Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana, 1903. pp. 475-477.

LEWIS F. SNYDER

In the respect that is accorded to men who have fought their own way to success through unfavorable environments we find an unconscious recognition of the intrinsic worth of a character which not only can endure so rough a test, but gain new strength in the fire of discipline. The gentleman to whom the biographer now calls the reader's attention was unfavored by fortune, for both inherited wealth and the assistance of influential friends were denied him, but in spite of these discouragements, by perseverance, industry and wise economy, he has attained a comfortable station in life.

Lewis F. Snyder, one of the prominent farmers and residents of Jefferson township, Wells County, Indiana, is a son of Henry and Mariah (Fertic) Snyder. He claims Allen county, Indiana, as his birth place and first saw the light of day February 23, 1849. The Snyder family were natives of Germany, where the grandfather, John Snyder, was born and reared. He came to America with a party of friends and settled in Pennsylvania, where he married Elizabeth McDaniel, of Scotland. John Snyder and family came to Jefferson township in 1839, improved a farm and both died at the home of a son-in-law in Allen county, aged eighty-three and sixty-eight years respectively.

Henry Snyder learned the cabinetmaker's trade in Ohio, where he worked until he came to Wells County in 1837. He settled in the northern part of Jefferson township and again took up his trade. He afterward returned to Ohio, where he remained but a short time, and returning to Allen county, Indiana, he purchased a farm in 1842 and began the life of an agriculturalist. He lived on this farm for some years and then went to Elkhart county, Indiana, where he died in 1883. He was one of the best farmers in Allen county, but adverse circumstances caused him to lose heavily and he died as he had started, a poor man. He was the parent of ten children, of whom Lewis was the seventh.

Lewis F. Snyder was the youngest boy in a large family and at the age of seven, owing to the death of his mother, was put out among strangers to make his own way, living with four families, mainly with Caleb Prible of Allen county, until past fifteen. Then he was two years with his father. At the age of about seventeen, his father's family being broken up, Lewis was thrown entirely upon himself and worked at farm work in Allen county until the winter of 1867, when he was again with his father, who had married again and was living in Wells County. In the spring of 1868 he went to Iowa, spending three years in that state at farm labor. In 1871 he and his brother Charles went to California, spending that season at farm labor, and joined a prospecting tour with a Los Angeles party to Arizona. After eight months thus spent he was left with nothing, having lost all his savings. The two left for Nevada with all they had left, a pack horse, where he made about one thousand dollars within ten months, working in a quartz mill. Again fortune smiled and after an absence of two and one-half years he returned to Allen and Wells counties in 1873. In 1875 he settled on a farm in Jefferson township, and in 1894 purchased his present farm of one hundred and twenty acres, three and one-half miles northeast of Ossian. He has made extensive improvements, now having a large and imposing residence and suitable outbuildings. He has laid upwards of two thousand rods of tile, and his farm is now considered one of the most desirable in the township. He also owns other rental property in the vicinity.

Mr. Snyder was married to Miss Mary A. Caston, a resident of Wells County and a farmer's daughter. Seven children were born to them, one of whom, Celia J., is married, being the wife of John Shultz. The others are Harland V., Dora A., Leary L., Dollie, Chloe Ann, and Charley, who died in 1881, aged fifteen months. Mr. Snyder is one of the substantial Republicans of Wells County and Jefferson township, but has never taken a very prominent part in political affairs. He is an intelligent and trustworthy man and one of the best citizens of the county.