MySource:CC/ "OSTEND: AN EARLY HISTORY OF THE OSTEND AND BULL VALLEY AREA"

Source: "OSTEND: AN EARLY HISTORY OF THE OSTEND AND BULL VALLEY AREA"; 1980; Pp 67-69; captioned "Four Great Ladies"

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" The third member in the quartet of great ladies was Hannah HOUSEL who, in 1871, reached the termination of a long and useful career. Earlier, in Lime Stone Ridge, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, the young woman had been known as Mrs. Hannah Von KIRK, wife of Thomas Von KIRK and mother of four Von KIRK children, Thomas, Peter, Hannah and Hester. Some time after the death of her husband, Thomas Von KIRK, the widowed lady married Jacob SNYDER, an industrious farmer of nearby habitation.

    Hannah's second marriage produced four SNYDER children, Jacob, Simon, Ann, and Lydia, all of whom were very young when the husband and father, Jacob SNYER, passed away leaving Hannah, again, alone to rear her small and fatherless children.  But Hannah married a third husband whose name was John HOUSEL (it may have been spelled HOOSEL).  Mr. HOUSEL proved to be a very good husband, provider and father to Hannah's older children as well as to David and Margaret, two HOUSEL children who were the result of his own marriage to Hannah.

    But alas, for the third time Hannah suffered the loss of a husband by early and untimely death.  After Mr. HOUSEL's death Hannah did not marry again, but remained on the Pennsylvania farm and managed well until 1850, when the great lady migrated to Illinois and to McHenry County with several of her children including two sons, Jacob SNYDER and David HOUSEL.  Following a brief stay in the Ringwood neighborhood, the half brothers bought an unimproved tract of hills and valleys located near a great hill in scenic Bull Valley.

    Soon the brothers divided their property with Jacob receiving the west portion which included the enormous hill that thereafter gained wide reputation under the name of Snyder's Hill.  Jacob improved his farm rapidly, his mother helping greatly by serving as housekeeper.  In 1853, Jacob married Sara S. PARKS, a McHENRY girl of substantial background.  Hannah continued residence in the SNYDER home eighteen years until her death in 1871.  Entombment of the great lady's remains in the Overocker  Cemetery followed, and more than a hundred years later descendants of Hannah HOUSEL may be found in nearby parts of the county."