Clodfelter Pioneer Days
A Collection of True Stories and Events about the Descendants of Solomon Clodfelter
Two cousins sat down in 1993 and finally did what families always mean to do: they started writing the stories down. Pioneer Indiana, faith and farming, humor and hardship — the way the family actually lived. Reissued in 2026, exactly as they wrote it.
The Story Behind the Book
You know that conversation every family means to have but never quite does?
Hubert Clodfelter and Malcolm Romine sat down in 1993 and had it. They started collecting the stories that had been passed down for generations among the descendants of Solomon Clodfelter — pioneer Indiana, farming and faith, humor and hardship. A family that had walked from North Carolina to Putnam County in 1830 and put down roots that would hold for nearly two centuries.
"The book was finished under a shadow. Shortly after the project began, Hubert was diagnosed with cancer. He kept providing information and encouragement, determined to see the family's oral history preserved."
First published in 1995, Clodfelter Pioneer Days is a work of love and memory. The compilers focused on 1830 to 1940 — rural Indiana as it was actually lived. Union Chapel Methodist and Hebron Christian Church. The Morton store and Portland Mills. Sports days, reunions, agricultural traditions. The Carrington connection and American Indian ancestry. The people who made the family what it was.
This 2026 edition is a faithful reprint. We didn't touch the text, the photographs, the family trees, or the recipes. Hubert and Malcolm did the work. Their voices are the right ones to tell it.
What's Inside
The texture of a family's life, on paper.
The Pioneer Characters
Uncle Wash the pioneer. Uncle Jack the innovator. Uncle Turn the merchant. Aunt Annie the homemaker. The people who built the family, told in stories you'd hear at a kitchen table.
Photographs & Family Trees
Generations of faces and places. Solomon Clodfelter's eight children and forty-five grandchildren, mapped out so you can find yourself somewhere on the page.
Recipes & Recollections
Recipes handed down through generations of kitchens. The bear stories. The reunions. The church traditions of rural Indiana, 1830 to 1940.
The Line Reaches Further Back
From Glattfelden, Switzerland, to Putnam County, Indiana.
The Clodfelters in these pages descend from Hans Peter Glattfelder of Glattfelden, through his son Rudolph, his grandson John (who brought the family from North Carolina to Indiana in 1830), and Solomon — whose eight children and forty-five grandchildren form the heart of the book. The name has worn many spellings across the centuries: Clodfelter, Clotfelter, Glatfelter, Gladfelter, Glotfelty. If your records carry any of them, you're in this book somewhere.
Who This Book Is For
A keepsake for descendants — and for anyone drawn to pioneer Indiana.
- Clodfelter, Clotfelter, Glatfelter, Gladfelter, and Glotfelty descendants
- Genealogists tracing the Hans Peter Glattfelder line
- Indiana history readers and Putnam County researchers
- Families preserving heirlooms and oral history
- Students of 19th-century rural American life
- Anyone who has ever wondered where the name came from
Bring the family's story home.
A faithful 2026 reprint of the 1995 original. Available in hardcover and paperback. Published by the Casper Glattfelder Association of America.
Exclusively distributed by The Curated Quill LLC