The Markow Family Tree

Sylvan Klewans Closes Main Store Ending 83 Year Operation By SLOAN ODONNELL LOCK HAVEN - This week for the first time in 83 years there won't be a member of the Klewans family selling shoes at the store on 21 E. Main St. Sylvan Klewans, a son of the founder, has closed the business and with his wife Biola will move to southern California about April 1. Klewans says that giving up the business and leaving Lock Haven have produced mixed emotions. One bright spot, he says, is the fact that he won't have to face the threat of a flood this spring when the ice on the Susquehanna River melts. He has had his fill of floods, he says. During the time Klewans was associated with the business, flood waters came into the store four times. On two occasions there was only a couple of feet of water and no merchandise was damaged. But he has vivid memories of the disaster that struck Lock Haven and his own store in the two major floods of 1936 and 1972. In both floods there was about eight feet of water in the store, Klewans says. He says the loss in the 1936 flood was $45,000. He claims that the 1972 flood was worse because motor boats running by the store caused waves that broke the store windows, opening up the premises to looters. He says that his loss in the Hurricane Agnes flood was $95,000, even though he was able to save some merchandise. The business has always been at the Main St. location. It was established in 1874 by his Bernhart S. "Barney" Klewans, who came to the United States by himself from Estonia at the age of 11 to live with an older brother in Fall Creek, Pa. Barney Klewans had completed four years in the "Gymnasium" when he left to come to America. At the time he could speak only German. To learn English after he got to he would attend gospel camp meetings and a variety of churches to listen to the preachers and then look up the words he heard in a dictionary he had bought. According to his son, the elder Klewans didnt let being a devout Jew interfere with his education. While still in his teens, Barney Klewans left his brother's home and went to Sharrut, Pa., where he worked for a Culls family who owned a store. Here he learned clerking and bookkeeping. Later he moved to Renovo for a year before moving permanently to Lock Haven in 1894. Though he was only 20 years, Barney Klewans purchased a store room on E. Main St. where the store has been located ever since. Originally the store housed a harness shop. The elder Klewans enlarged the store and built apartments over it. At first he sold only shoes. In 1929 he added a ladies' ready-to-wear department. In 1939 he enlarged the store a second time, extending it the full length of the lot to the alley in back. In 1900 Barney Klewans married Fannie Hallem of Harrisburg. There were four children: Morris, Robert, Sylvan and Ruth. Morris, a Lock Haven attorney, died in 1973. Ruth Klewans Cherim now resides in Wynnewood, Pa. Robert and Sylvan became partners in the store with their father in 1934. Sylvan and his father bought Roberts share when he left to start a business of his own in 1951. He is now a Lock Haven realtor. Sylvan Klewans is married to the former Biola Oliner of Baltimore. Mrs. Klewans assisted her husband in running the store for 18 years with responsibility for the ladies' ready-to-wear department. This phase of the business was abandoned after the 1972 flood and Mrs. Klewans no longer played an active role in the store operations. Klewans says he was the frist man drafted in Clinton County after the start of World War II in Europe in 1939 and before the United States entered the war after Pearl Harbor in 1941. When he was inducted early in 1940, Klewans said there was so little that he had to hitchhike to Williamsport to take his pre-induction physical examination. He said the doctor asked him if he knew Dr. Edward Hoberman, chatted a while with him and then pronounced him fit for duty. He was inducted into the U.S. Army and sent to Texas for training in the infantry. Klewans served seven years in the armed forces including a tour of duty in Europe. He was a staff sergeant when he was mustered out in 1947. While he was in Texas Klewans joined the Masons and became associated with the Dall Consistory. Later he transferred his membership to the Williamsport Consistory. He is a member of the Clinton County Shrine Club and the Jaffa Temple in Altoona. Both Mr. and Mrs. Klewans belong to Temple B'nai Brith in Kingston. They became affiliated with this synagogue, they say, when their son Leonard was attending Wyoming Seminary. Leonard, their only son, is now a certified public accountant residing in Santa Monica, California. The Klewans are planning to move about april 1 to southern California where they will be closer to their son. Klewans emphasized the fact that he is not retiring and expects to obtain employment in the area. He says he has "several leads" he plans to follow. Last week while this reporter waited to interview Klewans, two customers turned back as they left the store to call out "We're gonna miss you, fella!" It is leaving old friends and longtime customers that counterbalances the pleasure of not having to face a flood threat in the spring of 1977, said Klewans.

Biola O. Klewans Biola O. Klewans, of Mill Hall, died Sunday, Dec. 18, 1994, at home after a long illness. Born Jan. 14, 1919, in Baltimore, Md., she was a daughter of Samuel and Lydia Buckner Oliner. On Sept. 26, 1948, she married Sylvan S. Klewans, who died June 25, 1991. She graduated from Baltimore City High School. Mrs. Klewans was a homemaker and assisted her husband in operating Klewans Store in Lock Haven, until their retirement in 1977. She was a member of Beth Shalom Synagogue, Kingston, a past member of Order of the Eastern Star Ivanhoe Chapter No. 28, Jersey Shore. She is survived by one son, Leonard S. Klewans of Santa Monica, Calif.; one brother, Joseph Oliner of Baltimore, Md. Friends will be received from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Helt Funeral Home, 109 W. Church St., Lock Haven. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home, with Rabbi David Mivasair of the Congregation Brit Shalom, State College, officiating. Burial will be at Beth Yehuda Cemetery, Lock Haven. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society and the Arthritis Foundation, both in care of Helt Funeral Home, 109 W. Church St., Lock Haven, Pa. 17745.

Sylvan Selig Klewans Sylvan Selig Klewans, 74, of 325 N. Water St., Mill Hall, died at Lock Haven Hospital at 12:06 p.m. Tuesday (June 25, 1991). He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II. He was a member of the Al Malaikah Temple of Los Angeles, Calif. He was a life member of the Lock Haven Elks Lodge #182. He was a member of the R. W. Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons since 1939. He was a member of the Labelle Vallee Lodge #232 F. and A.M., Jersey Shore. He was a member of the Coudersport Consistory. He graduated from Lock Haven High School in 1934. He was an owner of the Klewans Store in Lock Haven, until his retirement in 1977. He was born in Lock Haven Aug. 19, 1916, a son of the late Bernard Klewans and Fannie Hallem Klewans. He was married on Sept. 26, 1948 to Biola Olimner Klewans, who survives in Mill Hall. He is also survived by a son: Leonard Samuel of Santa Monica, Calif.; a sister: Ruth Cherim of Shillington; and a brother: Robert of Lock Haven. Funeral services will be at the Helt Funeral, Home, 109 W. Church S St., Lock Haven, Friday at 1 p.m., with Rabbi Norman Singer officiating. Burial will be at the Beth Yehuda Cemetery, Lock Haven. Friends will be received at the funeral home Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. There will be an Elks service at 7 p.m. and a Mason service at 8 p.m. at the funeral home. Memorial contributions may be made the e Shriners Crippled Children's Clinic, c/o the funeral home.