Aaron D. Snively
Aaron D. Snively, a Xenia township farmer and formerly and for years a school teacher, is a native son of Ohio, born on a farm in Perry township, Starke county, July 21, 1848, son of Jolin A. and Eliza (Bordner) Snively, whose last days were spent there.
John A. Snively was a son of Joseph and Catherine (Sherman) Snively, the latter of whom was born in Germany and was but an infant when her parents, John Sherman and wife, came to this country and settled in Starke county, this state. Joseph Snively was born on a farm in southern Pennsylvania, in the vicinity of Hagerstown, a son of Christian Snively, a native of Switzerland, who had settled in southern Pennsylvania about 1755, the first of his family to come to this country. Two of Christian Snively's sons, Henry and Joseph, came to Ohio, the former settling in Butler county and the latter in Starke county. It was in 1805 that Joseph Snively entered his land in Starke county and that pioneer tract is still in the possession of his descendants. He and his wife were the parents of ten children, of whom John A., father of the subject of this sketch, was the sixth in order of birth, the others having been the following: Anna, who married Joseph Yant; Jacob, who married Mary Ann Shrefler; Martha, who married Andrew Yoder; Elizabeth, who married John Troxler; Katie, who died unmarried; Peter, Levi and Joseph, who became residents of Starke county, and Henry, who died in youth.
Reared on the home farm in Perry township. Stark county, John A. Snively in time became a farmer on his own account, spending all his life on the old homestead farm, where he died in 1891, he then being sixty-eight years of age. His wife had predeceased him about five years, her death having occurred in 1886, she then being sixty-three years of age. John A. Snively was a Democrat and had served as a school officer. He and his wife were members of the United Brethren church and their children were reared in that faith. There were ten of these cliildren, namely: Henry, who became a farmer in Stark county and there spent his last days, his death occiirring when he was sixty-nine years of age; Isaiah, also a resident of Stark county, who died there in 1917; Aaron D., the subject of this biographical sketch; Sarah Ann, who married Reuben Decker and is living on the old Snively home place in Starke county; Mary Ellen, who married Abraham Whitmire and is also living in Stark county; Aman, a farmer of Trumbull county; Elizabeth, wife of Melvin Essey, of Canton, this state; Catherine, wife of William Wenger of Stark county, who died in 1917; Dr. John H. Snively, who completed his studies at the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati and has for years been engaged in the practice of his profession at West Lebanon, this state, and Dr. George Snively, also a graduate of Ohio Medical College, and who is also practicing his profession at West Lebanon.
Reared on the farm on which he was born and on which his father also was born, Aaron D. Snively received his early schooling in the same little old log school house which his father had attended in his youth and at the age of twenty-one years began teaching school. In 1870, when Ohio Northern University was opened at Ada, he entered that institution and was graduated from the same in 1874, a charter member of the school and a member of the first class in the scientific course in that university. Upon leaving the university Mr. Snively resumed teaching and followed that profession for years thereafter, his service in the school room covering a period of twenty years. He taught his first school at a school house three and a half miles east of Canton, in Hardin county, where he was thus engaged for two years. He then taught for two years in his home county and then went over into Indiana and for three years thereafter served as superintendent of schools at West Lebanon in that state. He then served for a year as superintendent of schools at Williamsport, Indiana, and for two years as superintendent of schools at Fowler, same state, and in 1881 returned to Ohio and located in Greene county, buying his present place, the old Orchard farm, in the northern part of Xenia township, where he since has made his home, After coming here Mr. Snively continued his service as a teacher, two years in the schools at Goes, eighteen months at the Collins school and at the time of his retirement from the school room in 1891 had been serving as superintendent of the high school at Yellow Springs. Upon taking possession of his farm in 1881 Mr. Snively erected there a nine-room house and made other improvements, to which he has added from time to time. His original purchase was a tract of seventy-six acres, but he has added to this and now owns one hundred and eighty acres. The old farm house that still stands on the place, a brick house with black walnut finish and white ash floors, was erected by Jacob Erow in 1840 and is in an excellent state of preservation. An old smoke-house with siding and frame work of walnut, erected about the same time, is still standing, having weathered the storms of more than seventy-five years. In addition to his general farming Mr. Snively gives considerable attention to the raising of live stock, has a herd of Jersey cattle and a good bunch of pure-bred Poland China hogs. Politically, he is a Republican and has served his community as a member of the local school board. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
On May 3, 1876, at Xenia, Aaron D. Snively was united in marriage to Mary E. Johns, of that city, daughter of Daniel S. and Maria (Drake) Johns, natives of New York state, and to this union have been born five children, namely: Lester, who died at the age of sixteen months; Littell, who is now living at Ray, Arizona; Frank, who is farming in Highland county, this state, and Mabel and Homer, who are at home with their parents. Littell Snively, the eldest son, was graduated from the department of engineering in Colorado University and became a civil engineer, for three years thus engaged in government service in the Pliilippines, after which he became connected with irrigation engineering works and is still thus engaged. He married Charlotte Clark, of Ft. Collins, Colorado, and since 1909 has been making his home at Ray, Arizona.
From Portrait and Biographical Album of Clark and Greene Counties, Chapman Bros., Chicago, published 1890