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When Casper Snook and Peter Snook came to Iowa, they were known as Pennsylvania Dutch, and spoke Dutch as well as they did English. The Penn. Dutch were also known as Pennsylvania Deutsche or German.
Casper Snook met his future wife at a husking bee, where the two were partners. Their acquaintance progressed favorably in spite of the difficulty in conversing. For in his youth Casper spoke Dutch more fluently than English.
A grandniece, who remembered Esther Gillian Snook (Casper's wife) in the last years of her life, described her as a pretty old lady with pink cheeks and very blue eyes, wearing a white cap.
Casper moved to Beaver County, Penn. before 1810, where he served from in the War of 1812 under Capt. Thomas Henry, and Colonel Miller. At that time he was living on a farm 'within the town of Economy where he lived for several years. Casper moved to Richland County, Ohio, where he lived until 1842. Some say he moved there in 1821, but it was before 1830..
His brother Peter joined him there in 1835. In 1840 Casper's son William and his family moved to Iowa and in September, 1841 his son John was married to Mary Fowler and immediately after their marriage, the young couple, accompanied by Casper's daughter Esther Snook Kauffman and her husband and family, left for Iowa to spy out the land. They stopped in Lee County, Iowa for the winter and in the spring went from there to Jefferson County, where they stayed.
As they were well pleased with the reports sent back, the two brothers, Casper and Peter Snook, and the rest of their children, with the exception of Peter's eldest son and daughter who remained in Penn,, followed. All traveled by wagon probably pulled by oxen, nine families in all. Casper and Esther Snook became members of the first Presbyterian Church of Fairfield in February 1843.
Casper and Peter remained in Jefferson County until they died in 1651. They and their wives are buried on the same lot in the Evergreen Cemetery at Fairfield, Iowa. A few years ago, the DAR placed a marker on their graves with appropriate ceremonies.
Casper lived on a farm about two miles northwest of Fairfield, joining the farm of his son John. After the death of his wife in 1846, he made his home with his daughter, Esther Kauffman on the College Road. In 1850 Casper, received Bounty Land for his service in the War of 1612.
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