My Old Ohio Home - Snider

A Third Side in the American Civil War

2019-02-15T00:00:00-05:00

Jacob Snider

Jacob Snider of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, was born June 10, 1826, in Bavaria. Jacob began life as a Lutheran but was a River Brethren for fifteen years, then a Dunkard until his death in 1900. His experience during the American Civil War shows that there was a third way of looking at things during this time in our country's history. I will let his grandson tell the story:

"Much more serious times were in store for the family however during the war, for when men come to a time when there is fighting between their own brethren, the political life is strained everywhere. Grandfather, on account of his religious belief would not enlist in the army, and, because he was a Democrat he was held in suspicion as a southern sympathizer, and in time was almost in danger of his life. He was drafted, but in view of his church position, was excused; again he was drafted and this time paid commutation money to avoid joining the army. These things aroused a feeling of enmity in the strong Republican locality, and one night, after a great amount of drinking, one worthless fellow was for mobbing grandfather at his home, and grandfather was advised to hide for a while till things quieted down. However nothing came of these drunken plannings, and he was never harmed in any material way."

Not all who risked their lives carried weapons.

Conclusion

Jacob Snider married my great grandmother's sister, Mary Ann Kiel, in her home town of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, on February 6, 1849. They raised twelve children. Jacob and Mary Ann are buried together in Antietam, or Price's, Cemetery in Waynesboro.

This article was written for The Second American Civil War Genealogy Blog Challenge, by Bill West at West in New England.

Sources

The quote is an excerpt from page 15 of Mary Ann Kiel, Reminiscences, by Jacob S Royer, an unpublished typescript, Dayton, Ohio, 1907. My thanks to a third cousin for the photo and the manuscript.

1880 Census Waynesborough, Franklin, Pennsylvania, NA Film Number T9-1132, Page Number 569A.

findagrave.com site for Jacob and Mary Ann Snider.

Marriage and Death Notices from Weekly Newspapers, 1818 - 1865, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Volume 1, Della Reagan Fischer, copier and compiler (McKeesport, PA, typescript, 1963), page 196, from the [Greensburg] Pennsylvania Argus of February 9, 1849.

A Surname Index to Mary Ann Snider's Reminiscences

2018-10-08T00:00:00-04:00

Below is a surname index to Mary Ann Snider's Reminiscences, which are found in the Documents section of this website. Hopefully it is complete. I did not list every page on which Mary Ann or her immediate family is mentioned. The number following the name is the photocopied page on which the name appears. I hope you enjoy it.

For an introduction to the manuscript see the article Mary Ann Snider, Reminiscences.

Surname Index

Bess, Billy (fictional or real?), 2
Biddle, Mrs (teacher in York PA), 2
Brady, Hugh James, 4
Eckstein, Elizabeth, 1
Fore, Dan, of Shirleysburg, 17
Harrison, President William Henry, 7
Horton, Maggie, 7
Huffman, Clementine, 13
Kauffman, Mr and Mrs, of Shirleysburg, 17
Kern, Joseph, 2
Kern, Mary M. 13
Kern, Samuel Mclane, 8
Kern, Sarah, 2, 5
Kiel, Anne, 1
Kiel, Hendrik, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11
Kiel, John Hendrik, 1
Kiel, Katocha, 1
Kiel, Mary Ann, throughout
McMillan, Katherine "Kitty" (Kern), 6
McMillan, Uncle [Robert], 6
Mechling, Rev. and Mrs. of Greensburg, 3
Mock, John, of Shirleysburg, 17
Rotz, Jacob, 9
Rugan, Rev. of Greensburg, 11
Simpson, Mr., 13
Snider family, 12 to 22
Snider family in Germany, 8, 9, 10
Snider, "Uncle" George, 17, 20
Snider, Jacob, 8 to 22
Snider, "Uncle" Philip, 8, 9, 10
Sprout's Hotel, 19 miles from McConnellsburg, 13
Statler's Hotel, near Laughlinsville, 13
Steinbach, Margaret, 2, 8
Stern, Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Kern), 6
Stern, John, 6, 7
Stout, Rachel Anne, 3
Williams, W. W., 13
Wise, Will, 4

Mary Ann Snider, Reminiscences

2018-10-08T00:00:00-04:00

Mary Ann Snider

In March 1907, Jacob S. Royer of Dayton, Ohio, put together a twenty-two page typescript entitled Reminiscences of My Grandmother's Life. It is Mary Ann (Kiel) Snider's account of her life in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, as a young girl, and also of the early years of her married life with Jacob Snider in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. It covers a time period from before 1833 to after 1865.

In his introduction Mr. Royer says: "I expect few eyes to read these pages save those of her children or grandchildren, and therefore will write in a familiar way of the things that most interest our family relations." I believe he underestimated the value of the manuscript. It should be appealing to anyone with a desire to know what life was like in Western and Central Pennsylvania in the early to mid-1800's.

Mary Ann remembered when the stage coach was the main form of transportation, when Methodist outdoor camp meetings were being held, and when wood was the main fuel in what would soon be coal country. She witnessed President William Harrison's funeral cortege on its way west from Washington, DC. And she had Confederate soldiers knocking on her door during the Civil War.

Mr. Royer's concluding sentence is: "I hope that these stories which I have set down just as she told them without any additions, will prove as interesting to such others as may read them, as they have to me."

I hope so also, and I hope that readers will enjoy having them posted here on this site. The Documents section of this website has the images of Mr Royer's typescript under SniderTranscript.

See also the article A Surname Index to Mary Ann Snider's Reminiscences.