Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 744
ALONZO H. SNIFF

The value of a newspaper in a community cannot be overestimated, and especially when it is under the management of a capable and conscientious editor. One of the best newspapers of Harrison county, Iowa, is the Harrison County News at Missouri Valley, which, under the management of Alonzo H. SNIFF, has been a potent factor for good in the county for more than a quarter of a century. Mr. SNIFF is a college-trained man, a successful educator of many years' experience, and later the publisher and editor of the Harrison County News. His paper always has espoused all movements and reforms which have promised better conditions in the county and certainly has been one of the most potent agencies in the advancement of the general welfare of the people of Harrison county.

Alonzo H. SNIFF, the son of Edward and Rebecca (FUNK) SNIFF, was born in Logan county, Ohio, June 12, 1853. His parents were both natives of Pennsylvania, of German ancestry. His father was a contractor and builder and one of those solid German citizens possessed of industry and perseverance. William N. SNIFF, the grandfather of Alonzo H., came with his four or five sons to Green Bay, Lee county, Iowa, in the spring of 1845, and took up farming and stock raising. On account of ill health William N. SNIFF returned with his family to Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life. Alonzo H. SNIFF's father returned to Lee county, Iowa, in 1857, having learned the carpenter trade and married in his native state. Edward SNIFF first bought a ten-acre tract in Lee county, which, in a few years, he increased to forty acres, and this small farm Alonzo H. SNIFF farmed when he was fifteen years of age. Edward SNIFF later bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in the same locality and Alonzo H. and his younger brother continued working on their father's farm until they were grown. His father later sold the farm and moved to the town of Denmark, Lee county, Iowa, to educate the children. This town was founded in 1837 by a band of Congregationalists from New England. The SNIFF children were all desirous of an education and Denmark offered excellent opportunities for schooling. After removing to Denmark with his family Edward SNIFF bought another farm at the edge of that town and lived there until his death, October 3, 1908, at the age of seventy-eight.

Edward SNIFF and wife were the parents of ten children, five of whom are living, D. A., a contractor of Hutchinson, Kansas; W. W. SNIFF, the pastor of the Christian church at Newcastle, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Sadie RICHARDS, a widow living in Los Angeles, California; Mrs. Ida FARLEY, the wife of E. S. FARLEY, auditor of the Missouri, Kansas City and Texas Railway Company at Parsons, Kansas, and Alonzo H., of Missouri Valley, Iowa.

Alonzo H. SNIFF was graduated from the classical course of the Denmark Academy in 1877. In the fall of the same year he started in teaching as superintendent of the Parkersburg, Iowa, schools, and taught in various places until the spring of 1897, since which time he has been the publisher of the Harrison County News. After leaving Parkersburg he was superintendent of the schools at Webster City, Nevada, and then went to Dunlap, Iowa. His last educational work was done in Missouri Valley, Iowa, where he was superintendent of the schools. He was a very successful teacher, and while teaching in Nevada had Billy SUNDAY, the famous evangelist, as one of his pupils. Dean CURTISS, of the Iowa State College, was another of Mr. SNIFF's pupils. Mr. SNIFF moved to Dunlap, Harrison county, Iowa, in 1882, and to Missouri Valley in 1886. He had bought the News at Missouri Valley in 1886, but taught the year 1886-7 in Missouri Valley as superintendent of the schools. Since 1887 he has devoted all of his time and attention to his editorial duties.

Mr. SNIFF has always been identified with the Republican party in politics, although he is not a partisan in any sense of the word. In 1888 he was the presidential elector from the Ninth Congressional District, and cast the vote of his district for Benjamin HARRISON. His paper has been noted for its support of all uplift movements and has taken the lead in the fight for public welfare measures. It labored zealously for the installation of a drainage system in the county, and for telephones and for all public improvements. Mr. SNIFF has been a frequent speaker on the platform and has a wide reputation as an orator.

The Harrison County News at present is published but twice a week, although for eighteen years it was a daily paper. Mr. SNIFF has been a Mason since 1881. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is president of the Old Settlers' Association of Harrison county, an association which has annual meetings, and which has been made the basis of a county historical association.

Mr. SNIFF was married November 28, 1878, to Mary E. GUTHRIE, who was one of his teachers at Shellsburg, Iowa. Mrs. SNIFF is a woman of refinement and culture and deeply interested in various church and literary societies of the city. She also has been closely associated with her husband in the editing and management of the News, in which work she has shown as much if not more efficiency than in her educational or club work. Jointly these two people have devoted their lives for the good of humanity, rather than with a view to amassing riches. In this work they have found their chief joy in living, "For the good they may be doing as the years are passing by."

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