Description:
The Charles Snodgrass Family: Frontier Life in the Monongahela Valley is Millie Covey Fry’s perfect combination of family history and story-enhancing photos. In the early 1700s, a couple of determined Scottish Snodgrasses sailed to America and adapted to a life on the frontier that was filled with uncertainty and adventure. The surname Snodgrass soon became familiar on early Virginia land records and church lists of founding members, on military service rosters, and is one that spans generations on census and vital statistic records. Snodgrass families were in Frederick County, Virginia by 1750. Charles Snodgrass and five other Snodgrasses were listed on a church membership in Frederick County [present day Berkeley County, West Virginia] in 1770. There was nothing ordinary about the Snodgrasses who forged their way through extraordinary times. History enthusiasts will discover the Snodgrasses’ involvement with others in drafting a petition in opposition of paying taxes to support a state church—and that particular petition was powerful enough to later influence Thomas Jefferson’s draft of The Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which was later used as a basis for what would become the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution that guarantees American citizens freedom of religion. George Washington is another well-known historical figure who is documented as having crossed paths with the Snodgrasses. With tenacity and strength, the Snodgrasses faced threats and realities of life or death situations on the frontier while rearing families and running their homesteads and businesses. You’ll read of their struggles and accomplishments, marriages, births, and deaths. You’ll read of combined families and separated families. You’ll learn of heroes who served on the battlefields and those who fought to protect their families in other times of turmoil. You’ll read stories of unsung heroes—those strong and resilient women who were Snodgrasses, married Snodgrasses, and gave birth to future Snodgrasses. Readers will make an immediate connection to the characters and places mentioned in the book, and those readers who share the Snodgrass DNA will be proud to share those hardy genes. The founding Snodgrass men and women built a wonderful legacy, and although some have been laid to rest in unmarked or nearly forgotten graves, because of the continued interest, determination, and tenacity genes that have been handed down to Millie Covey Fry, their names and history will be kept alive for their descendants and others in The Charles Snodgrass Family: Frontier Life in the Monongahela Valley.
