - my tenth great-grandfather - and Catherine Shoemaker, both immigrants from Germany, “Did accomplish their Marriage in Unity with friends” in the Abingdon Friends monthly meeting at Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, on March 27, 1695.

The Abingdon Friends meeting house, originally built in 1683, rebuilt in 1786

I know that in 1691, Peter Klever applied to be naturalized as a citizen of the colony of Pennsylvania, and that he was among those naturalized by Act of the Colonial Assembly in1708.

I know that Peter and Catherine’s children were:

Christiana, born January 10, 1696.

Peter, born October 28, 1697

Derrick, born February 12, 1700

John, born September 10, 1704

Agnes, born April 25, 1710

Isaac, born November 20, 1713

I know that Christiana Cleaver married William Melchoir on April 20, 1727. Agnes Cleaver married Richard Shoemaker (the Shoemaker and Cleaver families were joined in marriage in five different generations) in Abingdon Friends Meeting on December 27, 1732.

I know that Peter Cleaver Jr. was my ninth great-grandfather. He married Elizabeth Potts, Seamstress, on May 4, 1722 at the Abingdon Friends meeting. Peter Cleaver Jr. died April 8, 1776.

Their children were:

Mary, born May 26, 1723

John, born December 13, 1724

Isaac, born October 8, 1726

Ezekiel, born November 4, 1729

Peter III, born December 20, 1730

Nathan, born September 14, 1734

Elizabeth, born June 17, 1739

Isaac was my eighth great-grandfather. He and his older brother John and younger brother Ezekiel, became well-known weavers in Bristol Township. Isaac married Ann Lukens “spinster” on January 18, 1751, at the Horsham Friends Meeting.

John, Isaac, Ezekiel and Ezekiel’s son Ezekiel Jr. fought in the Revolutionary War, serving in Captain Tench France’s Company, 1st Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia. Isaac served from 1775-1782, the entire war.

Isaac and Ann’s children were:

Mary, born June 8, 1752

Hannah, born November 23, 1753

Peter, born September 21, 1755

Lydia, born October 17, 1757

Joseph, born October 10, 1759

Isaac Jr., born December 12, 1768

Isaac Jr. was my seventh-great grandfather. He married Rachel Sturgis in 1790 in the Catawissa Friends Meeting.

Isaac Sr. and his brothers became Free Quakers, when the Quakers who had fought in the Revolution, who had been expelled from the “orthodox” Quaker Church, founded their own branch of the Society of Friends in the year after the end of the war. The "Free Quakers" built their own meeting house in Philadelphia, at 5th & Arch Streets in 1783.

The Free Quaker Meeting House in Philadelphia

Among the membership of the Free Quakers was Betsy Ross, leading seamstress in Philadelphia and creator of the first official American flag.

Since my ancestor and his brothers were well-known weavers, it is likely they would have known Betsy Ross before the Revolution, in the course of doing business. They would certainly have known her as fellow members of the Free Quakers.

In 1784, Isaac moved his family to Catawissa, Pennsylvania, a Quaker community founded in 1775. He is recorded as “raising the roof” at the Catawissa Friends Meeting, when it was built in 1791.

Catawissa Friends Meeting House, Catawissa, Pennsylvania

We all come from people who came here for three main reasons: religious liberty, political liberty, and economic opportunity. We need to remember that and to be the guardians of those three freedoms as they come under threat in the coming years. You may or may not know your family as well as I now know mine, but you know they were here, and what they did contributed to the country we live in and love.

As President Biden said last Wednesday, “And now it’s your turn to stand guard...”

(Yes, I think it is cool as hell that my ancestor knew Betsy Ross, one of the icons of the Revolution who we all grew up learning about in American History class. It sets a high bar for me. Also “His word was his bond.”)

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