Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-Joseph Snow
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
JOSEPH SNOW, late a well known and highly respected resident of Sherman Township, Clay County, was born in Kentucky, Feb. 14, 1826, and departed this life at his home in Sherman Township Feb. 14, 1879, at the age of fifty-three years to a day. He was one of the pioneers of this section of country to which he came in the fall of 1870, and homesteaded 16O acres of land on section 6, Sherman Township. For nine years the family occupied a cottonwood shanty and in the meantime cultivated the land, planted forest and fruit trees, made fences and erected buildings and in due time gathered together all the comforts and conveniences of a rural home. Mr. Snow was possessed of those sterling qualities of character most needed in the development of a new country and contributed his full quota to the progress and growth of his adopted township.
The subject of this sketch spent but a few years in his native State, his parents removing when he was a mere boy to the vicinity of Indianapolis, Ind. He was there reared to manhood and was married to Miss Margaret, daughter of Cummings and Elizabeth (Winn) Gardner, who are represented elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Snow was born about fourteen miles west of the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and when a young girl her parents removed to Indiana. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Snow remained residents of the Hoosier State several years and then removed to Mercer County, Ill. Seven years later they sought the farther West, crossing the Mississippi and locating in Monroe County. Iowa. Mr. Snow had been bred to farm pursuits and followed these his entire life.
The ten children born to Mr. Snow and his estimable wife were named respectively; Betsey J., now Mrs. Joseph Greenwood of Norton, this State; John, William and an infant, all deceased; Oliver T., Eli, James H., Arch, George W. and Martha A., (Mrs. Charles Peterson), are all residents of Clay County. Arch resides with his mother on the home farm. Mrs. Snow is a lady greatly respected among her neighbors and a consistent member of the Christian Church at Clifton. The family residence is a commodious frame structure and adjacent is the main barn and other outbuildings, including a granary, stables, corn cribs, and other buildings necessary to the successful prosecution of agriculture. Mrs. Snow with the aid of her son, keeps up the reputation of the estate in an admirable manner, preserving it as one of the best monuments which could have been reared to the memory of her departed husband. His parents, James and Martha Snow, spent their last years in Indiana.