San
Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM H. SNYDER
An enterprising, highly progressive
and experienced horticulturist, whose efforts to advance husbandry in
California along both scientific and eminently practical lines have met with
success, is William H. Snyder, who possesses some thirty-two acres of choice
San Joaquin County land about five miles from Stockton, on the Waterloo
Road. A native of the great Empire
State, Mr. Snyder was born just east of Buffalo in Erie County on January 18,
1859, the son of Phillip and Katherine (Nature) Snyder, both natives of
Germany, the former having been born in 1802 in Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1833 the father crossed the Atlantic on a
sailing vessel which was buffeted by storm and several times driven back, taking
six months to make the trip; he had served an apprenticeship as wheelwright in
the Fatherland, and knew that trade well when he reached America and was
compelled to look out for himself. He
made his way “out west,” as it was then known, and settled in Wyoming County,
New York, where he bought Government land; but after a short time, convinced
that better prospects for settlers were offered in Erie County he sold out and
moved thither.
Phillip Snyder bought 100 acres of
land in Wales Township, along a creek, on which was a lumber mill which he ran
for two years, when it was burned; and William H. Snyder well remembers the
family catastrophe, although he was then only two years of age. He saw it burn to the ground, and the fact
that he can now recall it vividly is a good illustration of what is known to be
scientifically possible, that one may remember well the details of the earliest
years, when the impressions of later times are less real. Mr. Snyder rebuilt the mill and there for
several years engaged in the manufacture of lumber.
The first marriage of Phillip Snyder
united him with Miss Elizabeth Nature, and she died in Germany, the mother of
three children: George, Phillip and
Elizabeth. In 1832 he married for his
second wife Katherine Nature, a sister of his first wife, and the following
year with his three children set sail for America. The children born of the second union
are: Christ, Katherine, Charles, Frank,
Lena, John D., Fred, William H. and Louisa.
Phillip Snyder was eighty-two years, five months and eleven days old
when he died.
When William H. Snyder was sixteen
his mother died and at the age of seventeen his father turned over the sawmill to him and he carried on operations for six
years with gratifying success. He is a
natural mechanic and easily adapts himself to any line of mechanical work. He came to California in 1889 as a tourist, then went back east to get his family, returning to the west
and locating in Idaho, nine miles east of Moscow. He left there in 1892 and located in San
Joaquin County, California, bought some land and began to develop it, and ever
since then has been a resident here. He
was married on January 19, 1879, to Miss Katherine Bender, a native of Wyoming
County, New York, and they had eleven children:
William P. of Lodi; Mrs. Lillian Mahan of Vallejo; Mrs. Louise Rosell of Stockton; Mrs. Hattie Haywards
of Oakland; Mrs. Elsie Kell of San Joaquin County; L. R. Snyder of Sacramento;
Mrs. Hazel Foss of San Jose; Mrs. Irene Cole of Stockton; Earl L. and Elmer are
running the home ranch; and Margery.
After many years of hard and productive labor Mr. Snyder is now living
retired to recuperate and enjoy a well earned rest.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1498. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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