Thomas Snee
An Early Jefferson Hills Pioneer

     If you have ever traveled down Chamberlain Road between Gill Hall and Old Clairton Roads, then you have crossed the land originally patented to Thomas Snee.  A farmer and early settler of what is today Jefferson Hills, Snee was born and raised in Ireland.  It was there that he met and married his wife Nancy and began his family.  Then sometime around 1794, Thomas Snee, his wife, and four children made the dangerous journey across the Atlantic to finally settle in Western Pennsylvania.

     The first record of Thomas Snee in America was a 1796 tax record of Nottingham Township, Washington County showing Thomas "Sneas", a weaver, resided there.  Subsequent Washington County tax records indicated that the Snees lived in Nottingham until at least 1803.

     By 1807 Snee had more than satisfied the five-year United States residency requirement for naturalization.  After applying to the courts in Allegheny County, Snee, sponsored by his neighbor James McKillip, became an American citizen on October 7, 1807.

     It is unclear when Thomas Snee first came to live on the seventy-one acre Gill Hall property adjacent to the lands of Abraham Beam, Robert Ritchie, William McGill and Peter Stilley.  The land was originally warranted to Jacob Shetler (Shelper?) on October 28, 1801.  However, it was Thomas Snee who had the piece of land surveyed on April 2, 1808 and it was Snee who was granted a government patent for the land on February 7, 1809.

     On this land, which Snee named "Mount Holly," Thomas and Nancy made their permanent home and raised their children: Michael, Nancy Beam, Elizabeth (unmarried), John, Margaret Chamberlain, Thomas, William, George, Jerimiah, and Francis.  A small stream known as Beams Run bisected the land and served as the family's water supply.  On the hillside just west of the stream in the southwest corner of the property, the Snees built a log cabin.

     According to Bertha May Wakefield Beam, Thomas and Nancy Snee were originally Catholic.  However, with no Catholic Church nearby, they may have later become Episcopal Methodist.  After Thomas's death, many of his children helped to found and were active members of the Jefferson Methodist Episcopal Church which was established in 1843.

     An account of Thomas's possessions at the time of his death showed that he had prospered as a farmer.  He grew wheat, buckwheat and rye as well as potatoes.  The livestock he owned included a bay horse, mare, and colt, a brown mare, three cows, a yoke of oxen, two heifers, fourteen sheep, a sow and six pigs, ten hogs, twenty-two geese, and five dogs.  he owned farm equipment and tools, furniture, three quilts, one coverlet, one blanket, a coffee mill, a flax brake, a loom, a looking glass, a flat iron, two Bibles, and amazingly twelve books.

     Thomas must have been a learned man for the times and one who valued education.  The fact that Thomas owned books and could sign his name suggested that he could probably both read and write.  His sons most definitely were educated and used that education to serve the community.  William was the architect of the first Jefferson Methodist Episcopal Church; Jeremiah was on its original board; and Francis was a local justice of the peace.

     In fact, an 1876 map of Jefferson showed the Snee's School House located on the corner of the Snee property across from the Jefferson Presbyterian Church.  This school building was later moved to the other side of the Gill Hall Road and today is part of the Hill family's home.

     The Snees were apparently close friends with their neighbors, especially the Beams.  not only did the Snee land share a common boundary with that of Abraham Beam, but there were at least three Snee-Beam marriages: Nacy Snee to Elijah Beam; William Snee to Nancy Beam; and Mary Snee to William Beam.  In addition, Amos Beam was a witness to Thomas Snee's will.

     Thomas Snee died on April 11, 1814 at the age of fifty-four.  Shortly before his death, he wrote his last will and testament in which he spoke lovingly of his wife Nancy.  Except for a bay mare and saddle which he left to his son John, Thomas left all of his worldly possessions to his wife, trusting her to distribute them as she saw fit to their children as they married and left home.

     After his death, Thomas was buried in the Jefferson Methodist Episcopal Cemetery on Gill Hall Road.  Today the original writing on the marker is difficult to read, but on the back of his stone someone had inscribed 1760-1811.  This death date is not correct, however since Thomas's will was written in 1814.  The date of death originally inscribed on the stone was likely 1814 but the "4" was badly worn and probably looked like a "1" instead.  This is no doubt how the mistake occurred.

~ Deborah C. Morinello, WJHHS Genealogy Committee