Snyder Community
Hale County, Texas
Mennonite Colony
About Farming
Most of the folks who responded to Peter B. Snyder's call to move to Texas were farmers. Reports on the agriculture and farming conditions were prominent in the recruiting letters published in the Herald of Truth.
James A. Snyder's article
states, "Although most of the farmland was not irrigated, Peter built an
irrigation system supplied by a large pond and a well, enabling him to grow
peaches, watermelons and strawberries among other cash crops." The Snyder
Community Historical Marker also mentions Snyder's irrigation system.
The
photo at left was submitted by Ralph Hartzler, son of
David and Ida Kreider Hartzler. It shows the irrigation pond without the Snyder house in the
background. It's the only shot I've seen so far from this angle. Other photos
show that the pond was west of the house, with the pump house located on the
southwest corner. S. M. True, who was a guide and historical interpreter for the Snyder Community
Centennial driving tour, June 7, 2007, said he remembered the pump house and the engine inside from
his childhood days. The True family moved to the Snyder Community in 1933, when
S. M. was nine years old.
The photo at right, from my personal collection, is identified on the back as "Peter B. Snyder's for hire steam thrashing rig." For more photos, see the Farming Photo Album.
When Joel Guengerich and David Hartzler decided to leave
Texas in 1918, they held a joint sale. Since I'm not a farmer, I don't know what
a lot of the farm equipment was. What's a lister? How about a go-devil? Can
anyone tell me about a "Sattley sulky plow with two sod bottoms"?
This handbill for the sale is in six pieces now, but it had been preserved for many years by Ida Kreider Hartzler Fulton, who had married David Hartzler on January 1, 1912, in the Snyder Community. Dave and Ida's son Ralph Hartzler, who was born in the Snyder Community, has kept it since his mother's death in 1983.
copyright © 2005,
2006, 2007 Bonnie Snyder Smith
