Clabbernong was the name of a family that lived in and around New Zebedee, Michigan and Capharnaum County at the turn of the 20th Century. Notable members of the family were Jedediah and his great-nephew Elihu; “the family had been farmers for generations, and they used to own hundreds of acres between New Zebedee and Homer” [The Beast Under the Wizard’s Bridge; 10].

Jedediah was rumoured to be a wicked magician: “at night people passing by saw strange lights and heard eerie sounds” coming from his farmhouse [Beast; 10]. He presumably lived alone until the parents of his great-nephew, Elihu, died, after which Elihu came to live with Jedediah. Jedediah was at least 75 years old [Beast; 78] when he died December 21, 1885 – the same night a mysterious meteorite crashed onto his farm [Beast; 11] . Following his death, Elihu burnt his grand-uncle belongings, had the body cremated and the ashes “pinned to the bottom [Beast; 106]” of Wilder Creek, and abandoned the farm on his way to becoming a successful businessman. Even though it was assumed Jedediah had taught Elihu sorcery, Mrs. Zimmermann doesn’t remember Elihu associating much with magic [Beast; 13]; this sort-of missteps around her earlier claim that Elihu was a “part-time warlock” [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 100].

In 1892, Elihu offered to fully finance the demolition of the old wooden bridge and installation of a new iron bridge over Wilder Creek. Local legends of the time said that Elihu “melted the meteorite down and mixed it into the iron [Beast; 13]” used for the new bridge. Elihu became a rich, prominent citizen of New Zebedee and died of pneumonia in 1947 at age 84.

A number of years after Elihu’s death, Jedediah’s Mystic Journal was discovered on the Clabbernong property by Lewis Barnavelt. Hidden away in an old storm cellar, the holograph revealed Jedediah’s fascination with the coming of the Red Star, an astronomical event thought to be a bridge to the dimension of the Great Old Ones, an ancient race of creatures, that had been banished millennia ago. Part of the ritual involved a sacrifice (Elihu’s parents [Beast; 65]) with the end result being Jedediah’s transformation into a Great OId One. But “something went blooey with the spell” [Beast; 137] and the creature that came to Earth riding on the meteorite [Beast; 150] merged with the cremated remains of Jedediah in the waters of Wilder Creek – yet kept at bay for sixty years due to the magical properties of the iron bridge.

Naming

While Brad Strickland created – or perhaps envisioned or interpreted – the Clabbernong family history, Bellairs first mentioned the characters in passing in The House with a Clock in its Walls when Lewis, his uncle, and Mrs. Zimmermann are chased across the iron bridge [House; 100]. As such, Bellairs’ names evoke the Bible similarly to his other minor characters.

• Elihu is Biblical name, a character in the Book of Job who was one of Job's friends; the name is of Hebrew origin and means "my God is He."
• Jedediah is ancient Hebrew name meaning "Friend of God” and the name given to Solomon in infacy.
• Clabber is a food produced by allowing unpasteurized milk to turn sour. One wonders if Bellairs was envisioning a foul-tasting beverage called clabber-nog (i.e. similar to eggnog) when constructing the surname. If not, nong appears to be defined as "idiot" in some cultures.