Snoddy Letter-Harding, Howell, Parmley, Owens, Hootsell, Watkins,
Hope this helps the Snoddy family. If anyone has old picts or letters of my family, please post or email them to me. William Shapley Owen/Sarah Elizabeth Hootsell, William Thomas Watkins/Sallie Owen, William M. Watkins/Amanda Truslow, Dr. R.H. Webb, Pindall.
November 4, 1937
My Dear Sallie [(Owen) Watkins],
Well, Mallie [Watkins] writes me that you are much better and I am so glad. It is hard to keep a good old fighter down, isn’t it? She tells me you would like to know something of your Owen kin. Well my dear cousin, I do not know very much I’m sorry to say, it is a great regret and sorrow to me that I did not write all mother had told me from time to time.She neglected so many things, thinking to do it another day and before one realize, it is too late. Grandma Owen was Lucy Harding, her father was Zephamiah Harding and her mother was Sarah Howell (married name) of Frederich, Maryland. Our great-grandmother was a great niece of Benjamin Hart, the famous English portrait painter.A large picture of him is in the Gallery of Fame in Washington DC. My mother had told me many stories of her grandmother Howell. She stayed with her great deal as a little girl. Our grandparents Ivey and [William] Shapley Owen had 8 children. 1). John Harding. 2). Jacob Zephamiah. 3). Sarah Elizabeth. 4). Your father William [Shapley]. 5). Maria Jane. 6). Edmond. 7). baby named West. 8). my mother, Mary Margaret [Snoddy]. There are very few left now.Uncle John [#1] died when my mother was a young lady.He lived in New Orleans and had a daughter May.She came to Louisville, when I was a little girl but I remember her. She was very beautiful. She married a young dentist named Parmley. They moved to Paris, France. She had 8 children. She was underway to the U.S. to visit her mother and brought the youngest child, a baby.They were on that boat "The Bargoyne" which struck an iceberg and sank in mid ocean. All on board were lost, an awful tragedy. I have never known what became of her sons. No doubt they are living in France. Aunt Sallie’s [#3] family is all gone except for Sally Lerns Speed who lives in San Francisco, California with a married daughter. Sally was married twice, first time to a Dr. Learns and second Speed. Both are dead. You are the last of your father’s family and my brother Charlie who lives in Memphis and I are the last of mine. So there are very few left of our Grandparents Owen. I know very little of Grandpa’s [William Shapley Owen] family. They were from Maryland also, and he had a sister Camella who lived in Kalamazoo, Mich. My mother and grandmother made her a visit when I was a little girl-7 or 8 years old. It was before brother Charlie was born for I am nine years older than he. We never kept up with Aunt Camella’s family and I wish we had for they were very fine people. They had a large farm in Michigan.Mom has told me often what a lovely voice your mother Sallie [Sarah Elizabeth Hootsell] had and how she [Mary Margaret (Owen) Snoddy], Aunt Sallie and Uncle Will [Shapley Owen) would sing together. Your mother’s voice was alto or contralto and mama’s soprano. They had many happy times together and I have a very faint remembrance of her but remember so well when we visited Grandma Owen one winter and I stared several times at your home at the Point when Cousin Lizzy was mothering the little brother whom your dear mother left. I often go back in memory to those days when I first new Shapley and loved him very much. Well I go on reminiscing, and no doubt tiring you but I will stop now. That will help a little to know something of our family. I have a cousin on my father side living at 1522 Spring Street, Little Rock. Mr. W. E. Overstreet and my husband had cousins living there, James Hemingway and family. Well this is the last, now good bye and let me know how you are. Didn’t you have a son? Give my love to Mallie [Watkins] and Daisy [Mae Watkins]. I hope you are much better. I am off.
Cousin Emma [(Snoddy) Montgomery]
This letter is a rambling affair. Can’t rewrite now, too tired.