Snyder Family

SNYDER PILGRIM

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/18/2010 at 19:12:36

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Snyder Family
By Michael A Snyder

John C Snyder was born December 2, 1831, in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of George Snyder who was also born in Pennsylvania. At the age of fifteen, John enlisted with a volunteer infantry regiment from Pennsylvania and served throughout the Mexican War under General Taylor.

In the spring of 1957, John came west from Pennsylvania in a wagon train and settled in Dakota County, Nebraska. He arrived in Omadi, April 26, 1857. John served as the first constable in that precinct. He was married to Emily E Pilgrim, July 24, 1860.

Emily, the daughter of Henry and Zelphia Pritchitt Pilgrim, was born March 12, 1838, in Indiana. She was a widow with two children. Her husband, John Pilgrim, had died about 1858. Their children were William H, born in 1956, at Omadi, and died as a child, and Mary Ellen, Mrs. Will Strong’, Mrs. John Braunt, Mrs. Ephriam Rockwell, born June 18, 1858.

John Snyder and Emily were married in Dakota County and made their home in Omadi. John was a member of Company I, Second Nebraska Cavalry, during the Civil War. John and Emily moved to Blyburg, Dakota County, Nebraska, following the Civil War.

John and Emily were the parents of five children: They were: Elizabeth (Mrs. Pat McMann, Mrs. Steve Rockwell, Mrs. Frank Casey); Martha (Mrs. Nelson Jones, Mrs. William Van Stratton); James Henry (married May Heiling, married Florence Rosene) born December 3, 1970; Alva S C (married Julia McCormick, married and Lura Martin Purdy, remarried Lura Martin Purdy Whitmore, married Leona, married Lillie Edmonson Perry, married Pearl Edmonson Cornell) born March 13, 1875; and Alfred W (married Hattie Cassmen).

Snyder Bend Country Park, located west of Salix, Iowa, was named after John C Snyder. The Snyder farm was located near the Missouri River on the Nebraska side of the river. The river took all but a few acres of the Snyder farm during one of its meanderings, thus the name Snyder Bend.

John and Emily moved to Sioux City in 1903 and remained here with the exception of two years when they returned to Dakota County, Nebraska. Emily passed away February 18, 1920, in South Sioux City, Nebraska, and John passed away September 29, 1922, in Sioux City. They are buried in the Floyd Cemetery in Sioux City.