Katie's full name was Katie Ora Reid, born February 13, 1886, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO, the daughter of Joseph K. & Matilda A. (Cave) Reid. Her father had fought as a Union soldier at the battles of Shiloh, Fort Donelson, and on Sherman's March to the Sea during the Civil War, in contrast to her future husband John's father, who was a Confederate soldier from Virginia.
Katie was living with her family in Blue Springs when one day a gentleman came calling to court one of her sisters. John showed up hat in hand and was met at the door by Katie, whom he had never met. She escorted him into the parlor and went off to fetch her sister, returning in a minute with the message that she would be right out. But the sister dallied too long. She returned to find her beau and Katie standing by the mantelpiece, lost in animated conversation. They didn't even notice her come in.
John and Katie were married on December 18, 1910, at Odessa, a small town not far east of Oak Grove, which is east of Blue Springs. The ceremony was performed by Rev. J.D. Boyer, a minister of the Church of Christ. John was 34, and Katie was 24.
John had already been working as a lineman foreman for the Bell Telephone Company for some time. Because of his job, he and Katie started their married life traveling. Their first child, a little girl they named Clorah Lea, was born in 1911 in Ogden, Utah.
The next year, 1912, John and Katie returned to Blue Springs, MO, where son John Wiley ("Jack") was born the next year, and began to farm. About 1926, they began to build a new farm house. As daughter Billie relates of those years:
"Shortly after World War I, a new era began. Women shortened their skirts and bobbed their hair – everyone except my mother. Her hair was heavy, long, coarse, and hung below her hips. Her five sisters all bobbed their hair and pleaded with Mother to cut hers and have a more modern look. She finally gave in, took a pair of scissors and cut her hair off just below the ears. She nearly cried when she saw how awful it looked. At that time, we were living in Georgie and Albert Dimmitt's house while Dad was building our house. My brother, Jack, was 13 years old and when he came in the house and took one look at Mother, he said he was leaving home. He took a blanket, a skillet, and some potatoes and took off for the woods at the back of the farm. He finally ran out of potatoes and came home the next day. That was the summer of 1926. Mother never cut her hair again until she went to live in a nursing home in Saugus, California.
We moved into the new house that winter. The next spring, Grandmother Reid came to visit us and someone took a picture of Mother, me, and Grandmother, Joanne and cousin Billie Lucille Jensen. In September, Joanne died from polio. Our house burned in 1931, and everything in it was lost. As time went by, I could not remember what Joanne looked like. I wanted a picture of her, but could not find anyone in the family who had one. In 1992, my daughter Nancy and I went to Nevada to see brother Jack and sister Pat. Pat had boxes of Mother's pictures that her family had shared with her after our house burned.
I had long since given up trying to find a picture of Joanne. Unexpected, there it was! A picture of Grandmother Reid, me, Joanne, and cousin Billie Lucille Jensen. There was a square of ink over Grandmother's head. Suddenly we realized it blanked out someone standing behind her. We took a magnifying glass and went outside in the sunlight to look at it. It was Mother. We were shocked! Everyone loved Mother. She was such a kind person. She always said there was no such thing as a person who was all bad. Overlook the bad and look for the good. Who would have marked Mother's face out? Then we noticed the bobbed hair and knew who hated it. Mother herself had committed this dastardly deed!"
1920 Jackson Co., MO census, Van Buren Twp., p. 128
John Sneed 43, farmer, can read & write, MO VA VA
Katie 34 MO OH OH
Clorah 8 UT MO MO
Junior 7 MO MO MO
Cave 4 MO MO MO
In September 1927, tragedy struck the family with the sudden death of John and Katie's daughter, Joanne, from polio. She was buried in the Perdee Cemetery near the grave of her grandfather, Richard F. Sneed. Three other children of John and Katie are buried there with her, the four little graves marked with small aluminum crosses with no inscriptions.
In 1930, their oldest child Clorah, age 18, met and married Glen Wright of the nearby town of Lees Summit. They were married in Independence.
Also in 1930, John's widowed mother Sarah Findley Sneed was living with them:
1930 census, Van Buren, Jackson, Missouri
John W Sneed Head M 54 Missouri
Katie O Sneed Wife F 44 Missouri
John W Sneed Jr. Son M 17 Missouri
Milton C Sneed Son M 14 Missouri
Billie K Sneed Daughter F 9 Missouri
Nellie J Sneed Daughter F 3 Missouri
Patricia L Sneed Daughter F 0 Missouri
Sarah J Sneed Mother M 76 Missouri
The farm itself did fairly well until the Great Depression hit. Farm prices slid and small farmers everywhere began going under. To add to the catastrophe, drought struck the mid-western states. The land literally dried up and blew away, producing the great 'dust bowl.' The final blow for John and Katie came when their farmhouse caught fire and burned to the ground. They were forced to declare bankruptcy. In 1936, they moved west to Salem, Oregon to search for work. John and son Jack worked for awhile in a machine shop. John was also a master stone mason and worked building houses, stone mantles, and anything else ordered. In 1938, the family moved again, this time to California.
1940 census, Councilmanic District 1, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California
John W Sneed Head M 63 Missouri
Kathryn Sneed Wife F 54 Missouri
Nellie Jean Sneed Daughter F 13 Missouri
Pattie Lu Sneed Daughter F 10 Missouri
John and Katie suffered another tragedy in Aug 1945. Their daughter Jean, married only a year or so and now expecting, was discovered to have a bad heart. She gave birth safely to a little girl, but died unexpectedly in her sleep when the baby was five weeks old. She was only nineteen years old. John and Kate buried her in California and took the baby, named Bonnie, in to raise themselves. Her father remarried when she was three and was able to take her back.
At some point, the family made a visit back to Missouri and John, with son Milton's help, fashioned four small aluminum crosses to mark the graves of his and Katie's four children buried in the Perdee cemetery. John, Milton, and Gordan [Billie's husband] put them up together.
In 1947, John and Kate bought five acres of land and a small house in the arid hill country northwest of Los Angeles in an area known as Saugus, and John worked as an electrician. He built on a bathroom at the back of the house. They lived a quarter mile east of Sierra Highway in Baker Canyon, and John died at home there from a bad heart on December 21, 1952. Katie had his body sent back to Missouri to rest between his father and his four little children.
Katie's daughter Pat stayed in San Fernando with her three boys and was able to visit at least one Sunday a month, as was her grandson Glenn Wright (son of Clorah) and his family, who lived even closer in Saugus. Katie's sister Lottie and her husband built a small house on Katie's lot and the two sisters had the comfort of each others' company until Lottie's death in Aug 1964. Katie's sister Glennie (whose first husband had been John's brother, Sam) came a few months after Lottie's death to stay with Katie over the winter, but she suffered a heart attack and died there in December. Through all these trials, Katie's faith remained strong and she was the kindest and best of mothers and grandmothers, continuing to host Sunday and Christmas get-togethers and dinners for her daughter Pat and grandson Glenn Wright and all their children. Finally, about 1970, living alone in the isolated house became too much for her and she moved to a small, private nursing home where she could be looked after. She died on December 16, 1977 at the Fillmore Convalescent Center in Fillmore, Ventura Co, CA, having survived John by twenty-five years. She was laid to rest next to him in Missouri. She had been a faithful member of the local Methodist church near her home for many years, although, as granddaughter Bille Sneed Leighter said, throughout her life she never owned a car and always attended the Protestant church nearest her home regardless of denomination.
Children:
1. Clorah Lea Sneed, b. 16 Sep 1911, Ogden, Weber Co., Utah; m. 1st 27 Feb 1930, Independence, Jackson Co., MO to Glen Joseph Wright [1907-1953; son of Ernest D. and Myrtle Belle (Kirkpatrick) Wright]; m. 2nd after Mar 1954, Jackson Co., MO to Robert McDowell; she d. 13 Feb 1968, Kansas City, MO; buried Lees Summit cemetery.
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2. John Wiley Sneed "Jack", b. 12 Jan 1913, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. Laura Bell Grogren [b. 1920, Yakima, Yakima Co., ND; daughter of Edwin C. Grogen and Lillian J. __]; he d. 30 Jul 1998, Palms, Los Angeles Co., CA.
1940 census, Councilmanic District 1, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California
[last place of residence was Kansas City, MO]
John W Sneed Head M 27 Missouri
Laura Sneed Wife F 20 North Dakota
Michael E Sneed Son M 0 California
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3. Infant Sneed, b. and d. 16 Jan 1914, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; buried in Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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4. Norman Eugene Sneed; b. late 1914, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. as an infant; buried in Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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5. Milton Cave Sneed, b. 8 Sep 1915, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 8 Jun 1936, Independence, MO, to Irene Josephine West [b. 18 Dec 1915, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 10 Jan 2013, Independence, Jackson Co., MO; daughter of William Harrison West and Dollie Jessie Irene Faulkenberry]; he d. 21 Mar 1990; buried Lone Jack Cemetery, Jackson Co., MO.
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6. Billie Katherine Sneed, b. 17 Oct 1920/21, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 10 Sep 1938 to ___ Leighter; d. Feb 2008; buried 6 Feb 2008, Perdue Chapel Cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO .
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7. Blanche Elizabeth Sneed, b. 8 Jul 1918, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 28 Jul 1918; Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO, aged 10 days; buried Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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8. Joanne Findley Sneed, b. 10 Mar 1923, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 4 Sep 1927, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO, aged 4 yrs, of polio; buried in Perdee cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO .
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9. Nellie Jean Sneed, b. 6 Sep 1926, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. in CA to Jack Gilbert McConnell; d. 29 Aug 1945, North Hollywood, Orange Co., CA, age 19 yrs. of natural causes; buried Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, Los Angeles Co., CA. She left a five-week-old daughter.
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10. Patricia Lucille Sneed, b. 19 Oct 1929, Lone Jack Jackson Co., MO; m. 1st 21 Jun 1947, Los Angeles, CA to Donald Eugene Ackerman [b. 1928; son of Oscar W. Ackerman and Neva A. Davis]; m. 2nd ____ Clarke; she d. 1 Sep 2007.
**********
Katie was living with her family in Blue Springs when one day a gentleman came calling to court one of her sisters. John showed up hat in hand and was met at the door by Katie, whom he had never met. She escorted him into the parlor and went off to fetch her sister, returning in a minute with the message that she would be right out. But the sister dallied too long. She returned to find her beau and Katie standing by the mantelpiece, lost in animated conversation. They didn't even notice her come in.
John and Katie were married on December 18, 1910, at Odessa, a small town not far east of Oak Grove, which is east of Blue Springs. The ceremony was performed by Rev. J.D. Boyer, a minister of the Church of Christ. John was 34, and Katie was 24.
John had already been working as a lineman foreman for the Bell Telephone Company for some time. Because of his job, he and Katie started their married life traveling. Their first child, a little girl they named Clorah Lea, was born in 1911 in Ogden, Utah.
The next year, 1912, John and Katie returned to Blue Springs, MO, where son John Wiley ("Jack") was born the next year, and began to farm. About 1926, they began to build a new farm house. As daughter Billie relates of those years:
"Shortly after World War I, a new era began. Women shortened their skirts and bobbed their hair – everyone except my mother. Her hair was heavy, long, coarse, and hung below her hips. Her five sisters all bobbed their hair and pleaded with Mother to cut hers and have a more modern look. She finally gave in, took a pair of scissors and cut her hair off just below the ears. She nearly cried when she saw how awful it looked. At that time, we were living in Georgie and Albert Dimmitt's house while Dad was building our house. My brother, Jack, was 13 years old and when he came in the house and took one look at Mother, he said he was leaving home. He took a blanket, a skillet, and some potatoes and took off for the woods at the back of the farm. He finally ran out of potatoes and came home the next day. That was the summer of 1926. Mother never cut her hair again until she went to live in a nursing home in Saugus, California.
We moved into the new house that winter. The next spring, Grandmother Reid came to visit us and someone took a picture of Mother, me, and Grandmother, Joanne and cousin Billie Lucille Jensen. In September, Joanne died from polio. Our house burned in 1931, and everything in it was lost. As time went by, I could not remember what Joanne looked like. I wanted a picture of her, but could not find anyone in the family who had one. In 1992, my daughter Nancy and I went to Nevada to see brother Jack and sister Pat. Pat had boxes of Mother's pictures that her family had shared with her after our house burned.
I had long since given up trying to find a picture of Joanne. Unexpected, there it was! A picture of Grandmother Reid, me, Joanne, and cousin Billie Lucille Jensen. There was a square of ink over Grandmother's head. Suddenly we realized it blanked out someone standing behind her. We took a magnifying glass and went outside in the sunlight to look at it. It was Mother. We were shocked! Everyone loved Mother. She was such a kind person. She always said there was no such thing as a person who was all bad. Overlook the bad and look for the good. Who would have marked Mother's face out? Then we noticed the bobbed hair and knew who hated it. Mother herself had committed this dastardly deed!"
1920 Jackson Co., MO census, Van Buren Twp., p. 128
John Sneed 43, farmer, can read & write, MO VA VA
Katie 34 MO OH OH
Clorah 8 UT MO MO
Junior 7 MO MO MO
Cave 4 MO MO MO
In September 1927, tragedy struck the family with the sudden death of John and Katie's daughter, Joanne, from polio. She was buried in the Perdee Cemetery near the grave of her grandfather, Richard F. Sneed. Three other children of John and Katie are buried there with her, the four little graves marked with small aluminum crosses with no inscriptions.
In 1930, their oldest child Clorah, age 18, met and married Glen Wright of the nearby town of Lees Summit. They were married in Independence.
Also in 1930, John's widowed mother Sarah Findley Sneed was living with them:
1930 census, Van Buren, Jackson, Missouri
John W Sneed Head M 54 Missouri
Katie O Sneed Wife F 44 Missouri
John W Sneed Jr. Son M 17 Missouri
Milton C Sneed Son M 14 Missouri
Billie K Sneed Daughter F 9 Missouri
Nellie J Sneed Daughter F 3 Missouri
Patricia L Sneed Daughter F 0 Missouri
Sarah J Sneed Mother M 76 Missouri
The farm itself did fairly well until the Great Depression hit. Farm prices slid and small farmers everywhere began going under. To add to the catastrophe, drought struck the mid-western states. The land literally dried up and blew away, producing the great 'dust bowl.' The final blow for John and Katie came when their farmhouse caught fire and burned to the ground. They were forced to declare bankruptcy. In 1936, they moved west to Salem, Oregon to search for work. John and son Jack worked for awhile in a machine shop. John was also a master stone mason and worked building houses, stone mantles, and anything else ordered. In 1938, the family moved again, this time to California.
1940 census, Councilmanic District 1, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California
John W Sneed Head M 63 Missouri
Kathryn Sneed Wife F 54 Missouri
Nellie Jean Sneed Daughter F 13 Missouri
Pattie Lu Sneed Daughter F 10 Missouri
John and Katie suffered another tragedy in Aug 1945. Their daughter Jean, married only a year or so and now expecting, was discovered to have a bad heart. She gave birth safely to a little girl, but died unexpectedly in her sleep when the baby was five weeks old. She was only nineteen years old. John and Kate buried her in California and took the baby, named Bonnie, in to raise themselves. Her father remarried when she was three and was able to take her back.
At some point, the family made a visit back to Missouri and John, with son Milton's help, fashioned four small aluminum crosses to mark the graves of his and Katie's four children buried in the Perdee cemetery. John, Milton, and Gordan [Billie's husband] put them up together.
In 1947, John and Kate bought five acres of land and a small house in the arid hill country northwest of Los Angeles in an area known as Saugus, and John worked as an electrician. He built on a bathroom at the back of the house. They lived a quarter mile east of Sierra Highway in Baker Canyon, and John died at home there from a bad heart on December 21, 1952. Katie had his body sent back to Missouri to rest between his father and his four little children.
Katie's daughter Pat stayed in San Fernando with her three boys and was able to visit at least one Sunday a month, as was her grandson Glenn Wright (son of Clorah) and his family, who lived even closer in Saugus. Katie's sister Lottie and her husband built a small house on Katie's lot and the two sisters had the comfort of each others' company until Lottie's death in Aug 1964. Katie's sister Glennie (whose first husband had been John's brother, Sam) came a few months after Lottie's death to stay with Katie over the winter, but she suffered a heart attack and died there in December. Through all these trials, Katie's faith remained strong and she was the kindest and best of mothers and grandmothers, continuing to host Sunday and Christmas get-togethers and dinners for her daughter Pat and grandson Glenn Wright and all their children. Finally, about 1970, living alone in the isolated house became too much for her and she moved to a small, private nursing home where she could be looked after. She died on December 16, 1977 at the Fillmore Convalescent Center in Fillmore, Ventura Co, CA, having survived John by twenty-five years. She was laid to rest next to him in Missouri. She had been a faithful member of the local Methodist church near her home for many years, although, as granddaughter Bille Sneed Leighter said, throughout her life she never owned a car and always attended the Protestant church nearest her home regardless of denomination.
Children:
1. Clorah Lea Sneed, b. 16 Sep 1911, Ogden, Weber Co., Utah; m. 1st 27 Feb 1930, Independence, Jackson Co., MO to Glen Joseph Wright [1907-1953; son of Ernest D. and Myrtle Belle (Kirkpatrick) Wright]; m. 2nd after Mar 1954, Jackson Co., MO to Robert McDowell; she d. 13 Feb 1968, Kansas City, MO; buried Lees Summit cemetery.
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2. John Wiley Sneed "Jack", b. 12 Jan 1913, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. Laura Bell Grogren [b. 1920, Yakima, Yakima Co., ND; daughter of Edwin C. Grogen and Lillian J. __]; he d. 30 Jul 1998, Palms, Los Angeles Co., CA.
1940 census, Councilmanic District 1, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California
[last place of residence was Kansas City, MO]
John W Sneed Head M 27 Missouri
Laura Sneed Wife F 20 North Dakota
Michael E Sneed Son M 0 California
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3. Infant Sneed, b. and d. 16 Jan 1914, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; buried in Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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4. Norman Eugene Sneed; b. late 1914, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. as an infant; buried in Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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5. Milton Cave Sneed, b. 8 Sep 1915, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 8 Jun 1936, Independence, MO, to Irene Josephine West [b. 18 Dec 1915, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 10 Jan 2013, Independence, Jackson Co., MO; daughter of William Harrison West and Dollie Jessie Irene Faulkenberry]; he d. 21 Mar 1990; buried Lone Jack Cemetery, Jackson Co., MO.
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6. Billie Katherine Sneed, b. 17 Oct 1920/21, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 10 Sep 1938 to ___ Leighter; d. Feb 2008; buried 6 Feb 2008, Perdue Chapel Cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO .
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7. Blanche Elizabeth Sneed, b. 8 Jul 1918, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 28 Jul 1918; Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO, aged 10 days; buried Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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8. Joanne Findley Sneed, b. 10 Mar 1923, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 4 Sep 1927, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO, aged 4 yrs, of polio; buried in Perdee cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO .
**********
9. Nellie Jean Sneed, b. 6 Sep 1926, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. in CA to Jack Gilbert McConnell; d. 29 Aug 1945, North Hollywood, Orange Co., CA, age 19 yrs. of natural causes; buried Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, Los Angeles Co., CA. She left a five-week-old daughter.
**********
10. Patricia Lucille Sneed, b. 19 Oct 1929, Lone Jack Jackson Co., MO; m. 1st 21 Jun 1947, Los Angeles, CA to Donald Eugene Ackerman [b. 1928; son of Oscar W. Ackerman and Neva A. Davis]; m. 2nd ____ Clarke; she d. 1 Sep 2007.
**********
Katie's full name was Katie Ora Reid, born February 13, 1886, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO, the daughter of Joseph K. & Matilda A. (Cave) Reid. Her father had fought as a Union soldier at the battles of Shiloh, Fort Donelson, and on Sherman's March to the Sea during the Civil War, in contrast to her future husband John's father, who was a Confederate soldier from Virginia.
Katie was living with her family in Blue Springs when one day a gentleman came calling to court one of her sisters. John showed up hat in hand and was met at the door by Katie, whom he had never met. She escorted him into the parlor and went off to fetch her sister, returning in a minute with the message that she would be right out. But the sister dallied too long. She returned to find her beau and Katie standing by the mantelpiece, lost in animated conversation. They didn't even notice her come in.
John and Katie were married on December 18, 1910, at Odessa, a small town not far east of Oak Grove, which is east of Blue Springs. The ceremony was performed by Rev. J.D. Boyer, a minister of the Church of Christ. John was 34, and Katie was 24.
John had already been working as a lineman foreman for the Bell Telephone Company for some time. Because of his job, he and Katie started their married life traveling. Their first child, a little girl they named Clorah Lea, was born in 1911 in Ogden, Utah.
The next year, 1912, John and Katie returned to Blue Springs, MO, where son John Wiley ("Jack") was born the next year, and began to farm. About 1926, they began to build a new farm house. As daughter Billie relates of those years:
"Shortly after World War I, a new era began. Women shortened their skirts and bobbed their hair – everyone except my mother. Her hair was heavy, long, coarse, and hung below her hips. Her five sisters all bobbed their hair and pleaded with Mother to cut hers and have a more modern look. She finally gave in, took a pair of scissors and cut her hair off just below the ears. She nearly cried when she saw how awful it looked. At that time, we were living in Georgie and Albert Dimmitt's house while Dad was building our house. My brother, Jack, was 13 years old and when he came in the house and took one look at Mother, he said he was leaving home. He took a blanket, a skillet, and some potatoes and took off for the woods at the back of the farm. He finally ran out of potatoes and came home the next day. That was the summer of 1926. Mother never cut her hair again until she went to live in a nursing home in Saugus, California.
We moved into the new house that winter. The next spring, Grandmother Reid came to visit us and someone took a picture of Mother, me, and Grandmother, Joanne and cousin Billie Lucille Jensen. In September, Joanne died from polio. Our house burned in 1931, and everything in it was lost. As time went by, I could not remember what Joanne looked like. I wanted a picture of her, but could not find anyone in the family who had one. In 1992, my daughter Nancy and I went to Nevada to see brother Jack and sister Pat. Pat had boxes of Mother's pictures that her family had shared with her after our house burned.
I had long since given up trying to find a picture of Joanne. Unexpected, there it was! A picture of Grandmother Reid, me, Joanne, and cousin Billie Lucille Jensen. There was a square of ink over Grandmother's head. Suddenly we realized it blanked out someone standing behind her. We took a magnifying glass and went outside in the sunlight to look at it. It was Mother. We were shocked! Everyone loved Mother. She was such a kind person. She always said there was no such thing as a person who was all bad. Overlook the bad and look for the good. Who would have marked Mother's face out? Then we noticed the bobbed hair and knew who hated it. Mother herself had committed this dastardly deed!"
1920 Jackson Co., MO census, Van Buren Twp., p. 128
John Sneed 43, farmer, can read & write, MO VA VA
Katie 34 MO OH OH
Clorah 8 UT MO MO
Junior 7 MO MO MO
Cave 4 MO MO MO
In September 1927, tragedy struck the family with the sudden death of John and Katie's daughter, Joanne, from polio. She was buried in the Perdee Cemetery near the grave of her grandfather, Richard F. Sneed. Three other children of John and Katie are buried there with her, the four little graves marked with small aluminum crosses with no inscriptions.
In 1930, their oldest child Clorah, age 18, met and married Glen Wright of the nearby town of Lees Summit. They were married in Independence.
Also in 1930, John's widowed mother Sarah Findley Sneed was living with them:
1930 census, Van Buren, Jackson, Missouri
John W Sneed Head M 54 Missouri
Katie O Sneed Wife F 44 Missouri
John W Sneed Jr. Son M 17 Missouri
Milton C Sneed Son M 14 Missouri
Billie K Sneed Daughter F 9 Missouri
Nellie J Sneed Daughter F 3 Missouri
Patricia L Sneed Daughter F 0 Missouri
Sarah J Sneed Mother M 76 Missouri
The farm itself did fairly well until the Great Depression hit. Farm prices slid and small farmers everywhere began going under. To add to the catastrophe, drought struck the mid-western states. The land literally dried up and blew away, producing the great 'dust bowl.' The final blow for John and Katie came when their farmhouse caught fire and burned to the ground. They were forced to declare bankruptcy. In 1936, they moved west to Salem, Oregon to search for work. John and son Jack worked for awhile in a machine shop. John was also a master stone mason and worked building houses, stone mantles, and anything else ordered. In 1938, the family moved again, this time to California.
1940 census, Councilmanic District 1, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California
John W Sneed Head M 63 Missouri
Kathryn Sneed Wife F 54 Missouri
Nellie Jean Sneed Daughter F 13 Missouri
Pattie Lu Sneed Daughter F 10 Missouri
John and Katie suffered another tragedy in Aug 1945. Their daughter Jean, married only a year or so and now expecting, was discovered to have a bad heart. She gave birth safely to a little girl, but died unexpectedly in her sleep when the baby was five weeks old. She was only nineteen years old. John and Kate buried her in California and took the baby, named Bonnie, in to raise themselves. Her father remarried when she was three and was able to take her back.
At some point, the family made a visit back to Missouri and John, with son Milton's help, fashioned four small aluminum crosses to mark the graves of his and Katie's four children buried in the Perdee cemetery. John, Milton, and Gordan [Billie's husband] put them up together.
In 1947, John and Kate bought five acres of land and a small house in the arid hill country northwest of Los Angeles in an area known as Saugus, and John worked as an electrician. He built on a bathroom at the back of the house. They lived a quarter mile east of Sierra Highway in Baker Canyon, and John died at home there from a bad heart on December 21, 1952. Katie had his body sent back to Missouri to rest between his father and his four little children.
Katie's daughter Pat stayed in San Fernando with her three boys and was able to visit at least one Sunday a month, as was her grandson Glenn Wright (son of Clorah) and his family, who lived even closer in Saugus. Katie's sister Lottie and her husband built a small house on Katie's lot and the two sisters had the comfort of each others' company until Lottie's death in Aug 1964. Katie's sister Glennie (whose first husband had been John's brother, Sam) came a few months after Lottie's death to stay with Katie over the winter, but she suffered a heart attack and died there in December. Through all these trials, Katie's faith remained strong and she was the kindest and best of mothers and grandmothers, continuing to host Sunday and Christmas get-togethers and dinners for her daughter Pat and grandson Glenn Wright and all their children. Finally, about 1970, living alone in the isolated house became too much for her and she moved to a small, private nursing home where she could be looked after. She died on December 16, 1977 at the Fillmore Convalescent Center in Fillmore, Ventura Co, CA, having survived John by twenty-five years. She was laid to rest next to him in Missouri. She had been a faithful member of the local Methodist church near her home for many years, although, as granddaughter Bille Sneed Leighter said, throughout her life she never owned a car and always attended the Protestant church nearest her home regardless of denomination.
Children:
1. Clorah Lea Sneed, b. 16 Sep 1911, Ogden, Weber Co., Utah; m. 1st 27 Feb 1930, Independence, Jackson Co., MO to Glen Joseph Wright [1907-1953; son of Ernest D. and Myrtle Belle (Kirkpatrick) Wright]; m. 2nd after Mar 1954, Jackson Co., MO to Robert McDowell; she d. 13 Feb 1968, Kansas City, MO; buried Lees Summit cemetery.
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2. John Wiley Sneed "Jack", b. 12 Jan 1913, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. Laura Bell Grogren [b. 1920, Yakima, Yakima Co., ND; daughter of Edwin C. Grogen and Lillian J. __]; he d. 30 Jul 1998, Palms, Los Angeles Co., CA.
1940 census, Councilmanic District 1, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California
[last place of residence was Kansas City, MO]
John W Sneed Head M 27 Missouri
Laura Sneed Wife F 20 North Dakota
Michael E Sneed Son M 0 California
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3. Infant Sneed, b. and d. 16 Jan 1914, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; buried in Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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4. Norman Eugene Sneed; b. late 1914, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. as an infant; buried in Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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5. Milton Cave Sneed, b. 8 Sep 1915, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 8 Jun 1936, Independence, MO, to Irene Josephine West [b. 18 Dec 1915, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 10 Jan 2013, Independence, Jackson Co., MO; daughter of William Harrison West and Dollie Jessie Irene Faulkenberry]; he d. 21 Mar 1990; buried Lone Jack Cemetery, Jackson Co., MO.
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6. Billie Katherine Sneed, b. 17 Oct 1920/21, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 10 Sep 1938 to ___ Leighter; d. Feb 2008; buried 6 Feb 2008, Perdue Chapel Cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO .
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7. Blanche Elizabeth Sneed, b. 8 Jul 1918, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 28 Jul 1918; Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO, aged 10 days; buried Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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8. Joanne Findley Sneed, b. 10 Mar 1923, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 4 Sep 1927, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO, aged 4 yrs, of polio; buried in Perdee cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO .
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9. Nellie Jean Sneed, b. 6 Sep 1926, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. in CA to Jack Gilbert McConnell; d. 29 Aug 1945, North Hollywood, Orange Co., CA, age 19 yrs. of natural causes; buried Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, Los Angeles Co., CA. She left a five-week-old daughter.
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10. Patricia Lucille Sneed, b. 19 Oct 1929, Lone Jack Jackson Co., MO; m. 1st 21 Jun 1947, Los Angeles, CA to Donald Eugene Ackerman [b. 1928; son of Oscar W. Ackerman and Neva A. Davis]; m. 2nd ____ Clarke; she d. 1 Sep 2007.
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Katie was living with her family in Blue Springs when one day a gentleman came calling to court one of her sisters. John showed up hat in hand and was met at the door by Katie, whom he had never met. She escorted him into the parlor and went off to fetch her sister, returning in a minute with the message that she would be right out. But the sister dallied too long. She returned to find her beau and Katie standing by the mantelpiece, lost in animated conversation. They didn't even notice her come in.
John and Katie were married on December 18, 1910, at Odessa, a small town not far east of Oak Grove, which is east of Blue Springs. The ceremony was performed by Rev. J.D. Boyer, a minister of the Church of Christ. John was 34, and Katie was 24.
John had already been working as a lineman foreman for the Bell Telephone Company for some time. Because of his job, he and Katie started their married life traveling. Their first child, a little girl they named Clorah Lea, was born in 1911 in Ogden, Utah.
The next year, 1912, John and Katie returned to Blue Springs, MO, where son John Wiley ("Jack") was born the next year, and began to farm. About 1926, they began to build a new farm house. As daughter Billie relates of those years:
"Shortly after World War I, a new era began. Women shortened their skirts and bobbed their hair – everyone except my mother. Her hair was heavy, long, coarse, and hung below her hips. Her five sisters all bobbed their hair and pleaded with Mother to cut hers and have a more modern look. She finally gave in, took a pair of scissors and cut her hair off just below the ears. She nearly cried when she saw how awful it looked. At that time, we were living in Georgie and Albert Dimmitt's house while Dad was building our house. My brother, Jack, was 13 years old and when he came in the house and took one look at Mother, he said he was leaving home. He took a blanket, a skillet, and some potatoes and took off for the woods at the back of the farm. He finally ran out of potatoes and came home the next day. That was the summer of 1926. Mother never cut her hair again until she went to live in a nursing home in Saugus, California.
We moved into the new house that winter. The next spring, Grandmother Reid came to visit us and someone took a picture of Mother, me, and Grandmother, Joanne and cousin Billie Lucille Jensen. In September, Joanne died from polio. Our house burned in 1931, and everything in it was lost. As time went by, I could not remember what Joanne looked like. I wanted a picture of her, but could not find anyone in the family who had one. In 1992, my daughter Nancy and I went to Nevada to see brother Jack and sister Pat. Pat had boxes of Mother's pictures that her family had shared with her after our house burned.
I had long since given up trying to find a picture of Joanne. Unexpected, there it was! A picture of Grandmother Reid, me, Joanne, and cousin Billie Lucille Jensen. There was a square of ink over Grandmother's head. Suddenly we realized it blanked out someone standing behind her. We took a magnifying glass and went outside in the sunlight to look at it. It was Mother. We were shocked! Everyone loved Mother. She was such a kind person. She always said there was no such thing as a person who was all bad. Overlook the bad and look for the good. Who would have marked Mother's face out? Then we noticed the bobbed hair and knew who hated it. Mother herself had committed this dastardly deed!"
1920 Jackson Co., MO census, Van Buren Twp., p. 128
John Sneed 43, farmer, can read & write, MO VA VA
Katie 34 MO OH OH
Clorah 8 UT MO MO
Junior 7 MO MO MO
Cave 4 MO MO MO
In September 1927, tragedy struck the family with the sudden death of John and Katie's daughter, Joanne, from polio. She was buried in the Perdee Cemetery near the grave of her grandfather, Richard F. Sneed. Three other children of John and Katie are buried there with her, the four little graves marked with small aluminum crosses with no inscriptions.
In 1930, their oldest child Clorah, age 18, met and married Glen Wright of the nearby town of Lees Summit. They were married in Independence.
Also in 1930, John's widowed mother Sarah Findley Sneed was living with them:
1930 census, Van Buren, Jackson, Missouri
John W Sneed Head M 54 Missouri
Katie O Sneed Wife F 44 Missouri
John W Sneed Jr. Son M 17 Missouri
Milton C Sneed Son M 14 Missouri
Billie K Sneed Daughter F 9 Missouri
Nellie J Sneed Daughter F 3 Missouri
Patricia L Sneed Daughter F 0 Missouri
Sarah J Sneed Mother M 76 Missouri
The farm itself did fairly well until the Great Depression hit. Farm prices slid and small farmers everywhere began going under. To add to the catastrophe, drought struck the mid-western states. The land literally dried up and blew away, producing the great 'dust bowl.' The final blow for John and Katie came when their farmhouse caught fire and burned to the ground. They were forced to declare bankruptcy. In 1936, they moved west to Salem, Oregon to search for work. John and son Jack worked for awhile in a machine shop. John was also a master stone mason and worked building houses, stone mantles, and anything else ordered. In 1938, the family moved again, this time to California.
1940 census, Councilmanic District 1, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California
John W Sneed Head M 63 Missouri
Kathryn Sneed Wife F 54 Missouri
Nellie Jean Sneed Daughter F 13 Missouri
Pattie Lu Sneed Daughter F 10 Missouri
John and Katie suffered another tragedy in Aug 1945. Their daughter Jean, married only a year or so and now expecting, was discovered to have a bad heart. She gave birth safely to a little girl, but died unexpectedly in her sleep when the baby was five weeks old. She was only nineteen years old. John and Kate buried her in California and took the baby, named Bonnie, in to raise themselves. Her father remarried when she was three and was able to take her back.
At some point, the family made a visit back to Missouri and John, with son Milton's help, fashioned four small aluminum crosses to mark the graves of his and Katie's four children buried in the Perdee cemetery. John, Milton, and Gordan [Billie's husband] put them up together.
In 1947, John and Kate bought five acres of land and a small house in the arid hill country northwest of Los Angeles in an area known as Saugus, and John worked as an electrician. He built on a bathroom at the back of the house. They lived a quarter mile east of Sierra Highway in Baker Canyon, and John died at home there from a bad heart on December 21, 1952. Katie had his body sent back to Missouri to rest between his father and his four little children.
Katie's daughter Pat stayed in San Fernando with her three boys and was able to visit at least one Sunday a month, as was her grandson Glenn Wright (son of Clorah) and his family, who lived even closer in Saugus. Katie's sister Lottie and her husband built a small house on Katie's lot and the two sisters had the comfort of each others' company until Lottie's death in Aug 1964. Katie's sister Glennie (whose first husband had been John's brother, Sam) came a few months after Lottie's death to stay with Katie over the winter, but she suffered a heart attack and died there in December. Through all these trials, Katie's faith remained strong and she was the kindest and best of mothers and grandmothers, continuing to host Sunday and Christmas get-togethers and dinners for her daughter Pat and grandson Glenn Wright and all their children. Finally, about 1970, living alone in the isolated house became too much for her and she moved to a small, private nursing home where she could be looked after. She died on December 16, 1977 at the Fillmore Convalescent Center in Fillmore, Ventura Co, CA, having survived John by twenty-five years. She was laid to rest next to him in Missouri. She had been a faithful member of the local Methodist church near her home for many years, although, as granddaughter Bille Sneed Leighter said, throughout her life she never owned a car and always attended the Protestant church nearest her home regardless of denomination.
Children:
1. Clorah Lea Sneed, b. 16 Sep 1911, Ogden, Weber Co., Utah; m. 1st 27 Feb 1930, Independence, Jackson Co., MO to Glen Joseph Wright [1907-1953; son of Ernest D. and Myrtle Belle (Kirkpatrick) Wright]; m. 2nd after Mar 1954, Jackson Co., MO to Robert McDowell; she d. 13 Feb 1968, Kansas City, MO; buried Lees Summit cemetery.
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2. John Wiley Sneed "Jack", b. 12 Jan 1913, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. Laura Bell Grogren [b. 1920, Yakima, Yakima Co., ND; daughter of Edwin C. Grogen and Lillian J. __]; he d. 30 Jul 1998, Palms, Los Angeles Co., CA.
1940 census, Councilmanic District 1, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles, California
[last place of residence was Kansas City, MO]
John W Sneed Head M 27 Missouri
Laura Sneed Wife F 20 North Dakota
Michael E Sneed Son M 0 California
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3. Infant Sneed, b. and d. 16 Jan 1914, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; buried in Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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4. Norman Eugene Sneed; b. late 1914, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. as an infant; buried in Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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5. Milton Cave Sneed, b. 8 Sep 1915, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 8 Jun 1936, Independence, MO, to Irene Josephine West [b. 18 Dec 1915, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 10 Jan 2013, Independence, Jackson Co., MO; daughter of William Harrison West and Dollie Jessie Irene Faulkenberry]; he d. 21 Mar 1990; buried Lone Jack Cemetery, Jackson Co., MO.
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6. Billie Katherine Sneed, b. 17 Oct 1920/21, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 10 Sep 1938 to ___ Leighter; d. Feb 2008; buried 6 Feb 2008, Perdue Chapel Cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO .
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7. Blanche Elizabeth Sneed, b. 8 Jul 1918, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 28 Jul 1918; Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO, aged 10 days; buried Perdee Chapel cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO.
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8. Joanne Findley Sneed, b. 10 Mar 1923, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 4 Sep 1927, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO, aged 4 yrs, of polio; buried in Perdee cemetery, Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO .
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9. Nellie Jean Sneed, b. 6 Sep 1926, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. in CA to Jack Gilbert McConnell; d. 29 Aug 1945, North Hollywood, Orange Co., CA, age 19 yrs. of natural causes; buried Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, Los Angeles Co., CA. She left a five-week-old daughter.
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10. Patricia Lucille Sneed, b. 19 Oct 1929, Lone Jack Jackson Co., MO; m. 1st 21 Jun 1947, Los Angeles, CA to Donald Eugene Ackerman [b. 1928; son of Oscar W. Ackerman and Neva A. Davis]; m. 2nd ____ Clarke; she d. 1 Sep 2007.
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Family Members
Siblings
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Mary Violetta Reid Armstrong
1871–1901
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Lucy Ophelia Reid Smith
1872–1941
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James Edward Reid
1874–1875
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Guise Delbert Reid
1876–1878
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Ella Weiser Nancy Reid Hodges
1878–1918
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Georgie Belle Reid Guy
1879–1949
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Lottie Bynum Reid Guy
1882–1964
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Glenna Alice Reid Sneed
1884–1964
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Blanche Tillie Reid Shrout
1888–1976
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Edward Guise "Guy" Reid
1891–1961
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Infant daughter Reid
1893–1893
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