Don B Snyder: Part 2 – Athletic Show in the Great Depression

Don B Snyder

This is Part 2  of a 13-part blog series sharing my Grand-uncle Don’s life story, in his own words, via an autobiography sent to me by Don’s grandson, Ron Oldfield, after Ron stumbled across one of my prior posts about his grandfather. It is shared with the permission of both of Don’s children and Ron Oldfield. [Note – Anything in brackets with green type is my added explanation of something in Don’s text.]

Don’s story:

Part 2 – Athletic Show

Athletic Show Boxing Poster (in public domain)
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          On the athletic show we traveled with a truck and a car. The Greek that owned the show had a wife and a young daughter that traveled with him. We had a tent with the ring inside. Our dressing room was a canvass in one corner. The Greek was 52 years old and he would wrestle anyone in the crowd. He was short and stocky, but he knew wrestling. He had once trained Joe Savoldy, a heavyweight world champion when wrestling was real. Next was ‘Speedy’ Martin, about six feet tall and about 180-190 pounds. The ‘boxers’ (I prefer the word ‘fighter’) were Paul Reese, about 145-150 pounds, and I, at 135 pounds. Paul would take on anyone. I’d take on anyone up to 150 pounds, with no scales. To familiarize it, we had the tent, ring, and ‘bally’ stand. This stand was in front of the tent on the midway. It was about three feet by 12 feet and stood about three feet high. When it was show time we would get on the bally stand. [The bally stand is a platform in front of a fair or carnival sideshow tent on which sample of the show may be performed in order to lure spectators inside.] 

          The Greek was a master showman. We would hit a brake drum with an iron bar that you could hear all over the midway and the people would all come to see what was happening. I remember a girlie (dancing) show across from us. They drew a lot of people but not as many as we did. One time there was not too many people around. He got on the bally stand in his tights. Seen about four or five girls coming. He raised his arm limp, shoulder high and looked at it, pretending he had muscle. They stopped, looked and laughed and said “you haven’t got any muscle.” He would look serious and pretend to show that he did. First thing you know people would stop to see what was going on. The more they stopped the bigger the crowd. Then we would get on the bally stand with him and challenge the crowd. Sometimes we couldn’t get anyone to come up. Then he would apply some heat, get them a little mad and finally someone would come up and we would start. It cost those who came in to see it 10 cents. They would have to stand and of course the ring was about three or four feet high. If nobody came up he would try some more heat. He might look at a young couple and say, “what’s the matter, are you afraid?” They might be, but in front of their girlfriends they would often come up. I think when the people saw they didn’t hurt bad, others would get on the bally stand. You had to remember not to apply too much heat, like saying they were yellow or farmers. These shows were at county fairs, homecomings, etc., so you had to be careful. I’ve heard more than once that the crowd got mad and tore the tent down. These smaller towns usually didn’t have any boxers or wrestlers, maybe one. They didn’t want to get shown up so often fighters would come around when people were not there. They would hint or come right out and say that they wanted to work. By that I mean take it easy, pull your punches and make it look good. If he would draw or maybe even maybe win, he’d be popular and later could tell his grandkids. It saved us a lot as we might have to fight two to six times a day. Sometimes in the dressing room I’d ask him, “Do you want to work or shoot?” If I thought he was a nice guy I’d explain it to him. If not a nice guy I’d say never mind and go in and fight. Once in Napolean, Ohio a kid seemed nice so I explained it to him. He said yes. I left openings and WHAM! I got a hard one. I thought it was a mistake, but he did it again so I let him have a few. I went to the dressing room and he was in there crying. I felt bad and said “you tried to take me.” He said “no.” I felt bad and said “let’s do it again and do it right.” He said “O.K.” and we did it twice more. He was happy and the people liked it. When I told him he tried to take me, he said “no.” I told him “don’t try to kid me buddy, I do this every day and I know.” Anyways, it came out all right.

Midway Boxing Bally Stand (England, off copyright)
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          Sometimes things happened that were really funny. One time we were at a town that had a good heavyweight wrestler. He came and ‘worked’ with Speedy Martin. His name was ‘Killer Briner’. Speedy thought that he was working too stiff (rough). The Killer would just laugh. One day the crowd had thinned down so the Greek, being the showman he was, said, “I’ll put both boxers along with Speedy against the Killer.” The crowd piled in. I heard Speedy tell Paul “now is the time we can get him.” I wanted no part of that, as I liked him. They started and Speedy got a half-Nelson on him with his head sticking out. Paul took aim, and WHAM hit him hard on the nose. I saw a little blood come out. He let out a roar like a wounded bull. Paul got out of the ring fast. I couldn’t as he had a hold of Speedy and his big legs around my neck and quivering. I couldn’t breathe. I think he saw that and felt I was not in on it and let me loose. I didn’t waste any time getting out of the ring. Then he worked Speedy over. Speedy got a good lesson and the crowd got their money’s worth.

          One other thing was funny. The Greek’s wife took in the money. Paul told me to watch her counting the money for the days take. He said occasionally she would raise her dress and shove some bills in her pocket and to let her notice I was watching and it would pay off. I did watch her and sure enough, she did that and saw me looking. I noticed a few extra dollars in my pay then.  

          At that time some men worked for a dollar a day. Trouble was we had to eat out and that took most of our money. After fighting, we would take a bucket bath in our dressing room. Then we would gather in the front of the ring and shoot the breeze with each other or with fighters or wrestlers from the area. At the Bucyrus, Ohio, fair Speedy had kinfolk from nearby Galion, Ohio. They brought hogs to the fair. Usually, we would crawl under the ring, drag out our blankets and sleep in the ring that we had fought in that day. Believe you me, it was a pretty rough life. Especially as I was only seventeen. Back to Speedy. He wanted me to go the barn where his kinfolk had their hogs. I said O.K. and when it came to sleeping we laid on the top of a bunch of straw about 10 or 15 feet high. Did I say sleep? Hardly. Them darn hogs squealed and snorted all night. Then in the morning, I was embarrassed as the farmers came in early to see the hogs. And there we were in our underclothes and I thought “boy! Never again.” But how many people can say they slept with the hogs, yeah! And who would want to?

Sleeping pigs (Pixabay.com)
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          I hurt my leg hitting a sharp tent stake. With all the fighting it became badly infected and I left for home. It looked almost like gangrene had set in. Mom would put a tobacco poultice on it in the daytime as it was strong and would burn the flesh. At night she would put on a poultis (these were wet) of bread and milk. Well, that’s one old-fashioned remedy that done the trick and it healed good. [How to make a milk and bread poultice, HERE] I might add sometimes I’d step barefooted on a nail sticking up. This old remedy always did the trick.

Other Related Posts (links):

52 Ancestors: #7 Don B. Snyder (1918-2012) 

Don Snyder's Fall 

A Treasure to Share

Don B Snyder. Part 1 – Riding The Rails 1, Growing Up

Don B Snyder. Part 3 – Civilian Conservation Corps

Don B Snyder. Part 4: Riding the Rails 2; Coming home

Don B Snyder, Part 5: Joining the Army

Don B Snyder, Part 6: The Pygmies of New Guinea

Don B Snyder, Part 7: The Japs

Don B Snyder. Part 8: Shot in the Leg 

Don B Snyder. Part 9: Army Boxing

Don B Snyder. Part 10: Cooper Tire

Don B Snyder. Part 11: Barber  

Don B Snyder. Part 12:  Caving  

Don B Snyder. Part 13: Women

Don B Snyder: Part 1 - Riding the Rails I, Growing Up

Donald B Snyder
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This is Part 1 of a 13-part blog series sharing my Grand-uncle Don’s life story, in his own words, via an autobiography sent to me by Don’s grandson, Ron Oldfield, after Ron stumbled across one of my prior posts about his grandfather. It is shared with the permission of both of Don’s children and Ron Oldfield. [Note – Anything in brackets with green type is my added explanation of something in Don’s text.]

Don’s story:

Some of my family members wanted me to write down some of my experiences. Two years went by and I thought, “Why not?” Everybody has had experiences but I doubt if they have experienced what I have. I was born in Findlay, Ohio in 1918. As a baby, I had a close call with double pneumonia, but I made it.

RIDING THE RAILS 1

Milk Delivery to City Homes (In the public domain; LOC)
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          Nothing of note growing up. I did get in trouble from skipping school and was put on probation. It was in the Big Depression and people would put change in the milk bottles [left out on the front porch], they had deliveries at home in those days. Kids all over town were swiping it. I hadn’t done any of that. A neighbor kid wanted me to do it with him and I said “O.K.”. The first and only bottle I picked up had six cents in it. There was snow on the ground and we got caught. I think they wanted to make an example of us as they took us to the city jail. There they read us off, handcuffed us, and walked us to the county jail. There they locked us up in a room that had a toilet. I heard they kept woman prisoners there. We were in solitaire. At each meal, they would shove a tray through a trap door. It was usually so hot you couldn’t eat it in a few minutes and they would take it back whether we had eaten it or not. Three days later my brother went to the sheriff to report me missing. He told him he had us upstairs. I was 15 years old and they hadn’t even notified our parents. After five days we went to court. The judge told off my parents and let me go. I never got in trouble again. I think this hard time is good for kids as it scares the daylights out of them. I’ve heard that juvenile places have TV and ping pong, etc. That doesn’t necessarily teach them a lesson.

Times were real bad in the Big Depression. If a man could work for a dollar a day, you got by ok. My dad had owned a number of houses. All were mortgaged. Times were so bad he lost them all except one large twelve room house with three lots, also an acre of ground where he raised black raspberries to sell, plus fruit trees. Also my uncle Howard, my mother’s brother. He lived alone in a small one-room house. He helped my dad some and dad looked after him. One day dad went to see how his chickens were. The whole dozen were dead. He asked Howard what happened. Howard said, “they looked like they had the croup.” He thought he should doctor them. Dad asked, “what with?” Howard replied “coal oil and cayenne pepper.” Those poor chicks.

Back to the depression. Dad couldn’t find work after being laid off. They would shut off our electric and we would use coal oil lamps. Finally, he would pay it and they would turn it on. Then the natural gas would be shut off and we had a big kitchen range. You could burn gas and on one side you could burn coal to cook on, plus it had a hot water tank. Often we would have froze but we did as a lot of our neighbors did, got coal from the railroad beside our house. We were blessed by having another railroad up ahead that crossed ours.

Nickel Plate Railroad Schedule Cover (in public domain)
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We lived beside the Nickel Plate Railroad. Up ahead it crossed the New York Central Railroad. The trains would stop by our house until they got the ‘all clear’signal from the guy in the little shanty at the crossover. A few times he fell asleep and the fireman had to walk and wake him up. At times you could see at least a couple dozen or more people riding in empty boxcars or gondolas, empty coal cars that had a flat bottom and sides about six to seven feet high. All cars had rungs at each end that went to the top. There was a board walkway in the middle of the top about 16 inches wide and four inches high from one end to the other. It was possible to go car to car by jumping across the ends of the cars. It was enticing to me and I started to hop onto the trains. People were not working then and had no money to buy coal. These trains stopping there was a blessing to them. They would get on top of coal cars at night and throw the coal off. Lots of people did it. It kept many a family from freezing. The police seemed to look the other way. I remember a kid I went to school with. He told me he and his brother were throwing off coal from a coal car. He saw his brother standing there doing nothing. He spoke up and said, “come on, let’s get this coal in before a bull (detective) shows up”. Turned out he was talking to a bull. He took them downtown and then let them go. I suppose so they could pick up the coal and take it home as it wouldn’t look good laying around in the daylight.

          There wasn’t any work and nothing to do, so I started riding the freight trains. Mostly everyone rode in empty boxcars with the doors open. I got the wanderlust and started riding them. The boxcars were fine. The coal gondolas were about six feet high inside. Not so good, but you couldn’t be seen except from someone climbing up or looking down from an adjoining boxcar. Then the big tank cars had a big walk around them. It was O.K. to stand and hold onto a handrail around the car. If you sat on the walkway you didn’t have much to hold on to, especially when the train would jerk. Then there was the ‘hopper’ dump cars. They were higher than the gondolas. And the insides slanted down so the coal could discharge from the bottom. At the lake ports they would turn the car upside down, empty it onto the lake boats, turn it upright and down to the yards. There were not comfortable to ride in. As for the boxcars, you could sleep in them if you didn’t mind the clickety-click of the rails, the ding-ding-ding of the streetcars, etc. After a while, you got used to it. Also, the bulls couldn’t see you very well. On the ‘reefers’ (refrigerator cars) at each end, there was an ice compartment. It was about six feet wide and the width of the car with rails you could climb down in the car. On top of the compartment was a trap door about three by two feet on each side of the car. They were kind of heavy and you could throw one back and not have to worry about it slamming shut. It made a nice place to ride although you missed the scenery. Sometimes you would climb up to see if everything was ok. And get back down. Out west, most of the cars were meat runs to Chicago and were full. Then you would ride the top, between the cars hanging on, or whatever. These meat runs ran at 60 to 70 miles per hour.

Boy Hopping Train, Great Depression (in public domain; LOC)
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          I have rode passenger cars also. Where the cars connected there was a folding part, about three feet wide and covered. They joined together so people could walk from car to car. The front car next to the engine was open and you could ride covered and standing up. Called the ‘blind baggage’. You had to know the railroads as some (Pennsylvania) had a track in the middle filled with water. The train would slow down, let down a chute and scoop up the water into the tender. It would throw a lot of water onto the front car. I read where a Toledo man was froze fast in the winter. They chiseled him out and he was O.K. Another time a man froze to death in the same way. One time I was hiking from Canton, Ohio to home. It was dark and snowing. I came to a railroad, the ‘Pennsy’ (Pennsylvania Railroad) passenger was at the station across the road from where I was standing. I got an idea. I knew it went to Lima, Ohio so I went to the blind baggage next to the engine. I knew after the next stop that it took water on the ‘fly’ so I went back a couple of cars, hanging on between cars. It was risky as I only seen a couple of guys hanging on between cars on passengers. Anyway, I did it and was o.k. When I went to the front again everything was wet as was the second car. Next stop I went backward and repeated it. After that, I rode the front and got to Lima o.k. Then to Findlay on the Nickel Plate. It was a good thing I knew the railroads. I might add that I was 15 to 16 years old then. I would often go to Lima and back later to Muncie, Indiana. There I’d sleep in the jail basement on the cement along with about 50 or more others. I knew how to go through the garage without checking in at the desk. One night I noticed a guard there. I asked him why and he said, “you know about that murderer that’s in the paper headlines?” I said “yes,” and he said, “we think he sleeps down here.” In the morning I went to a mission for doughnuts and coffee. Then I caught a freight to Lima. It was around 0º F and I had to ride the top and hanging on between the cars. I almost froze, but I made it. I got off the train in Lima, Ohio as it slowly rode into the yards. Then I walked around the yards onto a bridge. A man saw me and in a shocked way said, “do you know some idiot came in on that train?” I said, “yes, I’m the crazy idiot.” I left him mumbling something I didn’t hear. As I said it was 0º F plus the speed of the train made it worse.

Montreal Mission Soup Kitchen, 1931 (out of copyright in CA & USA)
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Lima, Ohio had a bull ‘detective’ named Lima Slim, and the word was he was mean and had killed a couple of riders. I went through Lima a lot of times but never had the pleasure of meeting him. This was because, as we entered the yards, I’d get off and walk around the yards and at the other end, I’d hide and catch it as it was leaving. One time I and a friend, Chuck Brown, wanted to go to South America. We thought we might hire on a freight ship in New Orleans, hence getting to South America. I didn’t even tell my folks I was leaving. I often did this, going to Lima, Muncie, Indiana, and Indianapolis. On this trip, we left Findlay, Ohio on a Nickel Plate Railroad freight train. We got to Indianapolis ok. Up ahead we saw a freight leaving the yards. I wondered as it was a short one. Anyways, we caught it and got in a boxcar. It went a ways and stopped, switched cars and went on. Then I realized it was what was called a ‘beltline’ that does switching from yard to yard. We got off and walked miles from where we started at 5º F. Well we gave up on that one and did the only sensible thing: went home.

I might add that I knew the railroads very well: where they went and which ones had the reputations that you should avoid them. About two years ago I saw in the newspaper a man [Errol Lincoln Uys] was writing a book about teenagers riding the rail and requesting them to write him. I did and he wrote the book Riding the Rails [you can find the book HERE ], which I understand was a best seller. He then sent me a copy of a paragraph that was about me.

“It was terrible way to live. It was rough and dangerous but there was also a mystical quality,” said Don Snyder, who rode the rails for three years from 1933, when he was 15. “The sound and moan of a whistle in the silent darkness echoing through the hills. The smell of the cars and the clicking of the rails. The ding, ding, ding at the crossings. The excitement of avoiding the bulls and the brakies. The open prairies, the mountains, the clear skies above you. For all the hardships, you feel a faint longing to hit the road again. I wouldn’t do it for anything.”

[The author has a longer quote from Don on his author website, in the Archive section for the book, Riding the Rails, it is the fifth entry in the OHIO section, below the New York section, THIS PAGE ]

Once we were fighting at an athletic show at a homecoming in Hicksville. Coming home, we hitched to Defiance, Ohio and I saw a passenger train at the station. I said, “let’s catch it.” Chuck said, “o.k.,” so we watched as the bull searched the train so we caught it on the run. At Deshler, Ohio it stopped for water and the fireman who came back on the tender to put the water in. He saw us, looked back and pointed his finger back. I said, “it’s the bull [detective], let’s get off.” Chuck said, “let’s go for the weeds.” I said, “no, let’s go on the station side, he won’t expect us to do that.” We did and got away. I said, “Chuck, I think we can still catch it.” On the opposite side of the station, we went to the front. The bull came running around the corner and bumped right into us. He swelled up like a toad, face red, and puffing. He looked at Chuck and said, “I see you have a black eye, I’d like to blacken the other one.” Then he looked at me and said, “you too.” I wanted to say “try it and you’ll wish you hadn’t.” There were a lot of people watching so he said “now you kids get out of here,” and we did, hitchhiking the rest of the way home. Another time I was younger and a pervert tried to grab me. I ran up a grade and he caught me. We wrestled down the grade turning over and his face ran into a bramble bush. He let go and I took off. Chuck stayed home, but I hitched and went to Wapakoneta, Ohio and joined the athletic show again.

Other Related Posts (links):

52 Ancestors: #7 Don B. Snyder (1918-2012) 

Don Snyder's Fall 

A Treasure to Share

Don B Snyder. Part 2 – Athletic Shows

Don B Snyder. Part 3 – Civilian Conservation Corps

Don B Snyder. Part 4: Riding the Rails 2; Coming home

Don B Snyder, Part 5: Joining the Army

Don B Snyder, Part 6: The Pygmies of New Guinea

Don B Snyder, Part 7: The Japs

Don B Snyder. Part 8: Shot in the Leg 

Don B Snyder. Part 9: Army Boxing

Don B Snyder. Part 10: Cooper Tire

Don B Snyder. Part 11: Barber  

Don B Snyder. Part 12:  Caving  

Don B Snyder. Part 13: Women

A Treasure to Share

Image from Pixabay.com

I have a treasure to share with you over the next few weeks!

I’ve recently been contacted by a new-to-me second cousin, Ron Oldfield, who is the grandson of my grand-uncle Don B Snyder.  (You might recall I shared the story of Don’s 30-foot fall from a freight train outside Arapahoe NE in 1936 early last year.) Ron told me that his grandfather had, at the request of his family, written out his life story and Ron organized and typed it! He sent me a copy.  Let me tell you, Don Snyder is a great story-teller!

With the permission of Don’s children and Ron, I’m going to share with you Don’s story, in his own words, over the next several weeks. The way it is written it naturally breaks down into 13 posts, with his own titles. Barring unforeseen problems, I intend to publish them as follows:

1.      Riding the Rails I: Growing Up  [Monday night, March 26, 2018]

2.      Athletic Show [Wednesday night, March 28, 2018]

3.      Civilian Conservation Corps (2^nd time) [Friday night, March 30, 2018]

4.      Riding the Rails II: Coming Home [Monday night, April 2, 2018]

5.      Joining The Army [Wednesday night, April 4, 2018]

6.      The Pygmies of New Guinea [Friday night, April 6, 2018]

7.      The Japs [Monday night, April 9, 2018]

8.      Shot in the Leg [Wednesday night, April 11, 2018]

9.      Army Boxing [Friday night, April 13, 2018]

10.   Cooper Tire [Monday night, April 16, 2018]

11.   Barber [Wednesday night, April 18, 2018]

12.   Caving [Friday night, April 20, 2018]

13.   Women [Monday night, April 23, 2018]

As each section is published, I will come back and make the section title here a live link to that section. [Due to other commitments, I’m going to have to learn how to use Blogger’s time-release function for a few of them. I trust that it will work; if it doesn’t, the schedule will change. ]

Other Related Posts (links):

52 Ancestors: #7 Don B. Snyder (1918-2012) 

Don Snyder's Fall 

Johann Jakob Schneider (1792 – 1871) and Eva Maria Haumann (abt 1802 - ?), my 4th great-grandparents

Modern Map of German States
Hesse is in blue & we are from the far south portion of Hesse
Map is n the public domain
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As I explained earlier my second great grandparents were both Snyders.  I was told that both John and Katharine were from unrelated Schneider lines which originated in different areas of Germany. I now know each family immigrated to the United States (to Ohio) in different decades, but my research so far has shown both sides originated from the southern portion of Hessen, Germany.  I did a post on my second great-grandfather, John Snyder’s father, Johannes Schneider, earlier this year (See HERE), and I did Katharine’s parents last month (see HERE).

My 4^th great grandfather  Johann Jakob Schneider, was born 1 October 1792, in Hohenstadten, in an area of Hesse-Darmstadt (pre-Germany) which stores its records in Reichenbach, Starkenburg, Hesse, Germany to Johann Georg Schneider (abt 1760 - ?) and Elisabetha Catharina Bauer (1765-1810). He was the second oldest of six children (that I know of): Johann Georg (1783-1867, m. Anna Maria Moesinger), my 4^th great-grandfather Johann Jakob, Anna Margaretha (1798-1852, m. Johann Peter Keil), Johannes (1800-1858, m. Elisabetha Katharina Hoffmaenn), Anna Barbara (1802-1865, m. Johannes Gersich), Anna Katharina (1805-1827) and Johann Michael (1808-?).  Their mother died in 1810 when Jakob was 18, and his youngest brother was two years old.

When Jakob was 26, he married Eva Maria Haumann on December 6, 1818, in a Protestant church in Reichenbach, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt. The marriage record indicated that Jacob was 23 years old and his parents were Johann Georg Schneider and Elisabetha Katharina Bauer. His bride, Eva Maria, was 16 years old and her parents were Johannes Hausmann and Anna Elisabetha Heldman.

Map of Hessen, Germany
Jakob and his family lived in the purple part.
Click to Make Bigger.

They had five children that I’ve found all born in the same area of Hessen-Darmstadt. There are long enough gaps in their birthdates that I wouldn’t be surprised if they had other children that I haven’t found yet. Their first daughter, Anna Maria, was born about a year after their marriage on 26 November 1819 and she was baptized in the church her parents married in, but she lived only a little over three years and died on 31 January 1823. Their next child, Eva Maria, was born a little over nine months later on 8 November 1823 in Gadernhein, Hessen (m. Johannes Allmann 20 Jan 1853 and dd. 17 Nov 1866.) Their third daughter, Elizabetha Katharina, was born three years later on 1 February 1826. My 3^rd- great-grandfather, Johann Philip, was next, born on 10 January 1831 (his story is HERE). The youngest child, Johann Georg, was born 11 October 1837.

I haven’t found a marriage for their third daughter, Elizabetha Katharina, but I did find a daughter born to her in Hesse, on 24 January 1854, named after her mother, Eva Maria Schneider.

The Hessen Archives has an online database listing those who emigrated from Hesse; it indicates that Johann Jakob Schneider emigrated from Darmstadt in 1854 to America. Notes indicated that he was traveling with his children. It does not mention Jakob’s wife so I think she had died prior to the time the family left for America. I’ve looked through the Germans to America Indices, and through several passenger list websites, but haven’t yet find found any of the family (for certain) so I don’t know when they actually traveled to the U.S.A. or on which ship(s), or at which port(s) they arrived.

Many of the farmers and craftsmen and shopkeepers who came to America from the German States in the mid-1800’s were disturbed by the collapse of the Industrial Revolution in Germany, agricultural reform, overpopulation, crop failure (potatoes), a lack of land in their homeland to expand, and the collapse of the 1848 March revolution in the southwestern Germanic states.  Those farmers, fearing a loss of their land to government confiscation, opted to sell their land, ironically at higher rates than usual since the land was so scarce, and move to America where land was known to be cheaper and more abundant.  

Many Germanic immigrants had only limited financial resources and/or followed friends and family as they first moved into established rural settlements, and certain cities. The mid-west was the most popular American region for Germanic immigrants to settle in. Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio had similar climate and geographical conditions to that of Central Europe, making farming there more familiar to the Germanic settlers. This may explain why Jakob and his family ended up in northwest Ohio.

German Immigrants to North America (1853)
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Settlement Patterns of German Americans, based on the 2000 Census
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While Jacob immigrated to America with most of his family, his daughter Eva Maria stayed in Hesse with her husband Johannes Allmann, who she had married on 20 Jan 1853. They had his first grandchild, Anna Elisabethe, on 29 Aug 1853. Sadly, she died on 24 July 1854. I don’t know whether Jakob was still there when his granddaughter died.  I don’t think he ever saw his daughter again after he emigrated.  She and her husband had two more children, sons Georg Phillip (I think she missed her brothers), born 16 Nov 1856 and Johann Peter, born 19 June 1861.  They would never have known their grandfather or maternal aunt and uncles.

I know that Jakob and his family were in Hancock County, Ohio, USA, by 1860, when he was 66, because they are listed in the 1860 Census, in Union Township. He had anglicized his name to Jacob Snider. Living with him are his daughter, Elisabeth (age 33), and her daughter Mary (age 6); his son, Philip (age 29) and his wife, Hannah (age 26), [my 3^rd great-grandparents] and their first two children, Catherine (age 2) and Frederick Nicholas (listed as Nicholos, age 5/12) ; and his youngest son, George (age 22). The Census indicates that Jacob, Elisabeth, Philip, George, and Mary were born in Hesse, Germany; Hannah was born in Pennsylvania; and Catherine and Nicholos were born in Ohio. Jacob was working as a day laborer and Philip was a carpenter.  All the adults (over 20) could read and write.

The next year the Civil War erupted in their new country. German Americans who arrived in the 19^th Century overwhelmingly fought for the Union, over 200,000 of them, while thousands of Germanic Americans who arrived in Pennsylvania earlier in the 18^th Century and whose families migrated to North Carolina chose to fight for the Confederacy.

Ohio Civil War Recruitment Poster
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Jacob’s youngest son, George, joined the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company A, as a private, under an act passed on April 27, 1861, for the defense of the state because Ohio was a border state and thus in danger of invasion. The 21^st was ordered by General McClellan on July 3, 1861, to Ravenswood VA to reinforce other troops, and drove Confederates back at Ripley VA. On July 11, 1861, it became part of General Cox’s brigade and participated in the Battle of Scary Creek in West VA. George mustered out at the end of the first enlistment period, of the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, on 12 August 1861.

In the latter half of the 1860s, mail from home would have brought Jacob sad news. His sister Anna Barbara Gersich died on 4 June 1865.  Next, the daughter he had left behind, Eva Maria Allmann, died on 17 Nov 1866, leaving her two young sons motherless. Finally, his oldest brother, Johann Georg, died on 19 April 1867.

By 1870 Jacob, now 77, his sons, and Philip’s family had moved to Madison Township in Hancock County, Ohio, near the village of Arlington, about ten miles from the county seat, Findlay. (I lost his daughter Anna Katharina and her daughter Eva Maria after the 1860 census.) The family now spelled their last name “Snyder”. The property the family lived on belonged to Philip, now 39. He and his wife, Hannah, 35, had six children at home: Catherine (12), Nicholas (9), George (8), Elizabeth (5), Philip (2), and John (6/12, born in February).  Jacob’s youngest son, George (32) also lived in the household. Philip’s children Catherine, Nicholas, George, and Elizabeth attended school.  Philip was now a millwright and a farmer.  Jacob is listed as a retired farmer and George as a farmer.

Jacob died the next year, on 21 October 1871, at age 79.  He is buried in St. Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery, in Arlington, Hancock County, Ohio, USA. His gravestone bears a lengthy inscription, in German.

Grave of Jacob Schneider, in St. Paul's Cemetery, Van Buren Township, Hancock County OH
posted with permission of C.H. (I do not  own copyright & cannot give permission for its reuse.)
Click to make bigger.

My cousin Steve, who, thankfully, is fluent in modern and old German, translated the inscription on Jacob’s gravestone, for me,  from the above photograph, although part of it was obscured by a plant:  “Jacob Schneider born in Hohenstadten, Hessen Darmstadt Germany on the 1st of December 1792. In the year 1808 he became a soldier in the German Army and participated in the campaign against Napoleon the 1st. With his [illegible] he was awarded a medal by his [illegible] and in the year 18[illegible] on the 21st of December his life ended.”

It looks like there are quite a few clues on that gravestone (and would be more if that plant wasn’t there!), but it confused me more than it enlightened me. The inscription indicates that when Jacob was approximately 16 he was fighting with the German Army against Napoleon and got a medal for it.  I’ve been reading many synopses of the history of the Duchies/Landgraviates of Hessen in the process of writing my last several posts and I think I’m going to have to study a bit more in-depth to figure out how he fought against Napoleon in the German Army in 1808, since at that point in time most of the Hessen-Darmstadt troops were fighting with the French Army - on Napoleon’s side (1806-1813). It wasn’t until 1813 that Hesse-Darmstadt joined the allies (Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and several other German states) and fought on the side of the 6^th Coalition against France & Napoleon, which succeeded in pushing France out of Germany in 1814.

Either Jacob’s surviving family misremembered the date he fought in the army, or he was in the army in 1808 but was fighting FOR Napoleon and the story morphed over time since Napoleon not only wasn’t the good guy, but he lost. Or it’s also possible Jacob joined the Prussian Army which had a part in the Peninsular War (initially Napoleon/the French Army and Spain vs. the Sixth Coalition for control of the Iberian Peninsula, 1807-1814, until in 1808 when France turned on its former ally, Spain, as well). I’ve been trying to figure out what medal Jacob was awarded as that might pin down where he fought and against whom but have had no success because I really need to know where he fought and against whom first to have a chance at finding more information on the medal.  

If anyone reading this has any suggestions that might help me solve the puzzle of who Jacob fought for in the Napoleonic Wars and what medal he received, or on what ship/when he immigrated to America, please

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Hessen Baptismal records and Marriage records, Ancestry(.)com indexes;  1860  & 1870 U.S. Censuses; Hancock County, Ohio, Cemetery Inscription, Orange and Van Buren Townships, Hancock County Genealogical Society (1995); History of Hancock County [Ohio] from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Together with Reminiscences of Pioneer Life, Incidents, Statistical Tables, and Biographical Sketches, by Daniel Barna Beardsley (Springfield, OH, Republic Printing Company. 1881.); History of Hancock County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County, Its Townships, Towns ... Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, Biographies, History of the Northwest Territory, History of Ohio, Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., by  (Chicago. Warner, Beers & Co. 1886.);  https://arcinsys.hessen.de/arcinsys/detailAction.action?detailid=v3826624 (Source: M.d.I. Abl. 11, Konv. 58 II (Part.V) Film 12 No. 476); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Fourth_Coalition; https://www.britannica.com/place/Hesse-Darmstadt; http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/FeaturesEurope/GermanyHesse_History01.htm; http://www.many-roads.com/2013/12/26/hesse-prussia-genealogy-research/ ; http://www2.needham.k12.ma.us/nhs/cur/kane98/kane_p3_immig/German/germany.html; https://www.geografox.net/GermanCommunities/immigration.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Americans_in_the_American_Civil_War