HOW DO YOU SPELL “SNEDEN(’)S LANDING”?
I asked our local historian, Alice Gerard, if she could clear up the vexing question of whether there is an apostrophe in Sneden(’)s Landing. She consulted her mother’s book, which you can see has addressed in detail the question of how to spell the name of the part of Palisades that grew up by the river.
Alice Haagensen writes, “Sneden seems to have been a particularly difficult name to spell. From Mr. Durie’s and other documents we have: Sudeich, Snedich, Snelhen, Snealling, Snethen, Snathen, Snethin, Senethen, Senathen, Sneathing, Snething, Sneddon, Snedden, Sene aden, Snedin, Snedings, Snedinx, Snyder, Snedon, Sneadon, Sneeden. Gary Putnam, a descendant of Abraham Sneden, supplies a novel spelling, “Abraham Smethkins.” In Nova Scotia the name was spelled Scheiden. Mrs. Ebmeyer, the postmistress, adds other remarkable spellings.
Snedens Landing is of course not a postal address, but the authorities are obliging enough to have forwarded to Palisades letters addressed to Sneezers Landing, Snyders Laundry, Ste- vens’, Snede’s, or Snide’s Landing. Newton Sneden, of the “Snedens of the Field,” in a manuscript in the New City Library, adds a few other variations: Snieden, Snuden, Sweden, Smeden. He also points out that Snedens is a palindrome, spelled the same forward and backward.”
But, Alice, I said. Is there an apostrophe? No, she said. And that was that.
(from Alice Haagensen’s book Palisades and Snedens Land- ing, page 197.)