Peter Snyder

As printed in 1896

ETER SNYDER, one of the most substantial farmers of Jackson township, Van Wert county, Ohio, and an ex-soldier of the Civil war, is of sturdy German descent.

John M. Snyder, father of Peter, was born in Hesse Darmstadt in 1808, and was taught shoemaking. He came to America in 1829 or 1830, coming across the sea in the same vessel with his intended wife, Mary Ann Heist, landed in Baltimore, where they married,,at once went to Washington Pa., and near thecollege there followed his trade until 1835 or 1836, when he came to Ohio and located in Mansfield, Richland, county, where he followed his trade until 1853, when he moved to Morrow county and bought a farm of 300 acres near Mount Gilead, on which he died about the year 1887. At Mansfield he formed the acquaintance of Senator John Sherman, who had then just begun the practice of law, and who was in the habit of discussing politics in the shop owned by Mr. Snyder, and was ever after a life-long friend. The latter became a stanch republican, voted for John C. Fremont, the first candidate of that party for the presidency of the United States, and during the Civil war was a warm friend of the Union cause, to which he gave the services of his two sons — Peter and George, the latter serving 100 days in an Ohio regiment and doing general duty at Washington, D. C. John M. Snyder, with his wife, Mary Ann, was a member of the German Reformed church, in Mansfield, in which he. was a leader and a member of the building committee, and wasknown throughout life as an honorable industrious and strictly moral gentleman. To his marriage, with Mary Ann Heist, were born eight children, all of whom are still living, viz: Peter, George, Elizabeth, Louis, Annie, Margaret A., John R. and John M.

Peter Snyder, the subject proper of this biography, was born in Washington, Pa., August 30, 1832, was educated in the common schools, learned the trade of shoemaking from his father, and was' also reared to farming— going with his father to Morrow county, and working on the home farm, and there marrying Miss Martha A. lines, whose brothers and sisters were named Frank, Samuel, Matilda, Nancy, Mary and Thomas; of whom Samuel and Thomas w'ere soldiers in the Union service during the late war, in the same regiment with our subject, and with him marched with Sherman to the sea.

After marriage Mr. Snyder remained on the home farm a short time, then for two years lived in Knox county, and then, in 1859, came to Van Wert county, where he had already purchased, Loin his father, 160 acres of the farm on which he now resides, and which the latter had entered from the government. This land was all in woods, as was nearly all of Jackson township at that time, when there were but fifteen or sixteen settlers in the township, and the forest was the home of game of all descriptions. Mr. Snyder set about the usual pioneer duties of erecting a log cabin and clearing up his place, and had made considerable progress when he responded to the call to arms and enlisted on the home farm in Morrow j county, in company K, Eighty-first regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry, and was enrolled at Lima, Allen county, August 21, 1862, to serve three years or during the war, and received an honorable discharge at Louisville, Ky., July 13, 1865, by reason of the termination of hostilities. Among the other battles in which he took part may be mentioned Austinola River, Dallas. Rome, Kenesaw Mountain, Nickajack Creek, the general engagement at Atlanta, Ebenezer church, in the siege of Atlanta and Jonesboro. After the fall of Atlanta he marched with Sherman through Georgia to the sea, taking part in numerous skirmishes; was i in the battle of Columbus, Bentonville and j Goldsboro, N. C., and on to Raleigh, and was present at the grand review at Washington, D. C. Mr. Snyder was never wounded, nor taken prisoner, but was always on active duty, doing full, faithful and cheerful service throughout the term of his enlistment, and participat- 1 ing in all the engagements, skirmishes and marches in which his regiment took a share.

After his honorable discharge, Mr. Snyder returned to Morrow county, Ohio, where his !

two children, Clorilda A. and John M., borne him by his first wife, still lived. The mother of these passed away in Morrow county, at her father’s residence, January 3, 1862, a few months before Mr. Snyder’s enlistment, and the latter remained on her father’s farm until 1869, on February 28th cf which year he married at Gallion, Ohio, Mrs. Amelia Elizabeth Spraw, who was born January 4, 1835,:i daughter of George A. and Mary (Patterson Spraw. George A. Spraw, of Crawford county, Ohio, was the father of the following named children: Amelia E., Sarah, Kate, Louis, William, Israel, Halmina and Elizabeth. Mr. Spraw was a member of the German Reform church, and died at Gallion, in that faith, when seventy-six years of age, respected as among the representative agriculturists and citizens of the township in which he had lived so many years of his useful life.

In 1869 Mr. and Mrs. Snyder came to the homestead in Jackson township, on which he had lived prior to his entering the army, and on which he had erected a cabin, and from which he had cleared three acres of the forest ! growth. But he found on returning that his cabin had been destroyed by fire. With indefatigable energy he immediately erected another dwelling and cleared up an excellent farm of 230 acres, that will now favorably compare with any other in the county. To his second union there were born three children, of whom two are still living — George F. and Lola A. Mrs. Snyder, a woman of many Christian virtues, died in the faith of the German Reform church April 17, 1892 — a true helpmate to her husband and a loving and affectionate mother. Mr. Snyder, since his last bereavement, has continued to reside on the homestead, honored as a pioneer, as a defender of his country's flag, and as a true citizen— and through industry, as a farmer, has accumulated a competence, enjoys that respect with which the efforts all 'men are met, who faithfully use the best efforts of life to make, through their individual efforts, an independence. Possibly no gentleman of Jackson township stands to-day higher in the esteem of his fellow-men than Mr. Snyder, and certainly no man has done more, though a long and upright, useful and patriotic life, than he, to win the esteem in which he is universally held.

As printed in A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio; (1896). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.