Saline County Century Farm: Historic family, historic farm honored with Century Farm designation

Cousins Lynda Page Bergman (left) and Ina Frances Snoddy Dysart were on hand at the Saline County Century Farm celebration on Nov. 12. Their 140-acre farm near Malta Bend was one of 10 new farms honored for being in the same family for 100 years or more. (Geoff Rands/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The farm eventually grew to some 700 acres where Daniel and his wife established a family home, which stood more than 100 years and was the main farm home of the Snoddy family until 1943.

Last month, a 140-acre parcel of the original farm was named a Saline County Century Farm for being in the same family for more than 100 years. Current owners are Daniel and Elizabeth Snoddy's great-great-granddaughters Lynda Page Bergman and Ina Frances Snoddy Dysart, along with Ina's husband, Ed Dysart.

None of the buildings are still standing on the farm now, but Dysart said she vaguely remembers seeing the old homestead as a child, although it was very run down.

William Addison Snoddy I and Teresa Ann Power Snoddy were the great-grandparents of Lynda Page Bergman and Ina Frances Snoddy Dysart. (Contributed photos) [Click to enlarge]

She remembers it was a large two-story home, with a front porch. The front porch is the place her father, William Addison Snoddy II, and mother, Mary Ann Wilson, first met.

According to the story her parents always told, the Wilson family, who were good friends, were at the Snoddy home near Malta Bend for a Sunday get-together. Her father was there with his family, who lived near Miami on another farm.

"The joke between them was that the other men went to look at the hogs, and he stayed on the front porch to talk to my mother," said Dysart.

Bergman doesn't remember seeing the farm when the original home and farm buildings were still standing, but she does remember one of the home's last residents, her great-aunt, Josephine Snoddy.

It was at her great-aunt Josephine's home in town that Bergman remembers "lots of family dinners."

"I remember her well," she said. According to Bergman, her aunt was very much a "pillar" at the "rock" church, First Presbyterian Church in Marshall.

Never married, Josephine was a schoolteacher in Malta Bend and at one time apparently worked at the bank as well.

As some of the early pioneers in Saline County, there is much written about the Snoddy family in local history books.

According to "History of Saline County," published in 1967, the farm's original owner, Daniel Snoddy, became a "successful farmer and man of influence." He died, however, in 1847 on returning from a business trip to Miami, a victim of cholera.

His youngest son, William A. Snoddy I, who was raised on the Saline County farm, enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1864 and served as a private until the close of the Civil War. He was taken prisoner early in the war and held a short time, but was later released and acted as an escort for General Marmaduke.

In 1868, he married Teresa Ann Power, a native of Kentucky, and came into possession of 160 acres from the family homestead. According to the book, "Past and Present Saline County," published in 1910, W.A. Snoddy I "greatly improved and skillfully managed" his farm, "causing it to yield abundant harvest and support large numbers of an excellent variety of livestock. He has an attractively located and pleasant home and good barn, sheds and other buildings."

The book also states that the Snoddys "are and have been since the early pioneer days generally recognized as among the leading citizens of Saline County, public spirited, industrious and scrupulously honest, always ready to assist in furthering any worthy cause and they have done much for the development of the county in various ways, such as buildings of roads, churches and school houses ...."

W.A. Snoddy I died in 1915, and his home was closed for some two years, when his wife and their daughter, Josephine, lived in town. However, another daughter and her husband, Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" and Alfred M. Rock, "reopened" the farm home in 1918. Teresa Power Snoddy and Josephine apparently moved back there. Mrs. Snoddy died in 1938. After Mayme died in 1943, Josephine and her brother-in-law moved to town. It was then that Bergman remembers them.

Bergman and Dysart's grandparents were Robert Daniel and Ina Yager Snoddy, who moved to and farmed in the Miami community. Their children were Virginia Ann Snoddy Mikels, Marjorie Snoddy Page (Bergman's mother) and William Addison Snoddy II (Ina's father.)

The Saline County farming tradition of the Snoddy family continued with Dysart's brothers, William Addison Snoddy III and Robert "Bobby" Snoddy, before their deaths in 2007 and 2004, respectively.

Bergman said she hopes that this farm, which has been farmed for many years by the Kiser family of Malta Bend, continues to belong to decendants of Daniel and William A. Snoddy I.

"I've preached to my sons, like my mother preached to me, that land needs to stay in the family," she said.

Contact Marcia Gorrell at

marshallag@socket.net