The Sneeds in America

A Portrait of Hans Van Sneed - Shopkeeper. This priceless heirloom has passed down through generations of Sneeds The confusion yesterday between me and Beryl Sneed got me to thinking. I Googled Beryl to see what I could find out. Beryl seems to be a mystery man because nothing showed up. But I have a secret weapon, my brother Earl, the family genealogist. I called my brother Earl, but he was out and I left a message with his daughter, Pearl. She said I should also try his cell and I said I would give it a whirl. When I finally reached Earl, he was able to tell me that our grandfather and Beryl's grandfather were cousins, making me and Beryl, third cousins. This started a long discussion of the history of the Sneeds in America. Once Earl gets started, there is no shutting him up. The patriarch of the Sneeds in America is Jacobus Van Sneed. Van Sneed was the original family name but Jacobus dropped the Van after the stinking English stole the Dutch colony that is now New York and New Jersey. Jacobus and his brother Hans were shopkeepers in the Dutch city of Haarlem. During the 1630s Haarlem was gripped with tulip mania and the brothers got the idea to cash in by buying futures to purchase large numbers of tulips to be sold at inflated prices. Alas, they bought at the brink of the crash of the tulip market, leaving them holding purchase contracts for tulip bulbs no one wanted. They were ruined. Jacobus and Hans signed on with the Dutch West India Company and beat a retreat from their angry creditors, as well as the Dutch authorities, landing in New Amsterdam, in what is now New York, and New Jersey. An interesting event took place during the transit from Holland. Jacobus was playing Nonsens, a tradition Dutch game of chance, played with a sheep's clavicle and 3 wooden balls. Being a skilled player, he quickly found himself the big winner, much to the chagrin of the crew. The deckhands told him to return their money or they would toss Hans overboard. While Jacobus pondered his choice, the captain intervened, much to the relief of poor Hans. The captain ordered the money returned and Jacobus and Hans spent the rest of the voyage below decks. Once in New Amsterdam, Jacobus and Hans tried their hand at hauling freight. The bought an interest in two mules and a freight barge from the widow of a freightman who was killed in a loading mishap. Unfortunately, the mules took sick and the barge mysteriously burned one night. Freighting did give them contacts in the native American community and they made considerable money selling alcohol to the indigenous peoples, before getting into hot water with the Dutch governor, as well as the Dutch Reformed Church. Once more they were forced to flee, ahead of the law. The two settled in the community of Peeksill, where they resumed their careers as shopkeepers. Jacobus married and fathered seventeen children, 6 of whom died in childhood. Hans, forever the bachelor, turned to the church and served it for many years as an enforcer of the faith. Later Sneeds ventured west settling Michigan, Illinois and Iowa, but that is a story for another day. The Sneeds are proud to be a part of the Dutch in America. Some notable Dutch Americans include both Presidents Roosevelt, President Martin Van Buren, Eddie Van Halen and of course Merle, Earl and Beryl (Van) Sneed. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong and sometimes just full of it. Tag: Daily Life Personal Finance Humor