Brecksville author digs deep into early settler’s experiences

by Dan Holland

As a follow-up to his first book entitled Snowville, released in 2016, which delved into the history of the early settling of Brecksville, local author Jim Choma released a second book on the topic in May entitled Snowville: A Story of One Man And The Place He Made.

Whereas his first book focused on a wider view of the early settlers of Brecksville, his latest book narrows his view to the journey and struggles of Russ Snow and his family, chronicling Snow’s 1,000-mile-long journey in 1835 from central Maine to Brecksville, where he built a new life for his family in an attempt to escape the tuberculosis epidemic ravaging his native home.

Choma, who grew up on Columbia Road in Richfield, and now lives in a development off Snowville Road – named after the Snow family – first became intrigued with local history during his youth, as he would visit the small Columbia Road Cemetery in Richfield that contained the Snow family burial plot.

In later years, he came to realize that six gravestones of the Snow family, tucked away in a corner of Highland Cemetery, were placed too close together to allow for actual burials beneath. As an alumnus of the University of Akron, he enlisted the school’s assistance in his research.

“I got their geology department to come out and do a ground scan of Columbia Road Cemetery,” he explained. “The goal was to find out how many graves were actually in the cemetery. In doing that, we found that there were about 75 graves, but only about 20 could be seen.”

“Those gravestones in Columbia Road were moved in 1896 to Highland Cemetery, and the order wasn’t quite remembered as to how they were originally laid out in the cemetery, and that’s where the ground scans came into play. We knew where the Snow section was, because it had been fenced in at one time.”

During his research, Choma discovered that a great-grandchild of Russ Snow had moved the stones in 1896 to a more accessible location in town.

The new book chronicles the struggles Russ encountered as he made his journey on horseback, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Amos Stocker and Stocker’s son. Little was known at the time about the cause or spread of tuberculosis.

Choma consulted Marcia Snow, a descendant of the family, who provided access to family letters and writings that had been stored away for many decades, along with reading the accounts of local historian Dorcas Snow, who wrote books on the settling of Brecksville. He also enlisted help from the Brecksville and Richfield historical societies.

“The story begins with Russ’s trip heading west,” said Choma. “He had to convince his family to move a thousand miles away to escape the tuberculosis epidemic that was ravaging that area. Once he got here and started from scratch, he built a successful farmstead, as he had hundreds of orchard trees. But he did not fully escape the grasp of tuberculosis, as it eventually claimed two of his daughters, and scarlet fever took his wife.”

The family originally lived in a log cabin for 10 years, prior to Snow and his family building a brick house in 1845 that still stands along Snowville Road. Family descendants still occupy a nearby home built in 1864 known as “The Other House.”

Choma is finishing up a third book, entitled Crooked River, that details notorious nineteenth-century crimes and scandals that occurred in the area of the Cuyahoga River Valley.

“I just find local history interesting as it’s right in my backyard, and it means something to me,” said Choma. “It’s something tangible that can still be seen in the area.”

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