Snyder Community
Hale County, Texas
Mennonite Colony Families
Joel S. (1872-1962) and Magdalena "Lena" (Yoder) (1882-1928) Guengerich
Two members of the Joel Guengerich family wrote about living in the Snyder Community. See portions of daughter Edna's memories1 and oldest son Earl's paper.2 (There is a different, later family portrait on these two pages.)
Samuel D. Guengerich of Washington County, Iowa, bought 160 acres of land in the Snyder Community on December 22, 1908.3 Samuel was the father of Joel Guengerich, a professional carpenter who had been born and raised in Johnson County, Iowa. Later, in a Mennonite colony in Wright County, Iowa, where he was building houses and barns, Joel met Lena Yoder, daughter of Christian S. and Anna Swartzendruber Yoder. Joel and Lena were married December 13, 1900. Their first three children were born in Wright County: Edna in 1901, Earl in 1903, and Albert in 1904.
In 1907, Joel moved his family to La Junta, Colorado, where they lived for a year. During this time, Joel helped build the Mennonite tuberculosis sanitarium. When his work there was finished, Joel went to Texas to explore opportunities; Lena and the children waited in Iowa for three months until Joel sent for them in the fall of 1908. They lived in several locations before Joel finally built a house on the land his father had purchased.4 I haven't yet found a deed to indicate that Joel bought the land from Samuel.
The family photo above is from the Edna Guengerich Stoltzfus Collection. Edna is standing between her parents; her brothers Earl, Willard, and Albert are in front. Williard was born in the Snyder Community June 23, 1910. Ida Kreider, daughter of Jonas and Kate Kreider, worked for the family when the new brother arrived. Later, after Ida had married David Hartzler, son of Joseph and Mary Gingerich Hartzler, Edna worked for her when Ida's second baby, Pauline, was born in 1914.5 According to Alta Hartzler Conrad, her older brother Dave Hartzler and his family moved from near his parents to near the Guengerich family sometime after Pauline was born and farmed land Dave didn’t own.6
Two more sons were born to Joel and Lena while they lived in the Snyder
Community: Glenn on May 24, 1916 and Harold on July 23, 1918. The photo (left)
of the two brothers is from the Pauline Hartzler Shie
Collection.
Both
families experienced financial difficulties and in 1918, Joel and Dave held a farm
sale together, in preparation for leaving Texas. This handbill (below) for the
sale is in six pieces now, but Ida Hartzler had saved it for many years.
Dave and Ida's son Ralph Hartzler has kept it
since his mother's death in 1983 and submitted it for use here.
After the sale, the Joel Guengerich family returned to Iowa and the Dave Hartzler family returned to Ohio. Since the photo of Glenn and Harold was taken after both families had left Texas, perhaps Lena or Edna sent it to Ida as they kept in touch by mail.
1920 Federal census - Greene Township, Iowa County, Iowa7
Gingerich, Joel S. - aged 47, born in Iowa, father born in
Iowa, mother born in [?]
Lena - aged 37, born in Iowa, both parents born in Iowa
Edna - 18-year-old daughter, born in Iowa
Earl R. - 16-year-old son, born in Iowa
Albert L. - 15-year-old son, born in Iowa
Willard E. - 4-year-old son , born in Texas
Glenn W. - 3-?/12-year-old son, born in Texas
Harold W. - 1-1/2-year-old son, born in Texas
In 1928, Lena Guengerich died quite unexpectedly at age 46. Lena's obituary - Gospel Herald - Volume XXI, Number 22 - August 30, 1928, pages 462 or 463
Joel married Ella Fisher in 1933. He passed away in 1962, at Kalona, Iowa, being eighty-nine years old. Ella lived to be 96, passing away in 1981, also at Kalona.
Joel's obituary - Gospel Herald - Volume LV, Number 10 - March, 6, 1962 - page 239 or 240
Footnotes
1. Edna Guengerich Stoltzfus, “Memories,” unpublished manuscript, no date, twelve pages. A copy was submitted to the Snyder Community Project by Vonnie (Mrs. Kenneth) Amstutz, Kidron, Ohio, 12 October 2006. Mrs. Amstutz is the daughter of Edna Guengerich Stoltzfus, who lived in the Snyder Community about 1908-1918.
2. Earl R. Guengerich, “Mr. & Mrs. Joel S. Guengerich,” unpublished manuscript, no date, three pages. The manuscript was submitted to the Snyder Community Project by Belle (Mrs. Jim) Boyts, Hesston, Kansas, 2 November 2006, and was scanned by Bonnie Snyder Smith for the project’s virtual archives. Mrs. Boyts is the niece of Earl Guengerich and the daughter of Edna Guengerich Stoltzfus, brother and sister who lived in the Snyder Community about 1908-1918.
3. Deed Record, Volume XIX: 113, County Clerk’s Office, Hale County Courthouse, Plainview, Texas. Extraction by Bonnie Snyder Smith, 15 November 2006.
4. Edna Guengerich Stoltzfus, "Memories," 2.
5. Edna Guengerich Stoltzfus, "Memories," 5.
6. Telephone interview with Alta (Hartzler) Conrad (Mrs. Kenneth Conrad; Danville, Ohio), by Bonnie Snyder Smith, 24 February 2007. Notes held by Bonnie Snyder Smith. Mrs. Conrad was born in the Snyder Community 26 September 1911.
7. 1920 U. S. census, Iowa County, Iowa, Greene Township, p. 257, dwelling 149, family 149, Joel S. Gingerich; digital images, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed 18 May 2007); from National Archives microfilm publication T625, roll 493.
copyright © 2005,
2006, 2007, 2008 Bonnie Snyder Smith
