Butte County
Biographies
JOHN WESLEY SNIDER
JOHN WESLEY SNIDER.--One of the men who
can be truly called a pioneer of Butte County
is J. W. Snider, who has lived in the vicinity of Dayton
for fifty-seven years, with the exception of six months that he spent in Mendocino
County. This short absence was involuntary, as he had
the ague and went there to find relief.
A native of Illinois, he was born in Coles
County, August 3, 1845. His father died when this son was a babe in
arms, and his mother answered the final summons in 1852, dying from the dread
disease, cholera.
John
Wesley was taken into the home of an uncle, Isaac Coon, by whom he was
reared. He attended the common schools
in Illinois a few weeks during
the winter months until he was eight years old.
The school house was rough and rustic, being built of logs, with
puncheon floor and slab benches. He came
to California with Mr. Coon’s
family in 1860, and remained under his roof and assisted with the farm work
until in September, 1865, when Mr. Coon died.
Just before his death, he requested his nephew to stay and work the farm
on shares, and to help the family as much as he could. This he did until he was twenty-five, when he
rented land from the Cooper family, and later from others, until 1872. He had saved his money, and after
accumulating enough to give him a start he decided he would invest in
land. In 1872 he became the owner of
forty acres in one tract and eighty in another, which he improved and farmed
until 1877. This was adobe soil and very
difficult to cultivate so he disposed of it and bought his present quarter
section, located about a mile west of Dayton. He was a member and Past Grand of Dayton
Lodge, No. 175, I.O.O.F., during the latter part of the seventies, and in the
early eighties he withdrew from the order.
In
1882 Mr. Snider was married to Mrs. Martha E. (Flood) Bassett who was born in Missouri,
and who had married her first husband, George W. Bassett, in 1873. She had two children by that marriage,
William D. and Rosana Bassett, who were reared and
educated by Mr. Snider. Of the union of
Mr. and Mrs. Snider one son, Albert Wesley, was born. He rents his father’s farm and is succeeding
in its management. He married Mrs. Blidsdale of Chico,
on April 27, 1917. J. W. Snider was
elected constable of Dayton Township
in 1872 on the Democratic ticket, and served all of his constituents to their
satisfaction. The first two crops of
grain produced in Dayton were
harvested by Mr. Snider with the antiquated “cradle” that was used in the early
days before machinery had been brought into use here.
Mr.
Snider’s uncle, John Wesley Snider, for whom he was named, crossed the plains
with the ill-fated Donner party, and it is said that he was one of the
leaders. He was stabbed to death by a
man named Reed, at Gravelly Ford, on the Humboldt River. Mr. Reed and Mr. Snider were friends, both were members of the Donner party. Reed’s oxen had wandered away from the train
one night, but were found by Mr. Snider, who drove them back to camp. He was whipping the cattle repeatedly when
Reed rode up and commanded him to stop.
Snider made a curt reply and continued to whip the cattle. Thereupon Reed rode up and threatened
violence and was knocked down with the whipstock in
the hands of Snider. Reed got up and,
drawing his dagger, and gave Snider a death stab. Other members of the train were ready to hang
Reed, when some pleaded that it would be better to drive him off, arguing that
the Indians would “get him anyhow.” That
night Reed’s daughter smuggled his gun to him, and with that he saved himself
from the Indians, and killed enough game to keep him from starving until he got
safely to Los Angeles. Nearly all the other members of the party
perished from starvation, being caught in the heavy snows near Donner
Lake.
Transcribed
by Priscilla Delventhal.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 588-591, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Priscilla
Delventhal.
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