My Genealogy Hound

Milton Snider is one of the active and successful stock dealers and shippers of Union county. For the past seven years he has been located in Shannon City and previous to that time he made his home upon a farm in Grant township within three miles of this village. There in addition to tilling the soil he also raised stock and is regarded as an excellent judge of the value of farm animals, so that he has made judicious investments and profitable sales. He has recently sold his farm property which is a well improved and valuable tract of land of four hundred and eighty acres.

Mr. Snider is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred in Perry county, March 21, 1842. There he was reared to the age of seventeen years and acquired his education in the public schools while spending his boyhood days in the home of his parents, Joseph and Mary (Eiman) Snider. The father died during the boyhood of his son Milton and several years later the mother married again. She is now living in Perry county, Ohio, and has attained the very advanced age of eighty-nine years.

Milton Snider was a young man of eighteen years when he left Ohio and went west to Illinois, arriving in 1860. There he turned his attention to farming and stock-raising, which he followed at Groveland, Tazewell county, where he resided until 1881. Whatever success he has achieved in life is attributable entirely to his own efforts. He has worked persistently and energetically year after year and his diligence and perseverance constitute the basis of his present enviable financial position. While living in Illinois he was married in Warren county, that state, in 1863, to Miss Jane Smith, who was born in Warren county. They continued their residence in Illinois until 1881, when they came to Iowa, making a permanent location in Union county. Here Mr. Snider purchased land in Grant township, becoming the owner of two hundred and forty acres, on which not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made, but with characteristic energy he began to break the sod and fence the fields and as the years passed his labors converted this tract of land into richly productive fields. As his financial resources made such a course possible he added to his place from time to time until within the boundaries of his farm are now comprised four hundred and eighty acres. In its midst he erected a good residence, while in the rear stand substantial barns, cribs and sheds, furnishing ample shelter for grain and stock. Upon this place he has set out a good grove of maple, willow and evergreen trees. He also planted a fine orchard of select fruit, containing two and a half acres surrounded by a willow hedge. This developed into one of the finest orchards of the county and out of one hundred and twelve trees which were originally planted one hundred trees are today in bearing. Annually he harvested good crops of corn and other cereals and also engaged in raising, feeding, buying and shipping stock. He continued to reside upon his farm until 1901, when he sold that property and removed to Shannon City, where he purchased the residence which he now occupies. Since taking up his abode in Shannon City he has engaged in buying and shipping stock and is one of the best known representatives of this line of business in Union county.

In the year 1888 Mr. Snider was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died upon the home farm in Union county. On the 7th of May, 1890, he wedded his present wife at Afton, Iowa. She was formerly Mrs. Maggie Wycoff, a native of Kentucky, where she was reared. As a young lady she came to Iowa, joining her brother, Berry Wilson, at Afton, and later she became the wife of Daniel Wycoff, one of the old settlers of the county, who was a well known farmer, extensive landowner and prominent business man. Mr. Snider is the father of nine children by his first union: Mrs. Nettie W. Miller, a widow, residing in St. Joseph, Missouri; Estella, the wife of C. C. Miller, who is living in Clearfield, Iowa; Samuel, a resident farmer of Grant township; Charles, who is living in New Mexico; Theodore and Theodoro, twins, the former a farmer of Douglas township, and the latter the wife of Daniel Frederick, who follows farming in Grant township; Robert, a farmer of Ringgold county; Ella, the wife of George Blakely, of California; and Frank, of St. Louis. By his second marriage Mr. Snider had three children, Alena, Gladys and Fred.

The parents are members of Shannon City Methodist Episcopal church, to which several of the children also belong. The name of Snider has always been synonymous with those interests which are elevating in the community and which work for material, intellectual and moral progress. Politically Mr. Snider is a democrat, whose first vote was cast for General George B. McClellan in 1864 and for each nominee of the party since that time. He has been identified with the schools for years both in Illinois and in Iowa and in the former state he served as township trustee as well as a member of the school board. He is a charter member of the Masonic lodge at Creston, having been made a Mason in Illinois, and he also belongs to Shannon Camp of the Modern Woodmen. An analyzation of his life record shows that the spirit of self-help has always been strong within him. He has never waited for others to accomplish a work that he should do. On the contrary he has labored diligently and persistently to achieve success, realizing that “there is no excellence without labor.” He has always followed the old and time tried maxim that “honesty is the best policy” and bears an unassailable reputation in business circles.