Snyder Community
Hale County, Texas
Mennonite Colony
Teachers at Snyder School 1908-1923
From various sources, I've gathered data about teachers at Snyder school. A Hale County History article about the school lists the following names and terms.1 In some cases, I've been able to corroborate the data with other sources.
February 1908 to May 1908 - Maude Snyder, daughter of Peter B. and Ida Snyder. There is some indication that Maude was a teacher while living in Minnesota, before her family moved to Hale County, but I haven't been able to verify that.
December 1908 to June 1909 - Myra Cosby
October 1909 to July 18, 1910 - Maude Snyder again, according to the Hale County History article. This information surprised me because Maude was married on May 5, 1910 to Milo Kreider, son of Jonas M. and Catherine Kreider. Maude's granddaughter Bev reports that Milo and Maude moved to Colorado very soon after they were married. I'll have to keep researching this.
September 1910 to June 1911 - Lloyd S. Kreider, the oldest of Jonas M. and Catherine Kreider's children. Lloyd had married Adelia Stover on November 26, 1908. This was probably around Wadsworth, Ohio, where the Jonas Kreiders had lived before moving to Texas in 1909. Apparently, Lloyd didn't move at that time, because the 1910 census shows the Lloyd Kreider family in Wayne County, Ohio. Twenty-five-year-old Lloyd and twenty-two-year-old Adelia had been married for one year; their baby Leonard had been born in Ohio. Lloyd's youngest sister Ida was seventeen and still in school during the term he taught at Snyder school. Her granddaughter Sue says that Ida told about having her older brother for a teacher. Sue also thinks Lloyd and Adelia (and Leonard) might have lived with his parents while staying in Texas.
October 1911 to April 1912 - Ernest E. Miller, from Middlebury, Indiana,
was barely 18 when he became the teacher at the Snyder school. Alta
Hartzler told me her father Joseph had sent Ernest a book on Texas history, to help him
prepare for his assignment. Although she didn't know him in Texas because she
was just a baby, Alta does remember that Ernest visited the Hartzlers in Ohio,
sometime after they moved to Wayne County in 1924. Ernest was well thought of by
the Snyder Community members. His daughter Thelma said she thought he had
boarded with the Andrew Brenneman family. Andrew's granddaughter Joann says her
uncle Moses, born in the Snyder Community in 1915, was named Moses Ernest Samson
Brenneman, because of the family's high regard for Ernest Miller.
Ernest Miller was apparently close to the Peter Snyder
family, too. In his photo scrapbook, donated by his daughter to the Mennonite Church-USA
Archives at Goshen, Indiana, are twenty pages of Texas photos, including twelve
pages that include pictures of Snyders. See more about this photo collection on
the About Photos page.
According to the Mennonite Church Archives web
site, Ernest taught in LaGrange County, Indiana, ca. 1912-18, graduating
from Goshen College in 1917. He married Ruth Blosser in 1918, and the couple
served as missionaries to India 1921-38. From 1940-54, Ernest was president of
Goshen College. He passed away in 1975.
Ernest E. Miller's obituary
No records were found for the 1912-13 and 1913-14 terms.
September 1914 to May 1915 - David H. Stutzman
According to the Hale County History article, in 1915, the Snyder School was referred to for the first time as Independent District 25.
October 1915 to April 1916 - Mary C. Ramer
September 1916 to April 1917 - Addie Davidge
October 1917 to April 1918 - Grace Smith, who boarded with the Peter Snyder family.2
September 1918 to May 1919 - Goldie Rigler
1919-20 term - Emma Wilson
1920 -21 term - Lona Johnson, the daughter of William and Lydia Springer Johnson, who lived in the Snyder Community.
In 1921, the Snyder Independent District 25 consolidated with Midway School, with classes continuing in the Snyder building.
1921-22 term - Susan Elizabeth Wilson and Loraine Wilson
1922-23 term - L. W. Sloneker, who had taught at the Midway School, and Mrs. Gussie Searles
1923-24 term - L. W. Sloneker, Mrs. Gussie Searles, and Miss Zora Johnson, the daughter of William and Lydia Springer Johnson, who lived in the Snyder Community. At the beginning of this term, the school moved into a new two-story brick building.
Footnotes
1. Gladys Rastetter Mason, complier and Dorothy Watters Jamar, editor, "The Traveling School Building," Hale County History Vol. VII (May 1977): pp. 4-13.
2. Maribeth Troyer, The Life of Grace Swartzendruber (Hesston College: Maribeth Troyer, 1989), p. 10.
copyright ©
2006, 2007, 2008 Bonnie Snyder Smith
