Solomon Jacob Henry Snyder

S. J. H. Snyder • Kansas pioneer and abolitionist • Made the first legal homestead claim ever entered in the State of Kansas • Founder of the town of Monrovia/Grasshopper Falls • Organizer of the first Lutheran church

   in the State of Kansas, at Monrovia • Two terms in the Kansas state legislature • One term as Kansas state senator • Monrovia Postmater • Agriculturalist • Author

Hon. Solomon J. H. Snyder, one of the influential figures of the early pioneer days of Kansas, and who was a staunch and uncompromising adherent of the Free State principles. Solomon Snyder was bom in Washington county, Maryland, February 7, 1812, and died at Monrovia, Atchison county, November 28, 1873. When eight years of age he accompanied his father to Tuscarawas county, Ohio, where he was educated in the district schools and a graded school at Canton, Ohio. Between 1830 and 1833 he cleared a farm of 160 acres of heavily timbered land. In 1838 he married Susan Winklepleck and then cleared and cultivated a tract of timber land which he purchased until 1848. His wife died in that year, leaving him with three small children. He sold all of his holdings, placed his children with neighborhood families and then traveled 4,000 miles in an endeavor to forget his great loss and overcome his grief over the death of his wife. Later, he married Eliza Fisher, and in 1852 removed to Indiana, and then came west to Ft. Leavenworth in 1854. On the morning of May 4, 1854, he made the first legal homestead claim ever entered in the State of Kansas, comprising the land upon which the southern part of the city of Leavenworth now stands, and then returned to Indiana for his family. On his return to his homestead he found his claim "jumped" and the country in the hands of border ruffians. He was driven from the polls at the first election held in the Territory on account of his Free Soil principles. Two other claims which he bought were wrested from him by a pro-slavery "squatter court." his life threatened, and he sought refuge in an unsettled part of the State where Monrovia now stands. Here he made his home and became prominently identified with the politics of the new State of Kansas. In 1862 Mr. Snyder was elected to the State legislature and served for two terms in the house of representatives, and one in the senate, where he did faithful and conscientious work in behalf of the people of Kansas.

Solomon J. H. Snyder was a devoted Christian, and was one of the organizers of the first Lutheran church organization in the State, at Monrovia, of which he remained a member until his demise. He was a great Sunday school worker and wrote two very interesting and valuable Sunday school books, "The Lost Children" and "Scenes in the Far West," and at the time of his death was engaged in the preparation of a work entitled, "The Evidences of Christianity." His influence was ever in behalf of the betterment of manind and his Christianity was of the practical kind which introduces helpfulness, kindness and forbearance into our daily lives. The children of S. J. H. and Eliza (Fisher) Snyder were as follows: Angeline (Conley), deceased; Mrs. Sarah Dunn, of Anadarko, Okla. ; Mrs. Cora Shifflet, deceased, and Mark D. The three children by his first wife were: Mrs. Susan Reck, deceased; Mrs. Anna Berndt, of Mexico City, and J. H., San Diego, Cal. The mother of these children was born in Ohio in 1828, and died at her home near Monrovia, in 1895.

Excerpted from the Genealogical and Biographical Record of North-Eastern Kansas The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jul 5 2017, 0:10:32 UTC