"Charles A. Snyder and Jeannette Bump were married and had a large family.  They were my great-grandparents on my dad's mother's side.  (My grandmother was Edith Snyder and she married Jesse N. Sipe.)  Charles Snyder worked in the oil fields all his life.  His family lived in Coal City, PA near the town of Kennerdell.  They were further up the mountain in Coal City.  My grandmother was a midwife and helped deliver many, many babies in her lifetime.

 

My first recollection of Charles was when I was about six (I am guessing).  We were visiting them and they still lived in their old home in Coal City.  Charles was sitting in a kitchen chair and he called me over to him and gave me a very large red-delicious apple.  He was a very large man, quite tall, and had a lot of white hair.  I can still see him in my mind.  My brother, Larry, remembers that day also.  After he died, my grandmother, Jeannette, moved next door to live with Lola and Duane.  Lola had been raised as a daughter, but she was really a granddaughter.  She was the daughter of Edith Sipe before she was married.  We used to go and visit Lola and Duane and that way we could visit great-grandma at the same time.

 

I went a couple of summers and spent a week with them.  I always enjoyed that.  Great-grandma taught me how to crochet.  I only knew the basics, but I did manage to make a green doiley by crochet.  Jeannette could crochet anything.  She made many, many beautiful things.  My mom (Lois) bought a lot of her things and kept them for Joyce and myself.  They are a treasured memory of her.  I used to visit them in Coal City for a week and they would take me shopping in Oil City.  I thought that was big time.  It seemed like a big city to me back then.  The neighbor man was Noel French.  He also had a wife, I don't remember her name.  They had a big swing in the trees behind their house for their grandchildren.  They told me to come use it anytime when I was up there visiting.  I loved swinging on that swing.

 

Lola and Duane never had any children.  They were very good to all of us.  We went up there one Thanksgiving for dinner.  I remember that.  They later moved into Franklin, PA.  We would go and visit them there also.  They lived in the Rocky Grove section.

 

Grandma Snyder also had a daughter, Alice, and she married Otto Reagle.  They lived in Franklin, PA, also.  We would go and visit with them.  They would take turns with Lola having great-grandma live with them.  They lived on Buffalo St.  Otto was a real character.  He used bad language all the time.  His mouth was bad.  Aunt Alice would yell at him all the time about it when we were there.  He loved to fish, and he would save any trinket he found along the river and when we would visit he would give things to my brother, Randy.  I only remember Alice and Otto after they were retired.  She was a nice lady.  I always thought that there daughter and son were twins- their names were Ronnie and Bonnie.  I do remember that Bonnie had a mouth just like her father.  I remember Ronnie, also, but I don't remember him using bad language.  They were not twins.  Ronnie was born in 1917 and Bonnie was born in 1929.