John Wiley Sneed was born December 10, 1876 in the little town of Blue Springs, Jackson Co., MO, the son of Richard F. & Sarah J. (Findley) Sneed. His father had fought in the Confederate Army of Virginia during the Civil War and was captured and imprisoned in a northern prisoner of war camp before its end. John had a gregarious personality and was the adventurous sort. According to his daughter Billie:

"When Dad was sixteen years old [in 1892], he left home and went west with his brother, Sam. They were on foot, looking for work at a ranch. They were very thirsty and finally stopped at a ranch house to ask for water. They knocked at the back door and a very young child threw open the door and there, sitting in a wash tub taking a bath was its mother, stark naked! The woman started screaming at the top of her lungs and the boys ran for their lives. They hid in a ditch when they heard anyone coming, sure it was a posse and they were going to be hung to the nearest tree.
Dad did get a job as a chore boy at a ranch and one day, in front of all the cowboys, the rancher said, 'Boy, get on my horse and ride into town to the post office and pick up the mail.' And then he said, 'You'll need this.' He took off his holster and gun and wrapped it around Dad, slapped the horse on the rump and the horse took off at a dead run, right into town and through the swinging doors of the saloon and came to a sliding stop at the bar. The bartender did not say a word, just handed Dad a drink. The horse whirled around, went through the swinging doors and straight to the post office. The postmaster came out, handed him the mail, the horse took off and ran for home. Dad had no control over the horse. When Dad arrived back at the ranch, the same bunch of cowboys were waiting for him, all looking very serious.
Dad spent most of his time until 1921 in the western states, working on ranches, going to Alaska and then working for South Western Bell Telephone as a foreman, building the first telephone lines across the western states. Someone asked Dad if, during his days in the wild west and…" [my copy of story breaks off.]

As a very young man, he performed with his brother Joe playing the banjo on the state in vaudeville. This was a type of variety show that became popular in the United States about 1895. It usually featured ten to fifteen individual unrelated acts of magicians, acrobats, comedians, trained animals, jugglers, singers, and dancers.

In 1898, at the age of twenty-two, John joined the gold rush to the Yukon in Alaska and was gone two years. Although as eager as any other prospector to strike it rich, he was realistic enough to take along his carpenter tools in case it didn't work out. As his daughter Billie (Sneed) Leighter later related:

"My sister Pat and I remember Dad's stories about going to Alaska during the late 1890's Gold Rush. He took the Inside Passage, probably from Seattle, Washington, and spoke of Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, then crossing the Chilkoat Pass.
So many men who did not have enough food, clothing and money died crossing this pass. They were stopped and required to show proof that they had adequate supplies before they were allowed to go on to Whitehorse. From Whitehorse, he went on the Dawson. Dad had been working as a carpenter in Missouri and took his carpenter's tools with him. At some point on the river, he and some other men built a raft to travel down the river. Between Dawson and Fort Yukon, Dad and two other men were traveling in a small boat, sleeping at night in ice caves. One of the men pulled a gun and robbed Dad and the other man. He then forced them to row for two days before they overcame him when he went to sleep. They tied him up and turned him over to the police at Fort Yukon.
We do not know where he left the river, but at some time he bought a dog team and sled. He and two men were prospecting for gold and were living in a log cabin on a river. They intended to go back to town (Nome?) before winter, but winter came early and they were snowed in until the spring thaw. They ran out of food, but had guns and ammunition and had to live for three months on moose meat. I heard that story every time we forgot to put salt on the table.
Dad did not strike it rich panning gold that winter. When they made it back to town that spring, he had $2.36 in gold dust which someone stole from him the first night in town. He was broke and wanted to go home to Missouri. He still had his carpenter's tools and he signed on as ship's carpenter on a freighter carrying cargo across the Bering Strait to Siberia. He said it was a dangerous trip dodging the icebergs. As soon as he had enough money, he returned to Missouri.
Dad brought his carpenter's tools home with him and he gave his saw that he had in Alaska to my brother, Milton. The handle had a bolt missing and Dad had wired it on with a piece of baling wire. Milton used that saw and one time when he took it to be sharpened the man said, "This is a good old saw and I will take that wire out and put a bolt in it." Milton said, "Don't touch that wire. I want it left just the way it was when Dad gave it to me." When Milton's health began to fail he gave it to one of his sons."

After his return to Blue Springs, one day John went courting at the home of the Reid 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. Katie's full name was Katie Ora Reid, born February 13, 1886, 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 John's father having been a Confederate soldier.

John had already been working as a lineman foreman for the Bell Telephone Company for some time. There is a famous photograph taken in 1909 in Nephi, Utah of seven workers posed up on a telephone pole. John is the man on the far left. 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. John was foreman of a crew that helped to string the nation's first transcontinental phone line. Later, after John's death, the Bell Telephone Company would ask his daughter Pat to contribute his old tool belt to their museum.

From the online "Utah History Encyclopedia"
"Final transcontinental telephone pole, 17 June 1914 -
Nationally, phone wires were being strung to link the country as the telegraph and railroads had done in the 1860s. The span between Salt Lake City and Wendover was a problem. At times the working temperature was 130 degrees and the glare made working in the daytime almost impossible. The final pole was set and wires strung on 28 July 1914 at Wendover to complete the first transcontinental phone line in the United States."

John told one of his grandsons later that when he worked stringing telegraph and telephone wire, he had earphones that allowed him to hear the Morse code clicks from the telegraph wire without touching them, and so he knew even before the invention of radio that it was possible to send signals through the air without wires.

In 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.

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 four-year-old 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 [without any inscriptions] made by their father.

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

It was World War II that turned their fortunes around. They lived in the San Fernando Valley in the Los Angeles area. John found work in the expanding shipyards in San Pedro, California and proudly paid off his old debts from the bankruptcy, even though he had no legal obligation to do so.

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, 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 son-in-law Gordan Leighter set 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 Soledad Canyon, 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 in the Perdee Chapel cemetery.

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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. 2 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, Los Angeles, Orange Co., CA, age 19 yrs. of natural causes; buried in 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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