Clouser
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Clouser-Niemeyer-Bistline Family
This illustrates the genealogy that led to the connection of these three famous Longwood families. ____________________ _____________| Josiah Benjamin | | Elizabeth || Clouser | <-m-> | Clouser || 1838-1920 |(cousins)| 1846-1910 ||____________________| | |_____________| | _______________ |________________ | Fred Niemeyer | <-m-> | Frances Clouser || 1864-1924 | | | 1870-1953 ||_______________| | |_________________| | ___________|___ ____________ | Addie | | John Aaron | | Neimeyer | <-m-> | Bistline | | 1889-1965 | | 1889-1978 | |_____________| |____________|
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Josiah Benjamin Clouser
1838-1920 Concern for the health of his wife (Eliza), Josiah B. Clouser moved his family from Pennsylvania to Longwood in 1881. He saw the town in newspaper ads placed by town founder Edward Henck. He was a master carpenter, who built many of the early Longwood buildings from 1883 onward. The two homes where he lived (Clouser House and Clouser Cottage) still exist today in the central historic district. He also built the Henck House and many other still standing residences in the district. He built other notable buildings like the Longwood Hotel, Altamonte Chapel (originally Lake Brantley Union Chapel),…
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Longwood Inn
Longwood founder Edward Warren Henck commissioned Josiah B. Clouser to construct the hotel in 1883. This was Henck’s second hotel in Longwood, having just completed the first (“Original Longwood Hotel”) on East Warren Avenue earlier that year. This large frame Vernacular-style building was mainly completed in 1885. Orlando realtor John Sinclair listed it for sale that year at a price that was a “large sacrifice.” Sinclair represented that it could be completed within 30 days. It was purchased by Carlos Cushing, who finished the construction in 1886. Cushing named it “The Waltham,” after a district in Boston. Cushing lived on…
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Dunbar’s Garage and Clouser’s Cabinet Shop
The core of the front section was constructed in 1892 as Dunbar’s Garage. For 38 years, it was the shop of John H Dunbar. He did various repairs and built things out of wood, including fruit crates. John and his daughter Elsie owned this shop and lived next door in the JD & NJ Lewis House, where the Longwood Community Building now sits. The original part of the house is the section under the second-floor loft windows. The other wings were later additions, added at various stages after the small shop was converted into a residence. John was born in…
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Clouser House
Construction of this beautiful home started in 1882 and it was completed over the next seven years. It was the second residence in Longwood for master carpenter Josiah B. Clouser and family. Their first home was the hastily built Clouser Cottage, which still exists immediately behind it. This house was a much better exhibition of his skills as a craftsman. The family moved into this still incomplete home in 1885, eager to get out of the smaller cottage. Phyllis and Tom Kidder purchased the home in 1975 for $25,000 from Betty McLeod and Dorothy Pearson. They shopped weekends to find fitting…
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Tunis Lewis House
This home was built in 1914 constructed by Daniel Clouser (the younger brother of Josiah B. Clouser) for his mother, Sallie Clouser Lewis. She was a widow at the time and her son, Tunis Lewis, lived with her. During the twenties, Sallie remarried to prominent local Charles Entzminger. Tunis Lewis was in his early twenties when they moved into the house. He was well known around Longwood as a notary, tax collector, and telephone operator. In extremely poor taste by modern standard, minstrel (blackface) comedy performances were popular in local talent expeditions. Tunis was noted as the town’s regular blackface…
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Clouser Cottage
Josiah Benjamin Clouser lived in Pennsylvania with his wife and two children. When his wife’s health began to fail, doctors recommended that she move to a warmer-weather state to recuperate (a standard medical suggestion at the time). Being a carpenter by trade and seeing an advertisement by Longwood founder Edward Henck that they needed a master builder, he answered the call. In 1880, the family relocated to Longwood. Upon arriving, Clouser found the house provided to him was infested with fleas. He was disgusted and refused to stay in it after the first night. Hastily, Clouser built this temporary home…