Snyder Community
Hale County, Texas
The Snyder Community Project
The Snyder Community Collection
Goshen Archives
Because of my positive experiences at the Mennonite Church USA Archives in Goshen, Indiana, I decided this would be a good place to make some of our family's historical materials available to the public. To begin the Snyder Community Collection, I donated some photographs from the years the Snyder and Hartzler families had spent in Texas. The documentation process is not yet complete, but the photos are available to the public upon request.
It is my hope that the Snyder Community Collection will grow as other descendants of colonists contribute photos, papers, letters, and other items of interest. This is a good way to preserve family history materials and make them available to extended family members and researchers.
My vision for another component of the Snyder Community Collection is a cross-reference list of other archive holdings related to the Snyder Community. For example, the Ernest E. (1893-1975) and Ruth (Blosser) Miller (1894-1977) Collection includes materials from Mr. Miller's term as the teacher at the Snyder school, 1911-12. Some Snyder Community photos are contained in a scrapbook [Hist. Mss. 4-10, Box 1 (Gray) Photographs, File 1/1 which is entitled "Photograph Album, circa 1910-20" ] and Ernest Miller's Hale County teaching certificate is in Hist. Mss. 1-153, Box 1 (Gray) 1. Ernest E. Miller, Personal, 1911-1973, File 1/7 which is entitled "Papers, 1911-1944."
Another collection with Snyder Community photos is the Orville A. and (Lydia) Ellen Hartzler Snyder Collection. Orville (1888-1970) and Ellen (1891-1944) were my paternal grandparents, who met and married in the Snyder Community. Orville was the second child of Peter B. and Ida Grabill Snyder; Ellen was the second child of Joseph K. and Mary Gingerich Hartzler. In 2006, their sons Lester and Floyd donated many of Orville and Ellen's photos to the archives. One portion of the collection contains personal photo postcards sent to Orville and/or Ellen at Plainview and postcards sent by them while they lived in the Snyder Community.
There are also various church records; a collection of photos and memorabilia that had belonged to Paul V. Snyder, one of Peter and Ida's son; and possibly other materials related to other colonist families.
copyright ©
2008 Bonnie Snyder Smith