Amanda Shepherd Snodgrass

There is a certain feeling of familial calmness that comes over a person when, after weeks of looking at a nameless photograph, you finally come to find out who they were.

Such was the feeling that came over me when I learned of the true name of the woman to the left, whose photo was simply named 'Grandma Snodgrass'. It was the last photograph I picked up at Miss Pixies in the Snodgrass collection. After collecting photographs from this family for weeks, I stumbled across this little CDV and it quickly became a favorite in my collection.

I mean...she just looks so CUTE!

And as much as I would love to refer to her as 'Grandma Snodgrass' for the rest of eternity, I needed to find out her true name to round out her identity and find her family.

I knew this had to be Harry Snodgrass' grandmother, based on the age of the photo and the age of Grandma, so I started out researching Harry's father, Morton. I knew Morton was married in 1883 at the age of 21, meaning he was born about 1862. So, armed with that information, I searched for a census with Morton as a child and, alas, I found an 8 year old Morton living with his 50 year old mom, Amanda.

Hey, 'Grandma Amanda' has a ring to it too, right?

Amanda was born in Ohio in 1820, and, according to Morton's death certificate, her maiden name was Shepherd (or Shepard). According to A Centennial Biographical History of Champaign, Ohio, Amanda was born to Joshua Shepherd, an early pioneer of the area, and married Henry Milton Snodgrass after he had moved west from Virginia.

In 1870, Amanda is ostensibly a widow and living in Goshen Township, Champaign, Ohio. According to FindAGrave, her husband had died in 1862 in Pennsylvania, far away from home, leading us to believe he was perhaps killed in the Civil War.

Amanda and Henry had seven children:
Rufus, born 1848
Ferman, born 1850
Harry, born 1853
Eudora (Dora), born 1855
Emma, born 1858
Morton, born 1862 (the father of our Harry Snodgrass)
Milton, born 1861

According to History of the Bench and Bar of Southern California, Rufus went on to become a lawyer in California. He married a Della Rowe.

The second-eldest brother, Ferman, moved to Eau Claire, WI in 1867 where he became employed by the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company. He married Flora Oliver, with whom he had three children (Lottie, Marion, and Flossy), and eventually relocated to Los Angeles.

Eudora married John Cole, Emma married Alfred Snow, and Harry died rather young. Milton's fate is unknown.

Do any of these names sound familiar to you? Perhaps you, too, are related to Grandma Snodgrass.