Roy J. Snell was born in Ladonia, MO. In 1878, he moved to the Sycamore area and learned his father's trade of erecting windmills. He went to Wheaton College and graduated in 1906.
After the tragic death of a brother, he entered the ministry. He went as a minister to an Eskimo village in Alaska. There he listened to the many ancient stories that became Told Beneath the Northern Lights.