Yolo County
Biographies
ELI SNIDER
The Putah Creek
Nursery, owned and operated by Eli Snider, is not only performing its mission
in aiding the horticultural upbuilding of Yolo county,
but is shipping its products over the entire state and into the surrounding
territories. It is a well-established enterprise, dating its usefulness from
1890, in which year the owner started it in connection with his farm of
ninety-six acres, purchased in 1886. Mr. Snider has seventy acres of his land
in almonds, of which he makes a specialty, the balance being devoted to general
nursery stock, of which he has all kinds grown in the state of California. He
is a member of the Davisville Fruit Association, and
one of the executive committee. He is well versed in nursery lore, has an
exhaustive knowledge of the general growths of California, and has been
remarkably successful in carrying out his designs in connection with his home
place. The best of modern improvements have been added from year to year, and
today there are few properties of the kind richer in general productiveness.
Mr. Snider was born on a farm seven
miles from Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, March 1,
1853. His father was born in the same county, while his mother, formerly
Catharine Shoemaker, was born in Highland county, Ohio. The old farm, rich in
memories of the early struggles and later achievements of the parents, is still
the home of the mother, who is now eighty-two years old, her husband having
died in 1891, at the age of sixty-seven. They were the parents of six children,
of whom Willis is superintendent of the Agricultural Park in Clark county, Ohio; Sarah is the wife of John Fenton, a contractor
of Springfield, Ohio; Solomon is a veterinary surgeon of North Hampton, Clark
county, Ohio; and D. C. is a farmer of Clark county. The Snider family was
established in Ohio by the paternal grandfather, Felty
Snider, who was born in Virginia, of German descent, and was a soldier in the
war of 1812. He removed to Ohio about 1814, hewing a farm from the wilderness,
and his nearest neighbor was twelve miles distant.
Eli
Snider worked early and late on the farm in Clark county,
attending the district schools when opportunity offered, and in time becoming
assistant manager of the farm. At the age of eighteen he left home and went to
Springfield, where he learned the machinist trade, and became identified with
an implement house. In the spring of 1875 he removed to Macoupin county, Ill.,
remaining there until the fall of the same year, when he came to California and
engaged as an engineer in Yolo county. November 17,
1880, he married Minnie J. Montgomery, a native of California, and daughter of
Alexander and Susan (Martin) Montgomery, who came to the state in 1850, and
settled in Yolo county in January, 1851. Mr.
Montgomery achieved fair success in mining during the first years of his
residence in the west, but afterward turned his attention to farming, his death
occurring April 1, 1884, at the age of sixty-four. Alexander, the namesake of
Mrs. Snider’s father, and her only child, is living with his parents. In 1881
Mr. Snider began managing the farm of Alexander Montgomery, and in 1886 located
on his present farm near Davisville. He has attained
to influence and prominence in his adopted county, and is a thoroughly
well-posted and up-to-date man, interested not only in horticultural matters,
but in the general upbuilding of his neighborhood. He is especially popular in
the fraternal organizations with which he is identified, being a member of Blue
Lodge No. 228, F. & A. M.; Dixon Chapter No. 48 of Dixon, Solano county; Woodland Commandery No. 21; and Golden Seal Lodge
No. 110, K. P., of Davisville, of which he is past
chancellor. In politics he is a Democrat. Mr. Snider owes his success to his
ability to see and grasp a waiting opportunity. He has never been afraid of
hard work, and it has always been his policy to do well whatever he has to do.
Following this plan, he has studied diligently every phase of fruit culture,
and on his home premises has put into execution his well-thought-out theories.
Transcribed
By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History
of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J.
M. Guinn, Pages 589-590. The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago,
1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden
Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies