The Family of Edwin Ruthben and Charlotte Marion Snowball

Pauline Gertrude Ellis Roberts, then 85 years old, wrote two books, one on the Snowball Family entitled History of the Snowball Family, 1796-1972, which traced the family back to Maine in 1796. The other book was about the Jacksonville Zoo which she researched for several years before printing it. In 1977, she provided information to the Jacksonville Genealogical Society for publication in its quarterly and it is included here. Mrs. Roberts was the granddaughter of Edwin Ruthben Snowball and his wife, Charlotte Marion Whittemore. She said, “The old Snowball Plantation house stood atop a yellow sandhill, one mile west of Lofton Creek on Harts Road. The graveyard was between the old plantation house privy and the backyard fence, bordering on Harts Road. This was a deep rutted dirt wagon road that crested the hill back of the house and ran parallel to the fence. It crossed Lofton Creek east and wound its way to Chester, Florida.” She continued, “ My grandfather, Edwin Ruthben Snowball, died on June 20, 1891, at the age of 58 and was buried in the backyard graveyard along with kith and kin of the Snowball and Whittemore families. All seven of the Snowball children and their spouses signed a warranty deed which was executed on 2 April 1904. This deed transferred from my grandmother, Mrs. Charlotte Marion Snowball, to Mrs. E. J. Johnson, both of Nassau County, the last of the old Snowball Plantation property except one quarter of an acre for a graveyard.” The seven…