Posted by Warren Burge on May 06, 19102 at 13:43:15:
In Reply to: Shivel surname posted by Richard L Shivel on October 29, 19100 at 09:54:24:
: searching for information on Shivel surname, I have some info to share and would like to have more
Note: 1 W.T. Shivel Narrative of 1896:
In the early part of the seventeenth century, a portion of the inhabitants of Belgium, to escape the papal persecution, emigrated to Holland. In those days it was not uncommon for the pages of world's history to be marred by the spirit of persecution and very often were these sad cruelties, without mercy, visited upon the human family through calamities, viewed as they immediately effect their unfortunate victims, are a wonderful shock to the sensitive nerve and arouse the sympathy of all good people, still the final result, as in this case, and the scattering abroad of the saints, on account of persecution, is great good to those who escape, and to the world through them.
The escaped families on this occasion formed the nucleus to one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known. Freedom of thought, freedom of speech an religion, liberty, unheard of before was built upon the ruins of this seemingly down trodden people
Called upon to renounce their faith, pledge themselves to the support of Catholic principles, or forsake the home of their childhood, and the sacred influence of that tender and confiding age, bid adieu to the "Orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wildwood and every loved spot their infancy knew:" say farewell to father, mother and all the loved ones left behind, thus repeating in the history of the page, the faithful Abraham's home leaving -- in obedience to the command of God. "Get Thee up out of thy land and from thy kindred and go into a country which I will show Thee." Surely the Lord was with that people and lead them not only across the imaginary line that separates Belgium from Holland, but across the trackless deep to the Occidental clime. They reached this city of refuge a few years after the Pilgrim fathers took refuge in Holland and about one year after the May Flower set sail for Plymouth Rock. Two years later, 1623, these refugees organized the Dutch West Indian Company. On hundred and ten of this faithful band, led by the same unerring band, sailed across the ocean, landed at New York and made the first settlement, which proved to be a success, at permanent colonization.
Here in their home, in the new world, they opened up their farms, raised their own stock, tilled their own soil, educated their children as best they could, built their own churches and "worshiped God according to the dictates of their own conscience."
The wheels of time rolled on, years went by, accessions to this infant colony were frequently made through the efforts of the West India Company and it became a large, prosperous and influential colony, but alas, persecutions again arose, not from the same source this time, but originated with those who themselves came west to escape their own sad experiences, they were as cruel and relentless as were the Catholics in Belgium. Any many citizens of this colony had again to seek refuge, and led by the hand of God, found shelter from the raging storm in a new colony, organized by Wm. Penn, under the principles of Religious Toleratism. With theses grand principles underlying, and this new colony as a nucleus, arose the grandest civilization the world has ever known. All the blessings and the privileges that come to us in this land of the free and home of the brave, which out neighboring nationalities do not enjoy, are the result of these fundamental principles and the efforts of his new colony. Under this grand system of home rule, peace reigned unmolested. Indians stayed their cruel hands and lost their thirst for blood. Prosperity marked the course of this entire colony and especially that of the little settlement denominated the Pennsylvania Dutch, who having three times left friends and kindred to escape the wrong of prosecution were now fully competent to appreciate the blessed privileges that came to them in their new home. Year after year rolled away, generation succeeded generation and this settlement became a powerful factor in the affairs of the colony whose founder, Wm. Penn, and god- father, Fox, had long been gathered to home to their father, yet they still spake to that people and encouraged them to stick close to the precepts of that grand man for whom the colony was named.
Thomas E. Shivel, next to the oldest living brother, furnishes information which he is assured is well authentication, through stories related to him by his grandfather, the Fredic Shivel, above referred to; and which puts a different construction upon the origin of the family name. This places the birth, the christening and the education of Fredric in France; and while yet a very young man, on account of Huguenot persecutions, his lot was cast among the Germans, with whom at a much later date than previously stated, he came to America and settled with the Dutch in Pennsylvania, having previously become familiar with the German language, which he ever afterwards Spake. Her he met the beautiful Dutch lass, Miss Margaret Lightner, courted her in Dutch, married her in Dutch ceremony and lived with her for seventy-two years, as a Dutchman. This view was corroborated by the testimony of John Shivel, the oldest son of Fredric Shivel and Texas Sam (Samuel Shivel WLB), oldest son of said John Shivel, The later and Thomas F. Shivel, the last named brother of the writer (W.T. Shivel WLB), entered into a contract to set up a family history, but death intervened and prevents the accomplishment of the enterprise.
Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred fifty-two (1752 WLB) had dawned upon their quiet settlement and the advent of a little stranger was announced in the Shivel family, one of the original West India Company families, who in due time was christened Fredric Shivel. (Born 1752, Married Margaret Lightner 1774) Some years later a fond mother, in the Lightner family, presented her husband with a pledge of their mutual affection in the shape of a bouncing biped of the feminine gender and her name was Margaret Lightner.
These children grew in stature and, it is to be supposed, in wisdom and in favor with their parents, relatives, friends and especially in favor with one another, until 1774, when they were untied in matrimony. (Fredric Shivel Married Margaret Lightner in 1774)
Soon after the marriage in Pennsylvania of this couple, Fredric Shivel and Margaret Lightner, they joined a colonization company, boarded a keel boat and set out for the then wild country of Kentucky. As they went down the Ohio they placed a sentinel on top to watch for Indians. On one occasion the sentinel was knocked off by a limb, and fell on Margaret Lightner Shivel's copper kettle, leaving it in a shameless wreck. Reaching the mouth of the Kentucky river, they disembarked and traveled overland to Lexington, Kentucky, then a small village. Here the happy young couple settled, but the patriotic spirit of the young man, just at the breaking of the Revolutionary War, prompted him to leave his beautiful bride with colonial friends and enlist, as a soldier, in the struggle for Independence.
No attempt will be made in this family memoir to recount the sense of privation on the field, in the camp nor at the home, with the solder's loved ones left behind. Suffice it to say, he served faithfully under the banner of Washington till the close of the war, working at his trade most of the time, making powder kegs for the Army Ordinance Supplies.
Fredric Shivel returned to his home, in Lexington, Kentucky, at the close of the (Revolutionary WLB) war and took up his trade, at which he worked in the same shop twenty five-thirty years. He raised a family of eight children, five girls and three boys, viz: Elizabeth Shivel Thompson, Julia Shivel Scott, Margaret Shivel Patterson, John Shivel, George Shivel (who later married Nancy Cruthers Scott), Samuel Shivel, Rachel Shivel Kerlin, Catherine Shivel Noe.