Clemon Hastings Snow

Clemon H. Snow. Through practically all his life Mr. Snow has been a resident of Lorain County. His record shows that he has been a citizen of varied usefulness, and altogether a vigorous and independent man though working with and for the best interests of community life. He has had the courage of his convictions, and has had the rare fortune to keep an unbiased mind and judgment while effectively identifying himself with those departments of life which require co-operation and loyalty.

His birth occurred September 22, 1848, in the southeastern corner of Avon Township of Lorain County. His birthplace was a log house on the east side of what is now known as the Snow Road. His parents were Edwin Snow and Julia Lewis. This is one of the oldest families in Northeastern Ohio, and the immediate ancestry is also directly related with some of the earliest American settlers. The Snows came to America from England prior to 1640, settling in Massachusetts. Franklin Snow, father of Edwin, emigrated from Beckett in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, to Portage County, Ohio, about 1806 or 1807. That was several years before the second war with Great Britain, and only a few years after Ohio became a state. Edwin Snow was born in Ohio in 1809. His wife, Julia Lewis, was born near Warsaw in Wyoming County, New York, April 7, 1818, and died April 5, 1905, at a very venerable age. The Lewis ancestors came to America in the year 1632. The famous explorer Lewis of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, which was sent out by President Jefferson to explore the upper valleys of the Missouri River in the Louisiana Purchase, was a near relative to Julia Lewis' ancestors. She was one of a family of ten children, and all of them reached advanced years.

The earliest recollections of Clemon H. Snow are identified with that splendid agricultural and civic community known as Avon Township. He attended both the common and high schools of that township, spent two terms in the Elyria public schools, and for about six terms was a student in Oberlin College. However, he did not pursue his college course to graduation. He early showed a proficiency in mathematics and in the exact sciences, and in 1872, when a young man of twenty-four, secured a position as assistant to J. M. Ackley, who was then county surveyor of Cuyahoga County. He continued with him during the seasons of 1872 and 1874. Then followed a period of about ten years during which his chief vocation was farming, though he was employed frequently making surveys and in general civil engineering work.

Mr. Snow's chief public service, by which he will be best remembered in Lorain County, was his long record as county surveyor and city engineer of Elyria. In June, 1886, he was appointed county surveyor to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of E. C. Kinney, and in November of the same year he was elected to the office for a three-year term beginning in January, 1887. In November, 1889, he was re-elected to the same office, to which he gave six years and six months. While serving as county surveyor he was appointed in 1887 city engineer of Elyria, and for a number of years carried on both offices. In January, 1898, his last term as county surveyor terminated, though he continued in the service of the county for about a year longer. During the next ten years he was kept in the office of city engineer, and his service in that position covered a period of sixteen years. Practically all the important improvements in Elyria up to the year 1903 were planned and carried out by Mr. Snow. In addition to his long-continued service in these two offices he also served as a member of the Board of Education of Elyria.

It is noteworthy that throughout his entire career Mr. Snow has been an independent in politics, and held that attitude at a time when party loyalty and regularity were much more strongly insisted upon than at present. He has at the same time affiliated with the republican party, but has not considered himself bound to its policies, and has never been in sympathy with its tariff principles. In 1912 he gave his vote to Woodrow Wilson for president. Mr. Snow is essentially a "peace" man and not only in recent years but has always shown an implacable hatred of anything and everything pertaining to war. He belongs to no secret society, but is a member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, and for forty years has been identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In his native locality of Avon Township on May 24, 1880, he married Miss Mary M. Sweet. Her father was Calvin Sweet, whose father in turn was one of the first settlers in Avon, having located there in the year 1817. As the history of that community shows, most of the prominent early pioneers came just about that time, and the permanence of the Sweet family is indicated by the fact that some of the land which the pioneer acquired nearly a century ago is still in the possession of his descendants. To Mr. and Mrs. Snow were born two children: Franklin Chadwick Snow, born December 26, 1882, has for the past seven years been professor of civil engineering in the Montana State College, and in December, 1906, married Lorena Gilbert. Bricena A. Snow, the only daughter, was born March 16, 1891, is a graduate of the Elyria High School, and is an accomplished musician; she is still living with her parents at their home in Elyria.

Bibliographic information:

• Title A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Civic and Social Development. A Chronicle of the People, with Family Lineage and Memoirs, Volume 2
• A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular Attention to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial, Civic and Social Development. A Chronicle of the People, with Family Lineage and Memoirs, George Frederick Wright
• Editor George Frederick Wright
• Publisher Lewis publishing Company, 1916
• Original from the New York Public Library
• Digitized Feb 9, 2008
• Page 686
• https://books.google.com/books?id=fz8VAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA688&lpg=PA688&d...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHILDREN OF EDWIN AND JULIA 66 (LEWIS) SNOW, ALL OF WHOM WERE BORN AT AVON, LORAIN COUNTY, OHIO.

153. i. Theodore, was born September 16, 1845. He married, April 12, 1871, Ella Johnstone, who was born December 30, 1847. She died January 17, 1884. He resides at Fort Collins, Colorado.

They had six children:

1. Edwin Stillman.—Born February 19, 1872.

2. Elsie.—Born March 10, 1873.

3. Lucy Alice.—Born May 13, 1875.

4. Lee Roy.—Born October 22, 1876.

5. Lena Garfield.—Born November 19, 1880.

6. Julia Ella.—Born March 30, 1882.

154. ii. Oliver Stillman, was born January 4, 1847. He married, January 24, 1883, Ellen J. Foster. They reside at Osage Mission, Kansas, and have two children living:

1. Edwin Parley.—Born June 15, 1884.

2. Franklin.—Born May 24, 1889.

Twins were also born to them September 15, 1887, both of whom died in infancy.

155. iii. Clemon Hastings, was born September 22, 1848. He married, May 24, 1880, Mary Sweet. He is a civil engineer, is County Surveyor of Lorain county, and resides at Elyria, Ohio.

They have two children:

1. Franklin Chadwick.—Born Dec. 26, 1882.

2. Bricena.—Born March 18, 1891.

156. iv. Florence Helen, was born May 6, 1852. She married, November 14, 1883, John S. Blackwell, and resides at Gladstone, Mich. They have had two children, both of whom died in infancy.

157. v. Lucy Lydia, was born July 20, 1856, is unmarried, and now resides with her mother at Elyria, O.

Bibliographic information:

• Title Book VXIII. of the Genealogy of the Lewis Family
• Author Simeon Dunham Lewis
• Publisher C.W. Moulton, 1891
• Original from the University of Wisconsin - Madison
• Digitized Apr 16, 2007
• Length 66 pages
• Pages 19 - 32, and 49
• https://books.google.com/books?id=KOswAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=...