We don't know much about her earlier marriage. But her last marriage was to a kind man named Jesse Snapp. He told us a story sometime while we were children so it had to be around the late 1960's. He told us of how his family traveled in covered wagons across the west. He was an infant at the time. This likely occurred sometime around the 1880's. After setting camp for the evening a group of strangers approached them and asked if they could have some coffee. Jesse's family invited them in and I believe served them some "fix en's" as well. While eating, the strangers were curious why they were so kind and what would they do if some outlaws like say Jesse James had stumbled into their camp. Jesse's father said "Well I guess we'd do the same and offer them to join us." At that point our step-great grandfather exclaimed that the strangers proclaimed themselves to the James Gang. Perhaps that's how he cam to be known as Jesse.
Jesse moved into Ma's house after they were married in the early 1960's, but Ma lived in the house since YYYY. Ma's house was in Beechview at Blosco Avenue midway up the steep hill. It was a large house for its day with brown shingle siding shaped like bricks. Her house was filled with oak wainscoting in nearly every room. All were stained a rich dark Oak color. Her second floor was actually an apartment with a kitchen, living room and several bedrooms. Ma lived on the first floor. The stairway with thick oak rails was the only thing that separated the second floor apartment from the first floor. That is both places shared the same entrance to the building and there was no door separating the floors. As kids, we would love to play in the apartment area and sneak up into the attic. We would of course play hide and seek, but it always seemed fascinating to us at the empty space that had once obviously been lived in. Remnants from previous tenants and family laid about. As with any attic, this one held old family keepsakes and items from Dad's youth. We can remember once seeing one of Dad's school papers. Bob and I searched in vain to see if Dad's grades were any better than ours. To our chagrin Dad's school work looked just fine.
In the 70's she converted her living room into a bedroom. This was easy since there were large hidden oak retractable doors that could be pulled out from each side of the frame to close. There were two such door ways one to the parlor and the other to the dining room which served as her living room. Directly off the substitute living room she had a kitchen pantry with stove and sink. A large kitchen dining area sat at the back of the house off the pantry. At the front entrance she had a parlor area to close out the first floor. There was no bathroom on this floor. She, being up in years, could not climb the steps very well to the second floor bathroom so she had to use a chair with a pot placed under it. She had a small porch in a little back yard which was surrounded by other houses at both sides and directly behind. All the houses were so close to each other that there really wasn't a side yard at all. And each back yard cascaded down the hill one after the other. In her garage, she had an old car that must have been an antique even back then.
Speaking of antiques, her house was full of them. From her attic to the large basement. When Ma died in 1980, Aunt Betty, Ma's other daughter and Dad's Mother's sister, let family members search the house to buy anything before she sold it to an Antique collector. We passed up several very nice buffets, tables, and beds. Dad's first son Doug was engaged to Susan Urbanski at the time and they were able to buy several antique dining room chairs, that may have been made in the late 1800's. Two have survived to this day but are in need of repair.
The Delo family tree stretches all the way back before the Revolutionary War. In fact ______ Delo, who was a Pastor was a member of the Colonial Army. We have obtained a separate history of the Delo family that was prepared by a distant relative. The Delo's were French Huguenots. Dad said that Ma had mentioned that _____ Delo was about fifteen years old when he fought for the North during the Civil War. He was shot four times, but some how survived.
William Cornelius Brown's Mother and Father came over from Ireland during the year _____. One was Catholic and the other Protestant. The Catholics and Protestants were at war so to speak and marriage between them would have been impossible while in Ireland. Whether or not their families knew their plans the two independently came to America. More specifically Western Pennsylvania. One came through Canada and the other through New York. Perhaps this was a love story but many Irish and Europeans were immigrating to America in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
Need information here to describe Dad's father and mother youth and how they met.
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