I came across a little more information about Jesse Claywell that I wanted to pass along to genealogists researching the Claywell name. All of the information is from the History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Volume 3 by John Newton Boucher.
Although the referenced segment deals with one of Jesse’s sons, Shadrach, it does fill a gap concerning Jesse’s first wife, who I did not have a name or place of death for. According to the book, Jesse married Hannah Umphers, and in 1825 Jesse moved the family to Sagamon County, Illinois (which was a frontier portion of the country at the time). They lived their for ‘a short period of time,’ before the family moved back east to Tennessee.
While in Tennessee Hannah died. I still do not know the cause — or the year — of her death.
In 1831, Jesse moved north, returning with the family to Cumberland County, Ky. where his father, Shadrach, lived. As I wrote earlier, while living in Cumberland County, Jesse married Percy Reed — so this should place the marriage somewhere in 1831/1832 because in 1833, Jesse moves the family back to Sagamon County (near Springfield, Illinois) where he remains until his death in 1852.
For those interested in the family line of Jesse’s son Shadrach, the book continues with Shadrach’s story — speaking briefly about Shadrach’s career as a stagecoach driver and mail carrier. Shadrach is described as a ‘universally esteemed… man of competence.’
The vignette also notes Shadrach owned 422 acres at the time of his death.
Charlie R. Claywell 