 |
 ONATHAN N. SNAPP, after many years
spent in honorable toil, is now enjoying the
fruits of his early labors, and on a fine homestead in Mattoon Township lives at his ease,
amid the affection of his children and the goodwill of his neighbors. His history briefly recorded
is in its main points as follows: His birth took
place in Washington County, Tenn., March 6, 1832,
and he is the son of Jacob and Hepzibah (Waddill)
Snapp, his father of German ancestry, but born on
the ocean while his parents were coming to this
country. The mother was born in Tennessee near
Jonesboro. Our subject remained with his parents, who had moved at an early day to this county, until the death of his father, which took place when he was a young child, and as soon as of suitable years was made acquainted with honest and useful labor, so that upon reaching his majority he was fully competent to “paddle his own canoe.” After three years spent in California he purchased seventy acres of land on section 30, in Mattoon Township. He was married, Sept. 4, 1856, to Miss Eliza J. Clarke, whose parents. William and Sarah Ann Clarke, are treated of elsewhere in this book. The young people first located on a farm adjoining their own land, and thence removed to section 32, on land owned by the brother of our subject. After a sojourn there of eighteen years, they removed across the Mississippi into Barton County, Kan., where our subject purchased a quarter section, which he occupied four years. From there he emigrated to Bates County, Mo., and three years later eastward across the Mississippi, until reaching the old homestead in Illinois, where he took up his abode and where he has since remained. Here he has reared his children, and desires nothing better than to spend the remainder of his days amid the scenes of his early youth. While watching the development of his adopted State with interest and satisfaction, he has meddled very little with public affairs, simply casting his vote with the Republicans upon occasions of general elections. Mr. and Mrs. Snapp are members in good standing of the Methodist Protestant Church, and have carefully reared their three children in the same faith. These are Mary H., now the wife of B. F. Bell, a prosperous farmer of Mattoon Township; Jonathan E. and William H. are unmarried. Aside from his services as Constable, Mr. Snapp has declined becoming an office-seeker, content to remain as a private and unobtrusive citizen, and priding himself upon attending strictly to his own business. |
 |
| Return To Contents |
|