Fontabelle Baker Snodgrass

Next post: Harry Snodgrass
Next post: Ada Baker

Last week brought many new treasures to DC's favorite antique store, Miss Pixies. I rummaged through the photo bin and picked out the labeled photos, including a university portrait of Fontabelle Baker Snodgrass. And with a name like that, how could I pass it up?

This fantastically-kept portrait was found alongside numerous other old and unique photos, including two group photos labeled "Mortar Board 1919" and 'AZD National Convention Boston 1919'.

I had also found photos I suspected to be of the same Baker-Snodgrass family (a family great at labeling photos!) including one of young Fontabelle and her brother.

The first stop in tracking down the subject of an old photo is finding them on a genealogy site of your choosing: I prefer FamilySearch, as it is free to access for anyone, but Ancestry would work just the same.

The stamp imprint on Fontabelle's portrait tells us it was taken in Ohio - this would be information you could include in your search, though with a name like Fontabelle Snodgrass, I figured a simple name search would turn up all the information I was looking for. And it did.

Fontabelle was born to Lyman and Ada Baker on November 4, 1897 in Ohio. Her family lived on Sandusky Street, the main street cutting through Mechanicsburg, Ohio (Goshen Township) where Lyman worked as a physician.

Considering Lyman was a physician, I had assumed I'd be able to find some information about his practice, similar to the information I found on Luba Schachter's husband. But, zilch.

Another photo found at Miss Pixies
Labeled 'Fontabelle and Robert Baker'

Apparently Lyman died fairly young, because by the 1920 census Ada is listed as widowed. Ada, 23 year old Fontabelle, and her younger brother Robert moved to Columbus, Ohio where they lived in a sizable home with a live-in maid, Jennie, at 65 13th Avenue. The 1920 census tells us Fontabelle worked as a teacher at the local high school.

How Fontabelle became a teacher, though, leads us back to the origin of her university portrait: at Ohio State University, where she was class of 1919.

While at Ohio State University, Fontabelle immersed herself in a variety societies and groups. According to Ohio State University Monthly, she was a member of the Browning Society (a group dedicated to discuss the works of Victorian poet Robert Browning), Girls Glee Club, the YWCA Cabinet, Mortar Board (an honor society recognizing college seniors for exemplary scholar- and leadership), and a member of Alpha Xi Delta.

The newsletter also notes that Fontabelle, also known as 'Fonty' by those close to her, was 'one of the Representative Women in that section of the 1919 Makio.'

What?

Well, a quick Google search of '1919 Makio' informs us that Makio was the name of Ohio State University's yearbook. Fontabelle indeed did appear in the 1919 edition over multiple pages, which give us a bit more insight into her involvement.

Beyond those groups outlined in the newsletter, Fontabelle was a member of Chimes (Junior Class Honorary at Ohio State University), the Choral Union for three years, involved in French plays, the and was a member of Le Cercle Français for all four years. Fontabelle also held quite a few leadership positions:

She was both second soprano in the Girls Glee Club as well as the Director.

Girls' Glee Club at Ohio State University, in the 1919 Makio

In the Browning Society, Fontabelle served as the Business Manager in her fourth year, and in the YWCA, she served as both the Vice President and the Membership Committee Chairman in her fourth year, and the Treasurer the previous year.

YWCA Cabinet at Ohio State University, in the 1919 Makio

Below, Fontabelle is previewed with some of her fellow Class of 1919 Seniors:

The primary reason Fontabelle Baker attended Ohio State University, of course, was to receive her Bachelors. Fontabelle earned a Bachelors of Science in Arts and Education which, as we know, would lead her to become a public school teacher. According to Volume 12 Issue 1 of Ohio State University Monthly, published in 1920, she took up a teaching position at a high school in Urbana, Ohio. It is possible that this was the same teaching position she had when the 1920 census was taken, however living in Columbus and teaching in Urbana would be quite a commute in 1920 standards.

Fontabelle married a man 10 years her senior - another Ohio State University alum - Harry Snodgrass, on August 23rd 1921 when she was 24. By 1930, Harry, Fontabelle, and their 3-year-old son Richard were living in Springfield, Ohio, where Harry worked as an attorney. Fontabelle, surprisingly, does not have a career listed. The price one pays for being a young mother in the first half of the 20th century, I suppose. For all the dedication and involvement she eagerly subject herself to throughout her four years of university, this disappointed me a bit.

There isn't much else on Fontabelle after leaving university: it appears she went on to live a quiet life with Harry and Richard in Springfield until eventually dying on September 25th, 1982.

But at Miss Pixies, I found highlights of her younger life: one of unrivaled success in seemingly everything she involved herself in. And it wasn't until I researched Fontabelle that I realized: that photo labeled 'Mortar Board 1919' that I had picked up at Miss Pixies in my haul? And that photo of the 1919 AZD National Convention in Boston? Those were of Fontabelle and her colleagues.

Found at Miss Pixies; Fontabelle likely circled in the back row

Well, I suppose I should have realized it was Fontabelle in the Mortar Board photo, as her name is written on the back...

According to his FindAGrave, Fontabelle and Harry's son Richard died young - in 1961, at age 34. Troubling, as this could mean he had no children. The hunt will remain active! Do you know Fontabelle Baker Snodgrass?