The Clawson Family - A Brief Introduction
My grandmother Edna Mae Laird was born Edna Mae Clawson in 1893. Her father was Allen David Clawson, his father was Allen Clawson (shown above as the photo in the header - from a tintype photo taken in the 1860’s - he died in 1872), his father was Josiah Clawson, and his mother was believed to be the widow of an unnamed Clawson, who died in the 1770’s in southwest Pennsylvania. He was likely of the New Jersey Clawsons, originally of Dutch descent in New York. Some researchers have made links between the New York - New Jersey Clawsons, and our lines in frontier Western Pennsylvania, frontier Ohio, and frontier Indiana. I have not worked extensively on making the links to the early Clawsons, as no one has yet found a document or paper trail proving that connection (although modern DNA testing seems to provide some links). Frank Crosswhite did extensive research on the connections to the New Jersey and New York Dutch Clawsons, and the page on this Clawson tab of his emails details his research on research.
Of all the family lines I have in my ancestry, I have probably done as much research on the Clawsons as any - and it presents the challenge of how to prepare and post information. When I get to posting more information, I will likely focus on the extensive research I have done beginning with the first known Clawson of our line - Garret Clawson on frontier Pennsylvania and go from there. It appears now that Garrett may well have been the son - not the father - of the immigrant and husband of Mary. The page on the Clawsons of frontier Southwest Pennsylvania addresses this issue.
What’s here about the Clawsons
This introductory page, which gives an overview
A page with a series of emails, which are in essence research pages - from Frank Crosswhite between 2005 and 2008. H3ee did extensive work on Clawson ancestry in New Yor and New Jersey, on the Pennsylvania frontier, and in early Ohio. He was a descendant of John Clawson of Preble County. I believe that there was no substitute but putting up his work in its raw form - it’s very helpful to any related Clawson researcher.
A page about The Clawsons in frontier Pennsylvania from 1776 to 1790. All known records of them and a background about their lives.
A page about The Clawsons at Covalt Station in Frontier Ohio - near Cincinnati as it was founded. There are great sources on this, and they are highlighted here. But every reference to the Clawsons from roughly 1790 to 1796 is included here.
A page with a series of tintype photos of the Clawsons from the 1860’s in Fountain County, Indiana. These were on EBay, and found at a sale in Tennesee. There are about half of them marked - including the photo of Allen Clawson at the head of this page - the son of Josiah Clawson. Half are unidentified, but likely either family members or neighbors in Richalnd Township. I have hoped people can help identify the unidentified.
I hope to have more pages as time goes on, on the Clawsons time in Ohio, Indiana, and more. Found in Tennesse, with one
Background
A Garrett was first recorded in a militia unit in the Western Pennsylvania frontier in the mid-1770’s. By 1781, Mary Clawson was in the tax records as a widow - and she was joined by sons Thomas, Peter, Garrett, and John in those tax records as they came of age. Just before the 1790 census, they went down the Ohio River and were early settlers in the Ohio frontier just outside of the brand new town of Cincinnati - with only Garret Jr. remaining in Pennsylvania.
In Ohio the Clawsons lived at a fort called Covalt Station, roughly fifteen miles from Cincinnati, and at the time literally the edge of the frontier. Covalt Station was named for Captain Abraham Covalt, who founded the station with a number of families and was killed just outside the station’s walls in 1791. Thomas Clawson married his daughter Sophia Covalt a few years later. After the Treaty of Greenville, Peter, Thomas, Josiah, and brother-in-law Joseph Shanks (married to Mary Clawson) settled in Centerville in Montgomery County. There is a page under this Clawson tab about the Covalt Station years, and a listing of the records of the Clawsons at that time.
Ca 1824, Thomas, Josiah, and three sons of Peter moved to the area of Fountain County, Indiana. Initially, Joseph Shanks husband of Clawson sister Mary and Matthew Bolin, married to the other Clawson sister, Hannah - were in the Ohio area and were thought, along with extended family members, to move to Indiana. That is where Allen Clawson lived with his mother Sophia Luce Clawson, and his siblings, after Josiah died in 1827. There are Clawsons in Fountain County to this day.
I discovered the following article, from about Josiah Clawsib;s descendants in the Attica Fountain Warren Democrat of August 18, 1921, which describes a reunion of the Josiah Clawson descendants in 1921. My grandparents, Ralph and Edna Clawson Laird, and my great-grandparents, Allen D. Clawson and Sadie Kinney Clawson, were among the atendees. I do not know if some of the facts in the article are correct (such as Allen Clawson owning Portland Arch in Fountain County), but it is a great description of the tie between the generations, and the pride they had in their Clawson ancestry.
I will use different pages on this website to post Clawson research by subject area - as described above. I have already done most of the research on those topics - but for now I am posting this introduction and the pages listed above. I will post additional pages as I get it done, I have found that even though I have done so much research, getting it ready to present gives a new discipline to the information I have.
Over the years I have been researching family history, I have benefited from associations with other Clawson researchers. The late Frank Crosswhite was diligent in his work on the early ancestry and New Jersey connections. [I now have posted his emails on Clawson ancestry and the story of John Clawson of Preble County, Ohio.] Charles Clawson has published a few works on the Pennsylvania Clawsons and their time in Indiana. There are many others, and I hope to credit them as I move through the subjects I worked with them on. There must be thousands of descendants of these early Clawsons.
There also are many research struggles with Clawson ancestry. Yes, the ancestry of the original Clawsons is one. Whether the first Clawson of our line was Garrett, arriving in the western Pennsylvania frontier in the mid-1770’s is another - some researchers believe the progenitor of that line was named John Clawson. Whether the John Clawson of the next generation went to southwest Ohio with the rest of the Clawsons ca 1790 is an additional research question - some descendants believe there were two John Clawsons in this area during this time. Another question is who each of Peter Clawson’s children were - I have made a connection of Margaret “Garrett” of his probate to actually be Margaret Gerrard. Other researchers believed that the Garrett and Peter Clawson who came to Indiana ca 1825 with the other Clawsons were not sons of Peter Clawson. I have proven that this Garrett was a son of Peter. I hope to have all the research on these questions on this website, for all to see, question, and correct. It is a big task, and will be done piece by piece - and the website will have gone live without all these questions addressed here yet. But I hope to pose the complete information over time.