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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name=John Wesley Snyder<br> (Texas pioneer rancher, farmer, and businessman) | birth_date=June 21, 1837 | birth_place=Yazoo County, [[Mississippi]..."
{{Infobox person
| name=John Wesley Snyder<br>
(Texas pioneer rancher, farmer, and businessman)
| birth_date=June 21, 1837
| birth_place=Yazoo County, [[Mississippi]], [[United States|USA]]<br>
Resident of Georgetown and [[Austin]], Texas
| death_date=April 15, 1922 (aged 84)
| death_place=Grosbeck, Limestone County, Texas
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| spouse=Catherine Jane Coffee Snyder<br>
'''Three children''', including:<br>
Laura S. Chessher (1870-1908)<br>
Dudley F. Snyder (1880-1956)
|religion=[[Methodist]]
}}
'''John Wesley Snyder''' (June 21, 1837 – April 15, 1922) was a pioneer rancher, [[farmer]], and [[business]]man from principally Georgetown in Williamson County, near the state capital of [[Austin]], [[Texas]].
==Background==
Snyder was the second of four children born to [[Pennsylvania]] native Charles W. Snyder and the former [[Kentucky|Kentuckian]] Susan Hale (1816–1892), later Susan Wulfjen,<ref name=fgrave>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8378666|title=John Wesley Snyde|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=November 16, 2019}}</ref> in Yazoo County in west central [[Mississippi]]. Charles Snyder died in 1840, and the three-year-old moved with his mother to [[Missouri]]. In 1856, Snyder and a brother, '''Dudley Hiram Snyder''' (1833–1921), came to Texas as partners in an [[apple]] orchard and [[horse]]-trading business situated between Georgetown and Round Rock in Travis and Williamson counties.<ref me=handbook>{{cite web|url=
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsn13|author=H. Allan Anderson of [[Lubbock]], Texas|title=Snyder, John Wesley|publisher=''The Handbook of Texas''|accessdate=November 16, 2019}}</ref>
Dudley Snyder had gone to work at the age of seven. At fourteen, he was earning $3 per week splitting rails. In 1854, he was acquitted of [[murder]] in a case of self-defense. Thereafter, he committed himself to leading an exemplary life, and his family never again spoke of the trouble that he had faced in his early years.<ref name=hope>"The Snyder Brothers," West Texas Historical Association, annual meeting and seminar, [[Lubbock]], Texas, April 1, 2011.</ref> Dudley Snyder was a devout member of the [[Methodist]] Church.<ref name=atwell/> He was the founder of the board of Georgetown High School.
==Pioneer cattleman==
With the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]], both Snyders enlisted in the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] Army. Dudley reached the rank of [[colonel]]<ref name=hope/> and served as a conscription officer in Williamson County. He moved herds across the [[Mississippi River]] to deliver beef to the Confederacy.<ref name=atwell>{{cite web|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsn08|author=W. H. Atwell|title=Snyder, Dudley Hiram|publisher=Texas State Historical Association: ''The Handbook of Texas''|accessdate=November 16, 2019}}</ref> The Snyders sold and shipped cattle to the Confederacy's Trans-Mississippi Department. After the hostilities ceased, John Wesley sold [[cotton]] in [[Brownsville, Texas|Brownsville]], Texas, and [[Matamoros]], [[Tamaulipas]], [[Mexico]]. He married the former Catherine Jane Coffee (1844–1928),<ref name=fgrave/> the daughter of John T. Coffee of Georgetown. The couple had eight children.<ref name=handbook/> Dudley Snyder married the former Mary Oatts of Round Rock and was the father of nine children.<ref name=atwell/>
In 1868, the Snyder Brothers cattle enterprise began gathering herds and moving the cattle overland to northern markets. In 1869, John Wesley Snyder headed a drive from Llano County in the Texas Hill Country via the [[Chisholm Trail]] to [Abilene, [[Kansas]]. In 1870, he took a herd to Schuyler in Colfax County, in eastern [[Nebraska]]. In 1878, he began a nine-year management of the John Wesley Iliff estate in [[Colorado]] and also invested in rangelands in [[Wyoming]]. After the 1887 [[blizzard]] on the [[Great Plains]], the Snyder brothers focused their efforts on their Texas holdings, including the Renderbrook operation in Mitchell County near Colorado City, Texas as well as vast acreages in Lamb and Hockley counties about Littlefield and Levelland, respectively. By 1891, they had sold these lands and moved their families to Georgetown, where John Wesley constructed a house which still stands. There they operated their San Gabriel horse farm.<ref name=handbook/> In November 1892, the Snyders formed the Texas Livestock Association. They were business partners throughout their adult lives.<ref name=hope/>
According to manuscripts at the [[University of Texas at Austin]], Dudley Snyder also operated large cattle ranches in Cooke, Stonewall, and Hartley counties, one of which encompassed 130,000 acres. He was a builder of the short-line railroad from Granger in Williamson County to Austin which was subsequently purchased by the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway Company. He died at his home in Georgetown in 1921, a year before the passing of his younger brother John Wesley.<ref name=atwell/>
==Later years==
John Wesley Snyder subsequently sold his land to the new [[Southwestern University]] in Georgetown and relocated to Austin, where he spent his later years. After more than a half century of livestock and other agricultural business, Snyder died at the age of eighty-four in[Groesbeck, in Limestone County in East Texas. He is interred at the family plot at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Georgetown.<ref name=fgrave/> The Southwestern University Fine Arts Building is located at the site of the former John Wesley Snyder home in Georgetown.<ref name=handbook/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
*Gus L. Ford, ed., ''Texas Cattle Brands'' ([[Dallas]], [[Texas]]: Cockrell, 1936).<br>
*Richard C. Hopping, "The Ellwoods: Barbed Wire and Ranches," ''Museum Journal'' 6 (1962).<br>
*[[J. Marvin Hunter]], ''Trail Drivers of Texas'' (2 vols., [[San Antonio, Texas|San Antonio]], Texas: Jackson Printing, 1920, 1923; 4th ed., [[Austin, Texas|Austin]], Texas: [[University of Texas]] Press, 1985).<br>
*Clara Stearns Scarbrough, ''Land of Good Water: A Williamson County History'' (Georgetown, Texas: Williamson County Sun Publishers, 1973).<br>
*Snyder Family Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, named for former [[Governor]] [[Dolph Briscoe]] of Uvalde, at the University of Texas at Austin.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snyder, John Wesley}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Mississippi]]
[[Category:Missouri]]
[[Category:Farmers]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Methodists]]
[[Category:American Civil War]]
| name=John Wesley Snyder<br>
(Texas pioneer rancher, farmer, and businessman)
| birth_date=June 21, 1837
| birth_place=Yazoo County, [[Mississippi]], [[United States|USA]]<br>
Resident of Georgetown and [[Austin]], Texas
| death_date=April 15, 1922 (aged 84)
| death_place=Grosbeck, Limestone County, Texas
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
| spouse=Catherine Jane Coffee Snyder<br>
'''Three children''', including:<br>
Laura S. Chessher (1870-1908)<br>
Dudley F. Snyder (1880-1956)
|religion=[[Methodist]]
}}
'''John Wesley Snyder''' (June 21, 1837 – April 15, 1922) was a pioneer rancher, [[farmer]], and [[business]]man from principally Georgetown in Williamson County, near the state capital of [[Austin]], [[Texas]].
==Background==
Snyder was the second of four children born to [[Pennsylvania]] native Charles W. Snyder and the former [[Kentucky|Kentuckian]] Susan Hale (1816–1892), later Susan Wulfjen,<ref name=fgrave>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8378666|title=John Wesley Snyde|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=November 16, 2019}}</ref> in Yazoo County in west central [[Mississippi]]. Charles Snyder died in 1840, and the three-year-old moved with his mother to [[Missouri]]. In 1856, Snyder and a brother, '''Dudley Hiram Snyder''' (1833–1921), came to Texas as partners in an [[apple]] orchard and [[horse]]-trading business situated between Georgetown and Round Rock in Travis and Williamson counties.<ref me=handbook>{{cite web|url=
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsn13|author=H. Allan Anderson of [[Lubbock]], Texas|title=Snyder, John Wesley|publisher=''The Handbook of Texas''|accessdate=November 16, 2019}}</ref>
Dudley Snyder had gone to work at the age of seven. At fourteen, he was earning $3 per week splitting rails. In 1854, he was acquitted of [[murder]] in a case of self-defense. Thereafter, he committed himself to leading an exemplary life, and his family never again spoke of the trouble that he had faced in his early years.<ref name=hope>"The Snyder Brothers," West Texas Historical Association, annual meeting and seminar, [[Lubbock]], Texas, April 1, 2011.</ref> Dudley Snyder was a devout member of the [[Methodist]] Church.<ref name=atwell/> He was the founder of the board of Georgetown High School.
==Pioneer cattleman==
With the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]], both Snyders enlisted in the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] Army. Dudley reached the rank of [[colonel]]<ref name=hope/> and served as a conscription officer in Williamson County. He moved herds across the [[Mississippi River]] to deliver beef to the Confederacy.<ref name=atwell>{{cite web|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsn08|author=W. H. Atwell|title=Snyder, Dudley Hiram|publisher=Texas State Historical Association: ''The Handbook of Texas''|accessdate=November 16, 2019}}</ref> The Snyders sold and shipped cattle to the Confederacy's Trans-Mississippi Department. After the hostilities ceased, John Wesley sold [[cotton]] in [[Brownsville, Texas|Brownsville]], Texas, and [[Matamoros]], [[Tamaulipas]], [[Mexico]]. He married the former Catherine Jane Coffee (1844–1928),<ref name=fgrave/> the daughter of John T. Coffee of Georgetown. The couple had eight children.<ref name=handbook/> Dudley Snyder married the former Mary Oatts of Round Rock and was the father of nine children.<ref name=atwell/>
In 1868, the Snyder Brothers cattle enterprise began gathering herds and moving the cattle overland to northern markets. In 1869, John Wesley Snyder headed a drive from Llano County in the Texas Hill Country via the [[Chisholm Trail]] to [Abilene, [[Kansas]]. In 1870, he took a herd to Schuyler in Colfax County, in eastern [[Nebraska]]. In 1878, he began a nine-year management of the John Wesley Iliff estate in [[Colorado]] and also invested in rangelands in [[Wyoming]]. After the 1887 [[blizzard]] on the [[Great Plains]], the Snyder brothers focused their efforts on their Texas holdings, including the Renderbrook operation in Mitchell County near Colorado City, Texas as well as vast acreages in Lamb and Hockley counties about Littlefield and Levelland, respectively. By 1891, they had sold these lands and moved their families to Georgetown, where John Wesley constructed a house which still stands. There they operated their San Gabriel horse farm.<ref name=handbook/> In November 1892, the Snyders formed the Texas Livestock Association. They were business partners throughout their adult lives.<ref name=hope/>
According to manuscripts at the [[University of Texas at Austin]], Dudley Snyder also operated large cattle ranches in Cooke, Stonewall, and Hartley counties, one of which encompassed 130,000 acres. He was a builder of the short-line railroad from Granger in Williamson County to Austin which was subsequently purchased by the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway Company. He died at his home in Georgetown in 1921, a year before the passing of his younger brother John Wesley.<ref name=atwell/>
==Later years==
John Wesley Snyder subsequently sold his land to the new [[Southwestern University]] in Georgetown and relocated to Austin, where he spent his later years. After more than a half century of livestock and other agricultural business, Snyder died at the age of eighty-four in[Groesbeck, in Limestone County in East Texas. He is interred at the family plot at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Georgetown.<ref name=fgrave/> The Southwestern University Fine Arts Building is located at the site of the former John Wesley Snyder home in Georgetown.<ref name=handbook/>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
*Gus L. Ford, ed., ''Texas Cattle Brands'' ([[Dallas]], [[Texas]]: Cockrell, 1936).<br>
*Richard C. Hopping, "The Ellwoods: Barbed Wire and Ranches," ''Museum Journal'' 6 (1962).<br>
*[[J. Marvin Hunter]], ''Trail Drivers of Texas'' (2 vols., [[San Antonio, Texas|San Antonio]], Texas: Jackson Printing, 1920, 1923; 4th ed., [[Austin, Texas|Austin]], Texas: [[University of Texas]] Press, 1985).<br>
*Clara Stearns Scarbrough, ''Land of Good Water: A Williamson County History'' (Georgetown, Texas: Williamson County Sun Publishers, 1973).<br>
*Snyder Family Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, named for former [[Governor]] [[Dolph Briscoe]] of Uvalde, at the University of Texas at Austin.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snyder, John Wesley}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Mississippi]]
[[Category:Missouri]]
[[Category:Farmers]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Methodists]]
[[Category:American Civil War]]