Margerett Rosallia Snyder, my 2nd great-grandmother, was born in 1865 in Indiana, the eldest child of George and Sarah (Coles) Snyder. George and Sarah were married in 1864 in Indiana, and when the census was taken in 1870, they were living on their farm in Springfield Township, Allen County, Indiana, with their two young daughters, Margerett and her infant sister Emma. In 1880, Margerett was still living with her parents on their Springfield Township farm. When Robert S. Robertson wrote a short biography of George in the History of the Valley of the Upper Maumee River in 1889, he wrote that “Mr. Snyder has a handsome farm embracing eighty acres of the old homestead. He and family are respected by all who know them.” George (and thus presumably his family) was listed in the 1890 directory of Allen County, Indiana, still as a resident of Springfield Township.
Margerett was married in 1891 at the age of twenty-five years to Isaac Sheridan Harter, also an Indiana native. According to Fayne Harter (Isaac and Margerett’s granddaughter) in her Ancestors and Descendants of George Harter, written in 1969, “They lived with William Harter [Isaac’s father] in the old Hall [Isaac’s mother’s father, Isaac Hall, was an Allen County pioneer] home. Ike was a farmer and assisted his father in management of the farm.” Isaac and Margerett had a son, Herbert, in 1892. Isaac was listed in the 1895-1896 Fort Wayne and Allen County directory as a resident of Georgetown in Springfield Township, Indiana. Their daughter Lois (my great-grandmother) was born on 14 June 1898, and Margerett died on 29 June 1898, fifteen days later. She was thirty-two years old.
Lois was given to Isaac’s sister Olive Esther (Harter) Swaidner to raise. I can find no record that Isaac ever looked back, checked up on his daughter or made any arrangements to contribute to her welfare. Surely, he was brought low by the death of his wife, but while posterity looked favorably upon “Aunt Ettie” for taking in baby Lois, Isaac was never mentioned in any family writing involving Lois, and the silence speaks volumes. Herbert, aged five years when his mother died, stayed with his father, who remarried in 1901.
Again, according to Fayne Harter’s 1969 book, “Rose…was a very energetic woman and was known for always being busy. She never sat down without a bit of mending or fancy work in her hands.” (Like many of my ancestors in this generation, Margerett most often went by a diminution of her middle name – Rose.) This is all Fayne wrote about the personal life of her grandmother. Fayne, Herbert’s daughter, would only have known what her father might have told her about his mother, and as he was only five years old when she died, he wouldn’t have known much. Fayne was exactly one year old when her grandfather Isaac died, so she wouldn’t have been able to get a husband’s perspective, either. So here we are, 127 years down the road from the death of a daughter, wife and mother, and all we really know about her was she kept busy with sewing. I do know a little something about that.
My life is very different from Rose’s, even though there are some similarities between us. I was 27 when I gave birth to my first child, a son – she was 26, and her first child was also a boy. I was 30 when I gave birth to my second child, a daughter – she was 32, and her second child was also a girl. I had two children, so did she. Here’s a big difference – she died at age 32, and here I am, 52 and hopefully still with years ahead of me – because medical science has come a long way since 1898. In the 1890s, common complications after childbirth included puerperal fever (infections due to unsanitary conditions and practices), hemorrhage (leading to death if not managed promptly), and septicemia. Contributing factors were lack of hygiene, poor medical knowledge, and physical trauma from prolonged labor. I have little doubt that if I had been giving birth in 1898 instead of 2000 and 2003, I would not have survived. Multiple procedures and drugs were required in both cases, and if I had been giving birth at home with the assistance of untrained family members instead of in a sterile hospital environment with multiple medical professionals – I would have died too.
Then, because I lived through childbirth, I was also able to live through any number of other temporary or chronic conditions since then – for example: hypothyroidism (treated with medication I take every day), over the years various bacterial infections (treated with antibiotics which weren’t available in 1898), over the years various viral infections, including COVID (which thanks to multiple vaccines and palliative treatment I was able to survive), and just in the last month, a kidney infection (thanks again, antibiotics) AND Lyme disease (thanks again, different antibiotics).
If Rose had lived beyond her thirty-two years, would she have developed neurodegenerative disease – like her daughter Lois, like her granddaughters Vivian and Fayne? Does her “always being busy” indicate anything she was trying to keep at bay, like me (and my daughter, and my sister, and my mom)? I keep busy because having something to do keeps me healthy – physically and mentally. If I have things to occupy my mind, my body, my hands, I don’t spiral into a pit of despair. There are so many things to worry about in the world. I choose solving genealogical puzzles, searching for facts and stories about long-dead relatives; designing a new quilt, choosing fabric, cutting, sewing and assembling it; planning and executing home maintenance/improvement projects; planning trips and celebrations…it adds up. It keeps me going.
I feel like I’ve been concluding with this a lot the last several weeks, but I wish I knew more about Margerett Rosallia “Rose”. Including – did my grandparents name their eldest child, my dad’s sister, Rose – after her?
When my children were teens and had friends over hanging out in our living room, I recall struggling to roll out and crimp a pie crust, ending up with an unattractive mess. At the time I advised the teenagers in my living room: “Learn to make pie before everyone dies.” They thought it was funny. But the bottom line is, my grandmothers, my mom and my mother-in-law were all experts at pie crust (and a lot of other things). I am lucky I still have my mom to call when I have a question or need a shoulder to lean on. But I could have asked Grandma, or Grandma, or Margie, a lot of things, and I didn’t. If you have questions for the older people in your life, ask them now.
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