Snider, Amos

SNIDER, MESSICK, HAMILTON, BAILEY, JUMPER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 10/21/2009 at 13:45:23

Snider, Amos

It is the pride of the inhabitants of this country that when the titanic struggle between the states closed in 1865 all the vast army of citizen soldiery quietly laid down their arms and returned to the pursuits of peace. It was predicted by the governments of Europe, not only that the country would be divided, but that after the war an enormous army would be kept up and a military dictatorship would be established on the fragments, perhaps of every state. Foreign nations did not understand the spirit of the people of this country, that is, the spirit of the people in all the free states. They could not understand how we could come to love the name of liberty and be willing to sacrifice blood and treasure to save a country founded upon the rock of freedom. In view of these misguided ideas the most of the foreign nations stood ready to pounce upon the fragments when the smoke of war had rolled away. But they beheld a splendid sight. They saw the great armies melt away, saw a reunited country in which liberty was a fact as well as a name, and saw the soldiers return to their farms and shops, mills and various other vocations.

One of the gallant boys in blue thus to return was Amos Snider, now a well-established farmer of Richland Township, Jasper County. He was born in Linn County, Iowa, three and one-half miles south of Cedar Rapids, about 1843, the son of John and Margaret Snider, the father a native of Sangamon County, Illinois, and the mother of Kentucky. Each came to Iowa in pioneer days, single, and located in Linn County. The father devoted his life to farming and became the owner of some property there, but sold out and moved to Hardin County when it was still new and about 1853 or 1854 he moved to Jasper County, where he remained until 1865, when he moved to Kansas, in which state his death occurred in 1883. His wife died in Jasper County. They were the parents of seven children, three supposed to be living at this writing.

The elder Snider was a Republican, but took little active interest in public affairs, being of a retiring disposition. He, too, was a veteran of the Civil War, having served in Company K, Twenty-eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, for a period of nearly three years, during which time he took part in about fifteen battles and skirmishes, in one of which he was wounded in the arm.

Amos Snider, being reared in a newly settled country where schools were few, had no chance to obtain an education; then, too, it was necessary for him to assist with the general work in developing the home farm. He was eighteen years of age when he accompanied his parents to Jasper County. He entered the army in the same company with his father and took part in about the same engagements, serving about the same length of time. He was in the siege of Vicksburg, the battles of Lookout Mountain, Port Gibson and Champion's Hill. At the last named battle he was wounded in the left side of the head by a bursting shell, which badly stunned him, but he recovered in due course of time. After the war he returned to Jasper County and began operating a sawmill in Lynn Grove Township, which he continued for eight or nine years, then went to Kansas, where he remained a year. Returning to Richland Township, this county, he bought a farm of twenty acres, which he gradually added to until he now has a very productive and desirable place consisting of one hundred and twenty acres in this township. This land he cleared, broke and improved and placed under a high state of cultivation. He is also the owner of eighty acres of good land near Newton and twenty acres northeast of his home. He has carried on general farming and stock raising successfully, but is now living practically retired from active life.

Politically, Mr. Snider is a Republican. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic.

Mr. Snider was married about 1864 to Millie Ann Messick, after he returned from the army. She died about a year later, leaving twins, William Henry and Minnie; the former died at the age of twenty years, and the latter married a Mr. Hamilton. About two years after the death of his first wife, Mr. Snider was married to Dora Bailey, whose death occurred about 1894. To this union one child was born, Nellie, who is still living. Mr. Snider was again married, his last wife being Mrs. Jennie Jumper, who was born in Illinois, a daughter of Jackson and Susan Jumper. Her family came to Iowa when Mrs. Snider was four years old and here her father died and the mother is still living. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1184.