The Life and Times of Kimber M. Snyder: A Soldier in the 78Th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry

By Mitch Lutzke

Armed with only his rifled musket, Kimber M. Snyder was credited with leading the charge to release Civil War prisoners. One of four fighting sons of a young widow from the hills of Pennsylvania, Kimber decided it was time to go and rescue his fellow soldiers. Tied to trees in the middle of winter, Snyder led a group of men out of their tents to commit this daring deed. However, what made this action so remarkable was that this rescue was not aimed at the Confederates, but at his Union officers! And the prisoners were not southern Rebels, but rather boys from back home, who had refused to forage for food in the middle of winter without shoes and coats. The armed confrontation between the enlisted men and the officers led to Kimbers arrest. The court martial trial that followed was a mixture of truth, lies and conveniently forgotten testimony that led to his acquittal and later, a promotion.

This book follows the history of Kimber M. Snyder from his familys early years in colonialPennsylvania to his service in the Civil War with the 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Included are vivid descriptions of the 78ths military service and their involvement at such major battles as Stones River, Chickamauga and Picketts Mill. In addition, there are new insights and interpretations of the regiments role at the latter two battles, where they have been criticized by some for their performance. By using casualty figures and Union and Confederate records, a new light is shed on the 78ths fighting record.

While this book is a story of Snyders life and those of his wife and children, it is also the tale of Henderson and Union Counties in western Kentucky and Posey County in southern Indiana, where the veteran tried to eek out a living, while raising his family. Court transcripts, battle reports, census returns, diaries, family lore and years of old newspaper articles are used to illustrate the last half of the 19th century. The Gilded Age excesses of this era escaped the Snyders grasp, as it did with so many others in the lower Ohio River Valley. Presidential and local politics, high profile trials, the weather, farm prices and the everyday happenings of the region are detailed as the Snyders along with many others, blended into the rural landscape, but more importantly contributed to the building of the country we know today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 3, 2006
• ISBN: 9781467096195

Mitch Lutzke

Mitchell S. Lutzke is a high school history teacher and coach in Williamston, Michigan. He holds bachelor’s degrees from Michigan State University in Telecommunications and from Western Illinois University in History. A 1980 graduate of Albion (Michigan) Senior High School, he was a reporter, announcer and news director for his hometown radio stations (WALM/WELL-FM) while in high school. After graduating from MSU he worked at two radio stations (WLRB/WKAI-FM) in Macomb, Illinois. His first teaching job came at Lansing’s Gardner Middle School, before taking his current position in Williamston. He is married to his wife, Karen, and the couple has three children, Matt, Greg and Laura. This is his first book.

Book preview

The Trial on High

"Do you know me?

I am acquainted with you.

With that, Kimball M. Snyder began defending his honor and the family name, during a cold, blustery February day in 1864. Members of the Union Army had gathered to hear both sides of a messy court martial trial, which saw Kimball accused of taking up arms against his own men!¹

There are at least three known versions to this tale, which took place atop Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. Many of the facts have been lost to memory, while others tried to gloss over what actually happened within the 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. This much was known for sure- Kimball M. Snyder was right in the middle of it.

For nearly a month after his January arrest, the twenty-two year old Snyder had been detained and assigned the rigorous punishment of the ball and chain. One account had Private Snyder as the leader of the rebellion, where ten men came to the aid of other 78th Pennsylvania soldiers, who suffered from the well known indignity of Colonel Archibald Blakeley. The officer was famous for his severe discipline, surprise roll calls, and the invention of the camp’s Sink Squad, a five day clean-up duty reserved for those found breaking minor orders. ² To add to this legacy, Blakeley was also famous for giving the wrong commands during regimental drills and then tongue lashing the troops for their marching errors.³ Compound this with the facts that the highly popular Colonel William Sirwell was no longer in charge, the unpredictable weather, and the feeling that there was no enemy gearing to attack a mountain ridge in the middle of winter, Blakeley’s inane orders were often ignored.

Another unfortunate factor in Kimball’s arrest was that former Colonel Sirwell was also from Company B. This company was filled with men who really wanted Bill Sirwell to know, while hundreds of miles back home in Pennsylvania, that they would always be his boys. This group of men kept appearing in front of the ever gazing eyes of Blakeley, as ones who wouldn’t toe the line, Kimball included.

Company B Corporal Mark Sullivan was reprimanded for gross neglect of duty for allowing two nearby sentinels to talk with him, during routine picket duty.⁴ Another time, Sullivan let his men cut timber which belonged to the Mountain Saw Mill Company that was off limits.⁵ Another Corporal, Jim Morehead, was also nabbed for the exact same offense. And a third Corporal, this one by the name of Drummond, also felt Colonel Blakeley’s wrath for directing men to chop down a tree.⁶

True, Blakeley’s supervisor, General John Palmer had issued orders that burning of fence rails, parts of houses, sheds of other improvements, were forbidden in the newly conquered Rebel territory.⁷ However, as the boys of Company B and the entire 78th demonstrated, enforcing this was easier said than done. Issuing this grand proclamation from a warm headquarters was one thing, having freezing men respect the territory of their vanquished foes, on a chilly January night was another.

The poor weather conditions on the mountain were combined with unheeded requests for the basics, such as shoes, gloves and clothing.⁸ The weather also played tricks on the men’s minds. On New Year’s Eve, 1863, Major Augustus Bonaffon allowed the men to remove their winter coats, due to some unseasonably nice weather, while performing routine skirmish drills. Surely this warm weather was good news for those without shoes and winter coats. However, within hours, a driving winter storm moved into the Tennessee mountainside. Numerous men on picket duty dropped their rifles, as their hands became numb and frostbit. No doubt some also remembered Colonel Blakeley’s firewood rules against cutting down trees, or dismantling nearby sheds, as they shivered in the bitter winter wind. Thoughts of General Palmer, back at his warm headquarters, most likely also danced inside the picketers, as they jumped and stamped their feet to stay warm.

But, Colonel Archibald Blakeley also had his good side and was seen by some as a good egg, especially those from Butler County, said to be in his click.⁹ He was known to loan money to Butler boys in a fix. He even stood for a court martial, when two of his soldiers were found away from camp without the proper written permission, while looking for some needed shoes.¹⁰ Unfortunately for Kimball M. Snyder, he wasn’t from Butler County, wasn’t in Colonel Blakeley’s click and hailed from the previous Colonel’s Company B.

The weather, long gone Bill Sirwell, a distant enemy, Blakeley’s controlling nature and Company B’s repeated offenses, all probably did not bode well for Private Snyder, when he showed up, rifle in hand, on his fateful day, at Camp Starkweather, on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.

Kimber’s Early Years

Early pioneer records are sketchy from Pennsylvania, despite the fact it was one of the most powerful and influential states of the original thirteen colonies. The state legislature didn’t order the documentation of Pennsylvania births until the early 1900’s and as a result, records are unavailable for the state’s early years. But, as best we can figure, Kimber M. Snyder was born in Huntingdon County, a hilly region of central Pennsylvania, in December of 1839. However, subsequent documents throughout his life indicated over a half dozen other birth years, adding to the confusion in establishing Kimber’s birth. It appears his death certificate was the only place, other than an early census report, to support December 1839 as his correct birth month and year. An exact December birth day has never been determined.

At the time of Kimber’s birth, Henry Livingston Snyder and wife Ann Barton Snyder already had two children at home, three year old Mary and two year old Frederick. With Ann seven months pregnant with Kimber a local paper highlighted some of the news events facing settlers in this rural county. The October 2, 1839 edition of the "Holidaysburg Register and Huntingdon County Inquirer offered a glimpse of life in this part of Pennsylvania. The paper told of a traveling mystery man near Blair’s Gap, who was accidentally shot with his own gun, while climbing into his small wagon. As of press time, no one knew his name. There was also a story cautioning area residents about a Virginia man, hailing from the Shenandoa Valley, who may try to trade a $351 loan note, with no intention of paying it back, unless compelled by law. J.S. Maus advertised his clock and watch making store, while Miss Jane M. Cox announced her new Millianary and Fancy Store" in a former grocer’s building, both in downtown Holidaysburg. Gilbert L. Lloyd offered a five dollar reward for the return of three steers missing from his Sinking Valley farm since May and all marked with G.L. on the horns. Another story detailed an upcoming November 2, Orphan’s Court Sale of the 157 acre Franklin Township estate of John Kimberling.¹

Huntingdon County and the nearby city of Huntingdon, were both named as a tribute to Selina Hastings, the English Countess of Huntingdon. In 1766 Reverend William Smith obtained 400 acres of the land and honored the Countess by naming the city after her.² It was his way of thanking Countess Hastings for her hefty donation to the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), where he was the Provost.³ Despite the official naming by Rev. Smith, the Indians and settlers continued calling the city Standing Stone for an Indian monument erected at the site. The monument was described by one 18th century explorer as fourteen feet high and six inches square, and was on the lower end of the site near the Juniata River. Similar to a wooden totem-pole, it was engraved with hard to read symbols, some observers compared to hieroglyphics. The superstitious Indians reportedly believed that as long as this massive Standing Stone remained erect, the tribe would prosper. But in 1754, the Indians apparently had a change of heart, as they lugged it away and replaced it with a smaller stone, only about seven feet in height and a few inches thick.4 Later, in 1787, when land was taken from neighboring Bedford County to form a new county where Standing Stone was the major community, it seemed logical to name the county Huntingdon, too.⁵

Standing Stone was also the crossroads of three overland travel routes: Indian Trails, Frankstown Path and Warriors Trail. The first trail was the main trading path to the Ohio River Valley and had been used by white men as early as 1748. The Frankstown Path began at Harris’s Ferry and traveled through many colonial hamlets, including Carlisle, Shirleysburg, Huntingdon, Hollidaysburg, Indiana, Shelocta and then to the Allegheny River. At Shelocta, one could turn northwest and take another trail, named the Kittanning Path, which also led to the Allegheny River.⁶

The Warriors Trail connected to the Frankstown Path at Huntingdon. It roughly followed the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River. Heading southwest out of town, it passed a few miles east of Raystown and Fort Bedford and continued south, and paralleled another Indian trial, until it crossed the Maryland border and headed toward the present day city of Cumberland, Maryland.⁷

Many of these trails were carved out by the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians, believed to be the most populous native nation in Pennsylvania. In the mid 18th Century, many of these paths, including the ones traversing through Huntingdon County, could only be traveled in dry weather and made it nearly impossible to journey in the wet spring and snowy winter months. Walking or riding along these crudely marked trails enabled settlers to side step most swamps and impassable mountain areas, deemed too rugged for even the heartiest pioneer. The paths were routed so as to make the best use of hidden breaks in apparently ‘endless’ ridges--not clear-cut gaps such as those through which the streams poured at right angles to the mountain axis, but places where the high walls presented the appearance of having been bent until they buckled and broke, leaving a looped passageway scarcely noticed by the traveler until he was actually in it.⁸ By the time the Snyder Family reached Huntingdon County, these Indian trails had been widened enough to carry the famous Conestoga wagons as far west as Pittsburgh.

After forming Huntingdon County in 1787, it took the state less than twenty years to carve it up to help create Cambria County in 1804. A few years before Kimber Snyder’s birth, Huntingdon County measured 48 miles in length with an average breadth of 30 miles, totaled 758, 400 acres and covered 1,185 square miles. Of this acreage, a little more than one-third, or 200 thousand acres were first rate land, with another 550 thousand well settled and improved. The remaining 8, 400 acres were mountainous and covered with timber.⁹

The soil was of all shades of quality and the ground filled with lead, coal, salt, alum and iron. The iron ore was found within the Muncy Ridge, which ran through several counties in this part of the state. This rich ore supplied the numerous furnaces in Huntingdon County. The area settlers knew of the three most common types of ore: the highly coveted and deep below the ground pipe ore, usually found under a layer of limestone; the abundant and chocolate colored rock ore, which was best when free from sand, and the lesser valued needle ore, which was jet black and when broken, not surprisingly resembled needles. The Huntingdon residents also knew that some ore could be found on or near the surface and dubbed those finds as top ore or nest ore.¹⁰

In southwestern Huntingdon County coal was plentiful, while lead was found in the central part and salt in the northern end. In addition, various colors and quality of marble could be found in the county, along with numerous limestone caves and mineral springs.¹¹

The Snyders undoubtedly used the numerous streams and creeks which flowed into the Juniata Rivers. Below the city of Huntingdon, the Raystown Branch funneled water into a spot about 120 yards wide, and this was where the Little Juniata River was lost and the main Juniata River was created. About 16 miles below Huntingdon, the Aughwick Creek passed through Shirleysburg before emptying into the larger Juniata River. The Juniata flowed eastward to eventually join the Susquahanna River in eastern Pennsylvania. The Susquahanna then runs through the state capital of Harrisburg, before emptying into Maryland’s Cheasapeake Bay.¹²

River travel was made easier in the county, as a state sponsored canal began above Aughwick Falls and meandered some 50 miles before ending in Hollidaysburg. There, westward travelers could board a railroad across the Allegheny Mountains. The bulk of the canal freight consisted of iron, grain, flour, whiskey and lumber.¹³ At the time of Kimber’s December 1839 birth, the canal boats had celebrated their eighth year on the job. The inaugural canal boat was the James Clarke, which Huntingdon received with much celebration as citizens witnessed the beginning of a new era of trade.¹⁴

The combination of rivers, newly created canals and old Indian trails all helped to move settlers away from the Atlantic Ocean and west to settlements in the colonial interior. A few months after Kimber’s birth, the 1840 federal census counted 35,484 people as having made their way to Huntingdon County. The two largest communities were Holidaysburg at 1,896 and Huntingdon at 1,154, and also were the only two places totaling a population over one thousand people. While Kimber would later list Huntingdon County as his birthplace, it’s believed he was born and raised south of Huntingdon in the Shirleysburg area. The same 1840 federal census had the town of Shirleysburg at 247 people and the surrounding Shirley Township with 1,174 inhabitants. Interestingly, while the entire Huntingdon County contained just 522 colored’s in 1840, twenty-five percent of them lived within Shirley Township.¹⁵ This pattern of living in racially mixed areas was something Kimber followed for most of the rest of his life.

The town of Shirleysburg was laid out near the site of Fort Shirley, erected in January 1756 as both a trading post and military installation.¹⁶ The wooden fort was built in response to a roaming band of Indians, who had harassed the few settlers in the area the year before.¹⁷ About eighty years later, at the time of Kimber’s birth, nothing remained of Fort Shirley.¹⁸

Henry and Ann Snyder, along with their three children likely lived in one of the 30 or 40 houses, and near the several taverns and village stores which made up Shirelysburg. The population from ten years earlier hadn’t changed much, even though the county as a whole had experienced a noticeable increase. Iron was found abundantly in the immediate vicinity and there were several iron works nearby. Various grist mills and distilleries dotted the hilly landscape and there were enough inhabitants to establish a post office in Shirleysburg.¹⁹ Whether it was the slow growth or something else, by the time Kimber probably reached the age of six his family moved from the Shirleysburg area.

Henry and Ann Snyder were christened with classic German first names. The Snyders continued to refer to themselves as members of the Pennsylvania Dutch well into the 20th Century. The word Deutsche, actually means German, but was incorrectly pronounced in English as Dutch. Despite the translation problem, the Snyder family did know where their ancestors hailed from, before settling in the New World. The Snyder’s did fit the area settlers profile as the bulk of Huntingdon County residents were said to be of either Irish or German descent.²⁰

While children Mary and Frederick were also tagged with standard German names, Kimber was an odd label for a boy, even in those days. The name possibly came from his mother’s side of the family, as there was some belief that Ann’s father was Kimber Barton, and that the boy was christened after him. As to the mystery of the middle initial, M, we don’t know what it stood for. Apparently, it stood for something special to Kimber, as he always included it. Even when Kimber decided to go by Kimball during the first few years of the Civil War, the middle name of M remained unchanged. When he reverted to being called Kimber in the mid 1860’s, the M continued to appear in his signature.

Family history had it that the family moved around a lot, but always stayed in the state of Pennsylvania. Henry and Ann were in Clarion County, in western Pennsylvania, for a time in the mid-1830’s, where children Mary and Fred were reportedly born. But, according to Kimber’s account, he was born in 1839 in Huntingdon County, which is about 100 miles southeast of Clarion. Then, Kimber’s younger brother, Theodore Cassius, was born in adjacent Bedford County in 1844.²¹ In the mid-1840’s it was back again to Clarion County.²² Another move and another child, number five, Charles Barton Snyder, would be born back in Bedford County on June 24, 1846.²³ Sometime after the birth of Charles, the Snyder family moved again, this time to the west and to Armstrong County. Clara A. Snyder claimed that her 1848 birth made her the first baby born in the Armstrong County hamlet of Miller’s Eddy.²⁴ She was the couple’s sixth child. This tiny gathering of homes was nothing more than a boat landing on the Allegheny River in Perry Township, which was a narrow sliver of land resembling the state of Idaho in the extreme northern end of Armstrong County. The township’s entire eastern border was the Allegheny River and was across from Clarion County.

By the end of the decade, another baby and the fifth son, Henry A. Snyder was born. His birth in 1849 in Mt. JeWitt, of McKean County, meant that yet another Snyder move occurred.²⁵ Mt. JeWitt is about fifty miles northwest of where Clara claimed the family was living at the time of her 1848 birth.

Little Henry’s birth was again accompanied by another move, as by 1850, the Snyders returned to Clarion County, possibly for the third time. They were now in Madison Township, in the southern end of the county, whose western border was the Allegheny River and its southern the Red Bank River.²⁶ It is here, at the tiny hamlet of Catfish, across from Miller’s Eddy, where the family would live for the next decade.

One child, in later years, said that dad was a teacher which may explain all of the family’s moves, as Henry searched for better paying teaching jobs.²⁷ However, by the 1850 census Henry was out of the teaching profession. H.L. (for Henry Livingston) Snyder was now known as a millwright, who owned a home and a small piece of land. Henry Snyder didn’t amass any fortune either teaching or milling. While his house sat on a parcel of Madison Township land valued at only 100 dollars, his two neighbor laborers (and both younger than he) had land valued at 600 and 900 dollars, respectively.²⁸

In 1850, ten year old Kimber and his next two younger siblings, Theodore and Charles, attended a rural Madison Township school, but the end of formal education was approaching. It’s unlikely that Kimber would continue schooling when he reached his teens. Neither of Kimber’s older siblings, 13 year old Mary or 12 year old Fred attended classes that year.²⁹

The 1850 federal census provided us a glimpse at the ages of the Snyder family, when everyone was still under the same roof and memories were clear. Both Henry Livingston Snyder and wife Ann were 32 years of age, and placed their birth in 1817 or 1818, depending upon their month of birth. (September through December birthdays would make the two born in 1817 and affect the children’s birthdays in the same manner). Keeping that in mind, the 1850 census (taken August 30) had their eldest child, Mary, at 13, born in (1836/37), Frederick, 12 (b.1837/38), Kimber, 10 (b.1839/40), which would make his December 1839 birth date correct, Theodore, 8 (b.1841/42), Charles, 6 (b.1843/44), Clara, 4 (b.1845/46) and Henry, 2 (b.1847/48). While clarifying Kimber’s birth date, this census caused problems for Theodore’s 1844 birth date, Charles as 1846, Clara’s claim of being the first baby born in Miller’s Eddy in 1848 and Henry’s birth in 1849.³⁰

Wherever and whenever the Snyder children were born, they were born in the Quaker State, as had several generations before them. The children’s father, Henry Livingston Snyder, was born in Pennsylvania to another Henry Snyder and a Mary Smelker. Their mother, Ann B. Barton, was also a native Pennsylvanian. Little is known of her parents except that it’s possible that her middle name of Blanchard referred to her mother’s maiden name.³¹

More was known about their father’s side, as Mary Smelker’s dad, according to family legend, was kidnapped and lived with the Indians. The lore has Godfra Smelker grabbed by the Indians while young and raised in their native ways. He eventually made it back to the white man’s world, but still retained much of his Indian lifestyle. He later died in a house fire at Henry and Mary Snyder’s home. ³²

Also on Snyder side of the family, tales of the Revolutionary War were passed down over the years. It believed the family had first hand knowledge of the Revolutionary War, as Grandpa Henry claimed to have served as a teenager with the colonists who fought against the crown. However, what exactly the eldest Henry Snyder did to support George Washington and the other patriots, is unclear.

Grandpa Henry’s military service was later revisited when Frederick Snyder’s daughter, Maud Snyder Anderson, applied for membership to the Daughters of the American Revolution in the early 1900’s. Maud filed an application that claimed her Henry Snyder, was born in 1760 in Pennsylvania and died in 1845 in Pennsylvania.³³ These dates just begin the errors in sorting out Henry’s war record.

She claimed he served in 1779 as a sergeant in Captain James Young’s company, within Colonel Abraham Smith’s militia regiment. Her paperwork had Henry from Cumberland County, just west of the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg.³⁴ A similar search by the government located a Henry Snyder as a Second Sergeant in the 8th Battalion, in 1779. Also, in this small band of thirty-eight fighters, was Ensign H’y RalphSnyder along with First Class soldier Nicholas Snyder.³⁵ The 8th Battalion was recruited in 1777 from present day Franklin County and the townships of Antrim and Guilford and in 1779 from the newly formed township of Washington. In 1777, Abraham Smith was the Colonel, with James Young as Captain of the 5th company. In May of 1780, when the militias were reorganized, Smith was named a Sub Lieutenant and Young was no longer found. But these roster names supported the family’s DAR application claim. Also, in Company 4 a new, interesting name appeared- that of Captain Conrad Snider.³⁶

These local militia groups not only battled the British but put down any Indian uprisings. The militia was organized after a draft was imposed on men between the ages of 18 and 53 in the spring and summer of 1777. This call came after the number of volunteers was well short of what was needed to protect the area citizens.³⁷

Many years after the war, a soldier named Henry Snyder, had his request for a federal pension rejected, due to the fact he had served less than the required six months on active duty. It’s hard to ascertain with one hundred percent certainty that this was the family’s Henry Snyder, as the search for data on this man’s service turned up no additional information, other than his rejection notice.³⁸

Adding to the confusion years later as to what Grandpa Henry did during the Revolutionary War was that there were at least six Henry Snyder’s on Revolutionary Muster Rolls. Either Maud or the DAR originally incorrectly verified that Grandpa Henry was a private in the German Battallion from 1776 to 1780, under Colonel George Stricker and later Lieutenant Colonel Weltner. However, that research was later amended, when it was discovered that this Henry was born in 1757 and his wife’s name didn’t match.³⁹ But, this Henry did have a father named Henry Snyder, so the confusion was justified.⁴⁰ A further check of the pension rolls shows that the remaining Henry Snyder’s were not related, so Kimber’s grandfather was most likely the man who served less than six months fighting the British.

Incidentally, Kimber’s younger sister, Clara Snyder Skinner, also around the time of Maud’s application inquired about her connection to a Revolutionary War Henry Snyder and was incorrectly sent data on the German Battallion soldier.⁴¹

Grandma Mary and Grandpa Henry Snyder didn’t marry until after the Revolutionary War, so there were no wife’s tales of what she was doing while her man was on the war front. Henry Snyder and Mary Smelker wed in 1792 in Shirleysburg, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. He was considerably older than her at 32, while Mary was just 20 years of age.⁴²

Through census records and family lore, it’s believed the couple spent the next three decades in Huntingdon, Mifflin and Centre Counties in central Pennsylvania. Within two years of their marriage Henry and Mary had their first child, Margaret, on November 11, 1794. She was followed by another daughter, Mary in 1797. The first boy arrived in 1800 and was named Benjamin. Three years later Katy arrived, followed by Daniel in 1805, John in 1808, Jacob in 1811, Eve in 1814 and their last child, Henry L. (Livingston) Snyder in 1817.⁴³

Other than the births, little is known about the family during this time. Oldest daughter, Margaret, married John Wakefield in Reedsville, Mifflin County, sometime in the 1810’s.⁴⁴ In 1820 the young Wakefield couple can be found in Wayne Township, Mifflin County. Also in the 1820 Mifflin County census was a Henry Snyder in Armaugh Township, who resided near another familiar name, that of Jane Smelcher.

And again, only bits and pieces of information were available about the family’s comings and goings at this point in time. In 1830, John and Margaret Snyder Wakefield had moved to nearby Huntingdon County, where members of various Snyder families also resided.⁴⁵ In Centre County, a Henry Snyder, was in Gregg Township, along with wife Mary, four children and some in-laws.⁴⁶ A few years later in 1833 in Centre County, one of the Snyder boys, Daniel, married Beckwith.⁴⁷ It’s reported that five years later, Henry Livingston Snyder and Ann Blanchard Barton tied the knot, but it’s not clear where the nuptials took place, or if 1838 was the correct year. If so, that puts the couple’s first two children out of wedlock, something highly unlikely at that time.

By 1840, both the Wakefields and Grandpa and Grandma Snyder were in Huntingdon County and resided either in the same home or adjacent to each other in Shirley Township. By this time, all but one of the Henry and Mary’s children were out of the house. The exception was 26 year old Eve, who would eventually marry a man by the name of John Ayers. While Maud Snyder Anderson’s DAR records indicated that her great grandmother Mary Smelker Snyder died in 1839, she was listed as alive in the 1840 census!⁴⁸

To add to the DAR confusion, Sergeant Snyder (8th Battalion, Cumberland County) was recorded as dying in 1845. However, the 1850 census has John and Margretta (Margaret) Wakefield still in Huntingdon County’s Shirley Township. Next door was the son, George Wakefield and his family, along with an 18 year old Lattimore Snyder, 21 year old Evaline Price and an 85 year old Henry Snyder! While this Henry was five years older than the guy supposedly born in 1760, there was no doubt that someone with that name was alive and resided next to his son-in-law.⁴⁹ We can conclude that Maud’s application was not only wrong on marriage dates, but death dates too!

To the west, in Clarion County, Henry L. Snyder, the school teacher turned millwright had moved the family to the tiny hamlet of Catfish. And about a year after the 1850 census was taken, Ann Snyder became pregnant. Around 1852, Henry Livingston Snyder and Ann saw the birth of Laura, their third girl and the couple’s eighth and final child. However, the family rarely called her Laura, instead preferring the pet names of Anna and Nan.⁵⁰

During this time, the Snyder’s lived and worked at Cat Fish along the Allegheny River in Clarion County, between the equally small communities of Sandy Hollow and Sarah Furnace. The Snyder’s community had enough inhabitants, despite its strange name, for it to secure its own post office.

Tragedy would soon strike the Snyder’s of Catfish as at the age of 37, Henry Livingston Snyder died. The cause of his death was not recorded, and it left a young widow to raise a family of eight. More than likely, neither two year old Laura Nan nor the next youngest in line, Henry A. Snyder, remember much of their father. Clara Snyder, who would have been about five at the time, later recalled, that before my recollection my father died.⁵¹ Meanwhile, those left to pass on their father’s memory were youngsters Charles and Theodore, along with teenagers Kimber, Fred and Mary.

Sometime during the 1850’s the family had another change, but this time it was for the better, as eldest daughter, Mary, married Robert McCune and moved from the house. As the end of the decade approached, Ann was left with seven kids to feed and raise by herself.

On a summer’s day in June of 1860 a census taker visited the widow’s Catfish home. Possibly the death of husband Henry now allowed Ann to correctly state her age as 49, which would be a seventeen year jump from the previous census. Maybe the public stigma of being older than your husband goes away with his death, or just maybe census taker J. S. Furney simply recorded her age wrong. Nevertheless, Ann Snyder was now listed as 49 years of age (or born in 1811), which matched the DAR application data filed by her granddaughter, Maud, years later.⁵²

The ages of the children also took similar odd jumps. While the eldest, Mary, was married and gone, the next two oldest, Fred (19) and Kimber (17) aged only seven years from the 1850 census. Meanwhile, Theodore (16), Charles (14), and Clara (12) aged eight years, Henry (11) jumped nine years and Laura was listed for the first time at eight years of age; (1852 birth).⁵³

This latest census significantly altered the birth dates of the older Snyder children, and moved third child, Kimber, from 1839 to sometime in 1843! Likewise, child number two, Fred, was now a year younger on census paper than Kimber’s actual age! In addition while the three children following Kimber remained two years apart in age, they lost two years from the previous census. Henry lost just a year, but the different months of the census (August in 1850 and June in 1860) might explain his discrepancy. And Laura Nan didn’t appear in 1850, as she wasn’t born yet, so we assumed her age is just as correct (or incorrect) as the other Snyder children. In order to earn a living Ann used her skills with the needle and thread to make money as a seamstress.

On one side of her Catfish property was the William Barger family, and their three children, all under the age of six. Then there was John and Mary Thompson, and a newborn and an elderly widowed woman, presumably mother-in-law, Mary Ketrick. The Thomas McClure residence was another of the Snyder’s neighbors. The 75 year old McClure was born in Pennsylvania during the George Washington administration, and was still active in the craft of shoemaking. He supported his wife, Ann, and a 12 year old named Susan Rumbaugh. Next down the road from the Snyders was Ellen Brenner, born and raised in Ireland. She, like Ann, was raising her three children by herself, as her husband had died sometime within the past three years or so. James, Peter and John Brenner were all around the ages of the three youngest Snyder children. Another neighbor was laborer, Patrick McCanna and wife, Letitia, both born in Ireland. The couple had a three year old daughter, Catherine, who was born in this country. Fellow laborer, William McCoy, wife, Catherine, and their two young boys were down the road in Catfish. Also nearby was Samuel Bell, a 40 year old clerk, his wife, Martha, and their large family. Their oldest at home, James Bell, was a 17 year old working on a farm and was the same age as Theodore Snyder.⁵⁴ Born in Brady’s Bend, which was a short way from Catfish, James was of fair complexion and about 5 feet 6 and a half inches tall, with blue eyes under a crop of brown hair. Around Catfish he was also known as somewhat of a musician.⁵⁵ These common folk rounded out the neighborhood around the Snyder household.

As a seamstress Ann Snyder managed to accumulate only 50 dollars of personal property. This small amount was similar to what her neighbors had. Of the eight heads of household surrounding the Snyders, the range was from widow Brenner’s 25 dollars to shoemaker McClure’s 125 dollars. The remaining six families fell somewhere between those figures.⁵⁶

The Snyder real estate was valued at 200 dollars, an increase from the 100 dollars in the previous census. Their 200 dollars was twice the value of the Bargers’ and Brenners’ land, and the same as McClures, but less than the 225 placed on McCanna’s and the 300 dollars for the Bell property.⁵⁷ The Snyder’s probably remained in the same residence from 1850 to the 1860 census. The stay at Catfish was also probably the longest the family had lived in one place. Despite the stability, Ann Snyder and her seven kids wouldn’t stay there too much longer.

Sometime after this June census, either in the fall or winter of 1860 or during the following spring of ‘61, she moved the family about twelve miles to the south. Leaving Catfish by either floating down the Allegheny River or taking an overland route and across the Red Bank and Mahoning Creeks, Ann settled in Pine Township, in the northern half of Armstrong County. At the time, the township extended between the Mahoning Creek to the south fork of the Pine Creek. Since then, Boggs Township has been carved out of the southern half of Pine Township that now borders Valley Township. It was on a farm between the north and south fork of Pine Creek was where the Snyders lived for the next half decade, at a place called Pine Creek Furnace.⁵⁸

Clusters of homes dotted the landscape lying about six miles, as the crow flies, from Kittanning, which straddles the Allegheny River. And Kittanning was about 60 miles from Pittsburgh, where the Allegheny River meets the Ohio and Monongahela, in the city of Three Rivers. The Snyder’s lived in rural Pine Township among places which have long since faded, such as Ore Hill and Peart’s Eddy, while others, such as Oscar and Mossgrove, remain today. The same is true for the families. Some of the names from that time have faded from the area, while some are still present today and dot the mailboxes across the hilly countryside.⁵⁹

Pine Creek, within Pine Township, was a popular name in the area as it was also the name of a hamlet where the north and south branches of the creek met on the Allegheny River. In addition along its south fork and a few miles upstream from Pine Creek there was a Pine Creek Furnace where ore was smelted.

Armstrong County and named after the famed Indian fighter from the previous century, who had rushed down the steep hills and attacked the Delaware tribe at their river based Kittanning village.⁶⁰ In 1800, the state legislature took pieces of Allegheny, Lycoming and Westmoreland Counties and created Armstrong.⁶¹ This new county, made up of gently rolling hills and running thirty-five miles in length and twenty miles in width was described as much variegated with hill and valley, in many places broken and the soil is not less diversified. Large bodies of land are almost worthless; others are valuable chiefly for their timber…⁶² The timber consisted of several types of oak trees, along with chestnut, hickory, ash, walnut, maple, elm and cherry. Pine and cedar trees were few and far between.⁶³

This county, like the rest of the country of Pennsylvania, northwest of the mountains, pertains to the secondary formation and abounds with limestone, coal and salt.⁶⁴ In Pine Township, twelve feet thick banks of coal were found along the Mahoning Creek and Red Bank Creek. Some of it was of a good quality and some not so good. Residents also stated that alumina, copperas, and iron ore are abundant in this part of the county. Mining operations were common in the township.⁶⁵

Only about 1,400 people lived in Pine Township in 1860, with about 100 of those being black residents who had settled north of Kittanning, in a settlement known as Ore Hill.⁶⁶ Though sparsely populated, the township had seven schools serving about 400 students.⁶⁷

According to Clara Snyder, The family was residing somewhere in Clarion County before the Civil War and later in Armstrong County and we were at Pine Creek, Armstrong County, when the war broke out. The boys were then at home and the three oldest of them enlisted in the Army at Kittanning, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.⁶⁸

When April 14, 1861 arrived and Fort Sumter, South Carolina is fired upon, Pine Creek, Pennsylvania was the Snyder family home. This northern state quickly provided men for the uprising. Newly elected Republican President Abraham Lincoln was left by his successor, James Buchanan, with a list of states who declared they had quit the Union. Lincoln’s election had sealed their fate, or so they believed, and they felt seceding from their country was their only alternative. An Armstrong County historian wrote, When the great Rebellion came, and men and means were needed to crush treason and preserve our cherished Union and the heritage of our Revolutionary fathers, the fires of patriotism glowed brightly and fervidly in the hearts of the great mass of the people of this country. The patriotic response to the reverberations of the first gun fired upon Sumter was prompt and willing.⁶⁹

The historian continued his impassioned recollection of Armstrong County’s mighty contributions to the war effort. The following facts speak more forcibly and eloquently of that response than any words of mine can do. In less than sixty days after President Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 men to aid the government in reposing the forts, arsenals and other national property which had been violently seized by the insurgents, and in re-establishing law, order, and the dominion of the legitimate government, a company of 114 men of this county, under the command of Captain William Sirwell, left Kittanning by rail, April 18, 1861 for Pittsburgh, and thence went to Harrisburg.⁷⁰

Neither of the Snyder boys who were old enough to fight, 24 year old Frederick or 21 year old Kimber, joined the 114, who were nationally dubbed as Lincoln’s Three Month’s Men. The Northern Unionists were so confident in winning the rebellion, not yet declared a war, that troops were believed to have to be needed for only 90 days. But after the disastrous July 21st northern defeat at the Battle of Bull Run in Virginia, which saw picnickers caught between pursuing southern soldiers and Union fighters frantically fleeing the scene, the complexion of the rebellion changed. Another round of recruits was needed and this time the Snyder boys signed-up. Lincoln didn’t make the same mistake twice. Instead of Three Months Men, these recruits would be in for three years.

When Freedom Broke

Years later, the colored folk didn’t call the freeing of the slaves by the fancy name of Emancipation Proclamation. They simply referred to it as when freedom broke. Kimber Snyder was one of those boys who marched across the south and helped end the peculiar institution called slavery.

The widowed Ann Snyder had secured a house on a Pine Township farm, which belonged to the Frank Powers family. Why she decided to leave Catfish and move a few miles south after more than a decade of living there is unknown. For the next years, Ann raised the five boys, Fred, Kimber, Theodore, Charles and Henry, along with daughters Clara and Laura Nan either on or near the Powers’ farm. Nannie Powers, one of Frank’s daughters, remembered the Snyder family. My maiden name was Powers and I was brought up by my parents, Francis and Powers about a mile above Pine Creek Furnace, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania and during the War there resided on my father’s farm a widow, Snyder and her children. Later, Nannie wrote that at the end of the Civil War she didn’t think the Snyder’s shared her family’s land, but did live close by, in the same section.¹ It was likely that Ann Snyder and the children moved a few hundred yards to the east and onto the adjacent property owned by Charlie Moore, who had a history of renting out homes to miners and farm hands.

Francis Frank and Powers first bought their land for 253 dollars on New Years Eve, 1834 from Alexander McCain. The lot was measured at 126 acres and 74 perches (one perch, also known as a rod or pole, is equivalent to five and a half yards) and was probably entirely tree covered.² At the time the cost for unimproved Armstrong County property was between $1 and $6 dollars an acre and improved or cleared land went for between 12 and 20 dollars an acre.³ McCain set his price at $2 dollars an acre, which placed the parcel at the low end of the scale. Later, the Powers expanded their farm to include the Moore property to the east.⁴

The Powers land was bordered by a pair of roads, the Pine Creek and the Moore property. To the west, a narrow, rough road sliced through the hilly countryside which also served as the property line for farms owned by the Williamson and Bossinger families. This road dropped sharply and led down to the shallow waterway and the iron furnace on the south fork of Pine Creek. On the Powers north was another rough road, which carved through what seemed like a never-ending series of hills. Traveling west on that road took you passed several farms before it eventually ended about five miles away at a spot near where both branches of the Pine Creek merged and emptied into the Allegheny River. Going east, the same undulating road brought you to the Oliver and Stewart farms, two owned by the Best’s, and large farmlands worked by the Dill family. ⁵

The section of Pine Creek which bordered the Powers farm was only a few feet deep and less than that in many places. The stream hugged the steep hillside of its north bank, but its opposite bank was only slightly higher than the creek. Trickles of water would occasionally flow down from some narrow crevices along the north side, but it did little to enlarge the small, slow flowing stream. The creek was also not very wide and took only a few steps to wade across it. Despite its size, it did have enough water flow to power both a saw and a grist mill. Both mills were built by Alexander Wright a few years before Powers acquired his land. A third mill was built further upstream, in the late 1830’s, where Dile’s Run emptied into Pine Creek, just southeast of Powers’ land. That mill became known as the Pine Creek Woolen Factory, operated by William Gillis and his family. Historians claim this as the first factory in Armstrong County. The Gillis’s family remained in the woolen mill field for about the next 30 years, before they sold out to local interests.⁶ The closeness of the Gillises and Snyders would eventually go beyond location, as they would later be joined through marriage.

The iron furnace at Pine Creek was built about a decade after the woolen mill, over the years 1845 and 1846, by local business magnets, James E. Brown and James Mossgrove. They began fueling their iron furnace with charcoal found in the surrounding forests. However, in the final year of the Civil War, coke was substituted for coal, as the local charcoal supply had apparently run out. However, the drop in pig iron profits, made the further operation of the furnace unprofitable. Despite the business downturn, by 1880 this cluster of buildings was now a hamlet called Pine Creek Furnace. It had a few homes and stores, a church, and a school house and was a stop on the Pine Creek and Dayton narrow gauge railroad, which was constructed a few years after the war. ⁷

When the war broke out Frank Powers was about fifty years old. Family records have him born in Ireland in 1811, while the federal census had him born a few years earlier in 1808. ⁸ Powers, whose maiden name was Kness, was confirmed by both family and census records as being 38 years of age. ⁹ Frank was a farmer, as were most of his neighbors. Wife, Elizabeth, was in charge in the home, which at the time totaled six children. The eldest was Mary, who was in her mid teens and helped mom in running the household. Joseph was thirteen, Nancy, also known as Nannie was eleven, Margaret was six, John A. was three and Frances Frank was a toddler, having been born on March 15, 1859. Later, two additional sons, Robert and Henry, would be added to the family. It’s possible that Frank Powers’ older brother, John, was living with them too. A sixty year old Irish farm laborer, named John Powers, was listed with the Frank Powers family in the 1860 census.¹⁰ The four oldest Powers children walked a short way up the road to a nearby school house for their education. It’s unknown if any of the school age Snyder children accompanied them. As their late father had been a teacher for a portion of his life, several of the Snyder children, namely Theodore, Charles, Clara, Henry and Nan, may have been sent to school, rather than doing farm chores.

Despite the fact that the Snyders had lived in Armstrong County for only a short period of time