Note, June 2018: This bio needed to be reworked. Of all the quiet-living children in his family, George seems to have been the rebel in his time. This was discovered quite by accident.

In trying yet again to find info about his life, I came across articles from Allentown papers casting him in a most unflattering light, and thought despite the name match, it could not be him as there wasn't evidence he had lived there. But not long after, I came across records of the Eastern State Penitentiary linked to the crime, and his sister's name and address are given as a family contact. That took away all doubt that this offender was one of the family.

In June of 1925, at age 51 (described as a gardener), he and a man named John E. Fretz of Emmaus (age 62, variously called a nurse or a cigar maker) did something so heinous that the newspaper refused to name it. They were arrested near a carnival at 10th and Washington streets in Allentown. At the trial, anyone under the age of 21 was made to leave the courtroom. I was thinking rape, gang rape or even child rape. Finally his prison admission record spelled it out: sodomy. Committed for 3-6 years, George began serving time on October 7, 1925. Work detail, and solitary confinement. Oh, the price of being gay in 1925.
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Son of Jonas and Susanna King/Koenig Schell, George married Margaret Orwig. It seems they were the parents of Orwig Schell and Luther Schell. As early as 1895, Margaret was noted in the Lewisburg Journal as visiting with the Schell family, so the couple was not newly introduced when they wed in 1898. It had been suspected George was buried with Margaret at Hartleton Cemetery, but it's since been found that they separated or divorced, so when he was found at rest elsewhere, it made sense.

When one of his children married, George was noted on the marriage license to be a musician. His death certificate calls him a day laborer. (The prison records say he'd been an apprenticed barber, and worked most recently as a butler and attendant.)

George passed at the local Evangelical Home where he had been two years.

Online genealogy lists his dates as born Jan. 6, 1870 and died Feb. 14, 1951. This info comes from a large family Bible that is usually a decent source, but is at odds with his death certificate. Even the info from this certificate saying he was born May 1868 is suspect, as it is doubtful he and his sister were born the same year, a few months apart. 1870 would actually work with the other siblings' birthdates. The prison records give his birthdate as January 1, 1871.

George and Margaret married in October 1898, a month after their first son Orwig Jonas Schell was born. By the 1900 census they live in Norristown and by 1901 their son Luther was born. By 1910 and 1920, Margaret is living back home with her parents Charles and Alice Orwig, and on neither census is either of her sons with her . At the same time, George by 1910... seems creepily to be a man of the right approximate age but named George L Schell, and living with a wife named Ada in Union County, Buffalo Township. Exactly where George's family used to be. There's no son Luther in his or his ex's homes. And it almost has to be our George because his profession is barber, perfect for his training. The census claims he and Ada have been married 14 years and have zero children. Curious. 1920, George is living in Allentown with son Luther, and reporting himself as widowed. First wife Margaret is alive, so did wife #2 Ada actually die or is George making it up as he goes for the census takers?

I'm not sure who is right, so let's put this out there and investigate further: Going by a tree on Ancestry, there was a George Schell (1872-1927) married to Ada Smith Schell (1873- ? ). This George did, in fact, die in January of 1927 in Vicksburg Union County of pneumonia and was a county commissioner. His obit names him as the son of Jonathon and Susanna Schell (bingo on these names), both deceased at his death. He was born February 18, 1872 in Vicksburg and on March 10, 1896 he married Ada. His survivors are named and this is where it all crumbles since none match known family: brother William Schell of Williamsport, sisters Jennie Schroyer of Newark, Mrs. Anna Yost and Misses Lizzie and Lottie Schell all of Lewisburg. So no, this man isn't our George Schell in mufti. In fact, by 1927, our George Schell was in jail, as he'd been for two years when remanded in October of 1925.

So thus far, I can't account for where son Luther was in 1910, what parent or grandparents were raising him, but as said, in 1920 father George and son Luther are living together, George reporting as widowed.

Five years later, 1925 would see son Luther get married... and just a few months later, see George go to jail.

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Strange punch lines:

George's lover John E Fretz had some kind of relationship with him, for a night or possibly longer. It's sad to note that Fretz's death certificate notes that while not a cause of his death, Fretz had syphilis.

Fretz's obit noted when he died in 1943 that he had lived for 15 years (probably since emerging from jail) with P. P. Hagan of Niantic. I know P. P. Hagan well but didn't know he was connected to Niantic. What a small world that the lover of my great grandma's brother lived with the couple who started the Lutheran camp my cousins and I attended, Camp Hagan.