Mary Ann Snider, Reminiscences
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. Images of the typescript is on the Documents page under Mary Ann Snyder, Reminiscences.
See also the article A Surname Index to Mary Ann Snider's Reminiscences.