Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 353
LEWIS S. SNYDER

Lewis S. SNYDER, of Missouri Valley, has been a resident of Harrison County for thirty-five years, making his settlement in these parts in 1856. He opened up the first tin-shop in Magnolia and remained at that village until 1865, when he settled on a farm in St. John's Township, where he now resides, having been there ever since, with the exception of two years spent in Salt Lake and the western mining country, where he went for his health.

Our subject was born in Fayette County, Pa., near Connellsville, October 20, 1821. He is the son of John and Eliza (SHAFFER) SNYDER. The father was of German descent, but born in Pennsylvania. The great-grandfather was born in Germany, and our subject's uncle, Jacob SNYDER, served in the Revolutionary War. The parents of our subject reared a family of six sons and four daughters, of whom our subject was the second child. Of this number seven still survive. All farmers except Jacob, who is a Bishop of the German Baptist Brethren Church, in Brooklyn, Poweshiek County, Iowa. The father died at the age of seventy-three years, at the above named place, while the mother, at the extreme old age of ninety-one years, still survives, and is living at Brooklyn, Iowa, and can see to read ordinary printed matter, without the aid of her glasses.

Our subject's early education was received in the common schools of Pennsylvania, and he came to Iowa in 1855, prior to which time he had been engaged as a tinsmith.

Our subject was united in marriage May 11, 1842, to Miss Mary ZYSING, a native of Pennsylvania, who was born in Uniontown, Fayette County. By this marriage union seven children were born, J. G. SNYDER, a resident of Adel, Iowa, a farmer; Margaret, wife of Addison MCINTOSH, a resident farmer of St. John's Township; J. J., a farmer near Woodbine; J. S., in St. John's Township, near Missouri Valley; Eliza, wife of Martin FRICK, died in March 1885 at Missouri Valley; George W., a farmer near Woodbine, and David S., still at home with his father.

June 16, 1885, our subject's wife passed from the scenes of her earthly career, and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, at Missouri Valley. For his second wife our subject married in March, 1887, the widow of Dr. COLES, of Woodbine.

In 1891 the Brethren Church erected a neat edifice, at the head of McGavren street, and our subject was the moving spirit of such work, as well as the heaviest contributor to the work. The cost of this chapel was $590. It is a frame building with a seating capacity of two hundred. Mr. SNYDER is the pastor, and although the congregation is small, much good is being accomplished.

Our subject, although a man of seventy years, is very active and much stronger than many of the young men of to-day.

Concerning our subject's business career it may be said that he was early taught the way of industry and economy. His father was a tin-smith by trade, and his early life followed farming -- working by the month at that in summer, and at his trade during the winter, keeping up a stock for the retail and jobbing trade. This was near Connellsville, Pa. When our subject attained his eighteenth year, he commenced to learn the tinner's trade. As soon as he had mastered it his father retired to the farm, and L. S. and his brother Jacob, carried on the business and added a general "country store" stock, which they continued to operate until coming to Tama County, Iowa, locating near Brooklyn, where he remained two years in the same business at the village of Eureka. From that point he came to Harrison County, settling near Magnolia with about $3,000, as the result of his own labor. Outside of his mercantile business at Magnolia, he became a heavy dealer in lands. He being a careful figurer, and possessed of good business sagacity, succeeded in accumulating nearly $100,000 out of which sum he has given each of his seven children a good farm.

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