Snyder Community
Hale County, Texas
Snyder Community Families
Orville A. (1888-1970) and Lydia Ellen (Hartzler) (1891-1944) Snyder
Orville A. Snyder
(left, before moving to Texas) was the second child of Peter B. and Ida
Grabill Snyder. Born near Cullom, Illinois in 1888, Orville moved with
his parents, four siblings, and grandparents John R. and
Elizabeth Bally Snyder, to Jackson County, Minnesota, in 1894. He attended
school, but may not have graduated from high school. On a cold winter day in
February 1907, the family left Minnesota by train, moving their livestock and
household belongings in railroad cars. It was just three days before Orville's
nineteenth birthday when his family arrived in Plainview. As the oldest of the six boys,
Orville probably had a lot of work to do, helping his father establish a new
farm.
The second of Joseph K. and Mary Gingerich Hartzler's children, Lydia Ellen (right, before moving to Texas), who went by her middle name, also traveled by train to Plainview. She had been born in Holmes County, Ohio, in 1891, and was fifteen when her family moved to Texas in March 1907. In addition to livestock and household goods, the Hartzlers brought with them building materials to construct a new home. Ellen was undoubtedly a great help to her mother, who gave birth to Ellen's brother Paul just four months after arriving in Plainview.
Family stories say that one of Peter Snyder's motivations for moving to Texas and recruiting other Mennonite colonists to join him was to find spouses for his children. In 1910, there were three weddings in the Snyder family! First John S. Snyder married Bertha Kreider, then Maude Snyder married Bertha's brother Milo Kreider. Finally, on September 29, 1910, Orville and Ellen were married by Pre. Jonas M. Kreider, in the bride's home. Witnesses were Ellen's older brother Dave and his future wife Ida Kreider, sister of Bertha and Milo. See a photo album of Orville and Ellen's marriage certificate. Unfortunately for family history researchers, the Snyder-Hartzler marriage was recorded in the Hale County court house under the name "O. A. Sanders."
I
don't know when the "buggy picture" at left was taken,
but there are similar photos of
Milo
and Maude as well as
John
and Bertha. I think they were taken in the Snyder Community on the same day! Alta Hartzler Conrad
has a copy of this photo, too, with the following identification on the back: "Our horse Molly
- She was in box car and shipped from Ohio to Plainview."
Newlyweds Orville and Ellen lived in a tiny two-room house built for them on
Peter Snyder's farm. John and Bertha Snyder lived in a similar house, both of
which can be seen in the photo at right. (Photo from the Grace
Snyder Swartzendruber Collection.) After Orville and Ellen left Texas,
Ellen's father Joseph Hartzler moved the little house onto his farm and used it
as a granary. Later it became Joseph's workshop and a place Ellen's younger
sister Alta remembers playing.
In January 1913, Orville sent Ellen this post card (below) from Ohio, where he had gone
to search for work. Ellen had stayed behind with her parents in the Snyder
Community. The message on the card reads: "Jan. 24. Dear Ellen
Well I will write and tell you the news I was up to the salt works this morning
and got a place to work I will start on Mon. at a quarter of seven I will get
$1.75 per. day my job will be running a box nailing machine. I am going to
Orrville today and get my trunk I will board at Lloyds. O.S."
I believe Lloyd
refers to Lloyd Kreider, son of Jonas and Kate Kreider.
Lloyd had been the Snyder school teacher for the 1910-11 term. I was amazed that
this card had survived the years. It must have been a very special memento, kept
by Ellen, then Orville after her death in 1945, then their son Lester after
Orville's death in 1970.
Sometime in the spring of 1913, Ellen left Texas to join her husband in Ohio. It must have been around the end of March, during what has been called "Ohio's greatest weather disaster." During the Flood of 1913, major rivers all over Ohio sent floodwaters into cities and residential neighborhoods. Family stories tell of Ellen's train being rerouted and both her family in Texas and her husband in Ohio spending several anxious days not knowing where Ellen was. I've never heard her side of the adventure story.
For the next seven years, Orville and Ellen lived in several houses in the Orrville, Ohio, area, where Ellen had lived as a girl. At one point in time, Orville worked as a hired hand for Ellen's uncle John Yoder, who was married to Mary Gingerich Hartzler's sister Sarah "Sadie." John farmed and ran a greenhouse.
Finally, the Snyder family, with three children, moved to a house where they lived for more than twenty years, with three more children being added to the family. The 1930 census records the widowed Mary Martin (Mrs. Ben Martin) who had lived in the Snyder Community, as the neighbor of the Orville Snyder family. Orville and Ellen's son Lester, who was almost thirteen at the time, remembers when Ben was killed while walking on the icy road by his house, attempting to aid a motorist whose car had gone into the ditch.
In 1944, Ellen passed away at a young age (52), as had her older brother David Hartzler. Ellen outlived her mother Mary Gingerich Hartzler (1867-1942) by less than two years. Having attended Oak Grove Mennonite Church, Smithville, Ohio, all her life except for the seven years in Texas, Ellen Hartzler Snyder was buried in that church's cemetery, where her mother had been laid to rest. Orville was buried next to Ellen after his death in 1970, at the age of 82.
All photos on this page are from the Orville A. and (Lydia) Ellen Hartzler Snyder Collection, unless otherwise indicated.
copyright ©
2007 Bonnie Snyder Smith
