FIRST GENERATION

1. John SNAVELY⁽¹⁾ was born on 31 Aug 1795.^{(2) (3)} We currently don't know where John was born nor anything regarding his pedigree. We do know that he enlisted in the Army (War of 1812) in Fredericksburg, in Lebanon County so have directed our research efforts to that area as well as Lancaster County (there were several Snavelys in the Lancaster area). His birthdate is calculated from his headstone.

He died on 30 May 1876 in Nittany Hall, Potter Twp., Centre Co., PA. ⁽⁴⁾ He was buried in St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Clinton Co., PA. ⁽⁵⁾⁽⁶⁾ That this is the correct John Snavely is confirmed by the side by side burial of he and his wife, Rachel. John Snavely served in the War of 1812 and a search of both his Compiled Service and Pension Application records reveals that he enlisted on 8 August 1814 in Fredericksburg, Lebanon Co., resided in Lebanon Co. at the time of his enlistment, and rendezvoused with his unit in York, PA, some 39 miles away. Data for his date and place of discharge is conflicting, but the most reliable source is probably the Company Muster Roll. That sheet shows his discharge took place on 05 Dec 1814 in Baltimore (the other location, York, was the location given by him from memory some years later, long after he lost his papers, when he applied for his pension).

He served with Capt. Benjamin Lesher's Co. which was, in turn, a unit of the 1st Regiment (Kennedy's), Pennsylvania Militia. In "Pennsylvania Archives, Vol XII", we find "Capt. Benjamin Lesher's Company in the first Regiment, First Brigade, PA militia, commanded by Col. Maxwell Kennedy at York, PA, Sept 15, 1814. In service from Sept 5, 1814 to Mar 5, 1815, from Lebanon County." John Snobely is shown as a private in those records.

His military and pension records have five versions of the spelling of his name, as follows: Snavely, Snebly, Snably, Shnebly, and Shnobly.

He received bounty land described as "Wt.32, 869-160-55" and became a pensioner on certificate No. 21-186.

According to the obituary of Rachel Askey Snavely, John was only 16 years old when he enlisted. However, this is probably erroneous as we know (from his military records) that his service all took place in the year 1814, and we also know from two other sources that he was born in 1795. This would make him 18 years old when he enlisted.

There is a potential problem in confusing our John Snavely with another John, one John Snively. In "History of Centre County", on p51, there is shown the roll of "Capt. George Records' company of volunteers from Centre County May 5 to Nov 8, 1813" and it includes Samuel Askey (probably Rachel's uncle) as well as a John Snively. John Sniveley is described as "..died in Nittany Valley; buried in St. Paul's, Lamar Twp. (which is in Clinton Co)". This St. Paul's Church Cemetery is known to be the burial place of our John Snavley, which is confirmed by the side-by-side burial of his wife, Rachel Askey. However, John Snively seemingly can't be John Snavely, since they apparently enlisted in the War of 1812 in different locations and served with different groups. It seems an improbable coincidence that they would be both buried in the same place, but perhaps they were. If not, then the death place ascribed to John Snively is incorrect.

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We currently know nothing of John Snavely's pedigree. Because of his enlistment point, we are assuming that his childhood was spent in/near Fredericksburg in Lebanon County. Also, based on what we know of the German or Swiss origins of the name Snavely (Schnebele, Schnobly, and other variants), we are assuming that the family was Lutheran.

There is a Lutheran church in Fredericksburg (known as St. John's Lutheran or St. John's Union) and those records are available on LDS Film 0940446.

There we find a Henrich Schnably (also spelled "Schnebele" on earlier pages and entries) and his wife Catherine having a son, Johann Jacob, born 27 March 1799.

So here is a "John Snavely", "from" Fredericksburg, who would have been "15 or 16" years old in 1814.

There are no other Snavelys in this church record. And, although the name "Schnebele" is often seen in this area, it is still a fairly uncommon name.

I have requested help from the Lebanon County Historical Society and am waiting to hear from them (CCT 2/98).

He was married to Rachel ASKEY (daughter of John ASKEY and Elizabeth "Betsy" EVANS) on 10 Jan 1832 in Howard, Centre Co., PA.^{(7) (1)} The source shows the marriage of "John Snevely" (sic) and "Rachel Arshim" which is an erroneous transciption of Arskin or Arskins, common renderings then of a name going from the Scottish Erskine to the Americanized Askey.

Also, following John Snavley's death in 1876, Rachel filed a Widow's Pension Claim, swearing therein that she and John were married on 03 January 1832 in Howard, PA by one Joseph Montgomery, a Justice of the Peace. She also swears that she has not remarried nor were either she or John previously married to anyone else. She also indicates John's death date as 30 May 1876. Her claim is witnessed by both D. Kline and her brother, Nelson Askey. Nelson is shown to be aged 57 at the time.

Rachel is then required to provide a number of affadavits supporting her claim, most of which are related to proving her marriage to John, for which she says she never received a certificate. These affadavits include statements made by the undertaker who prepared John's body, by others who knew them as man and wife and who claim the children called them "mother and father" (one of these was Nelson Askey), by one of their sons (Henry C. Snavely) who swears "the children called them mother and father", etc.

Rachel ASKEY was born on 24 Mar 1810 in "The Homestead", Howard, Centre Co., PA.^{(8) (9)} She died on 15 Aug 1895 in Nittany Hall, Potter Twp., Centre Co., PA.^{(10) (11)(12)} There is conflicting information regarding the name of the son "Henry". Rachel Askey's death notice mentions two surviving sons, William and Harry, so it is possible that the son "Henry" is really "Harry." It is, however, just as likely that the death notice is in error, since it refers to William as "now living in Nittany Hall, KS" which, of course, is wrong. William was in KS, but Nittany Hall was in PA, where Rachel died and the article was written. I have stayed with the use of "Henry", which is the name as reported by Harry Grant Snavely, his nephew.

It also mentions that Henry "stayed on to run the farm" while William went west.

Rachel Askey's death notice also indicated that she died a widow at home at Nittany Hall, near Howard, PA, and was a pensioner of the War of 1812 in which her husband, John, had served at the age of 16.

In the obituary of her brother, Ellis, in IL, his obit says that Rachel "died at Cedar Springs, Clinton County, Feb. 19, 1897". I have assumed that the other information is more likely to be correct in this regard and not this. If we care, it is a possible research topic for some other time.

She was buried in St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Clinton Co., PA. ^{(13)(14) (15)} John SNAVELY and Rachel ASKEY had the following children:

+2 i. Henry C. SNAVELY.
+3 ii. William Askey SNAVELY.