My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH H. SNYDER, junior member of the mercantile firm of Behney & Snyder, of Carlisle, was born Jan. 8, 1866, at Reading, Pa., a son of John B. and Rebecca (Hildebrandt) Snyder. Grandfather Snyder married a Miss Bertolet, a member of one of the old Huguenot families of Berks county, and he was long a popular hotel keeper in Reading, in which city the family is an old one. It was supposedly founded by Huguenot refugees.

John B. Snyder was also born at Reading, Pa., and was mainly educated at the Norristown Academy. By trade he was a mechanic, but his interest in and talent for music gave him other occupation. For a number of years he was leader of the Ringgold band, and for some twenty-five years led the orchestra in the Reading Opera House. His proficiency in band music gave him a wide reputation, and he had his hands full instructing all through his own and neighboring counties, sometimes composing music. He was well known in Reading, where for years he was tax collector and held other civic offices, on more than one occasion being a useful member of the city council. In politics he was a Republican and active in work for the party. He died Nov. 1, 1900, aged sixty-three years. Mr. Snyder married Rebecca Hildebrandt, daughter of Joseph Hildebrandt, a well-known hat manufacturer, and the pioneer in that business at Reading. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder had a family of seven children, of whom six survive: George H., a tax collector of Reading; Bertolet H., who died aged thirty-two years (he was a master of the cornet and traveled all over the country with his instrument); Minnie K., wife of J. C. Behney, of the firm of Behney & Snyder; Joseph H.; Laura, wife of George C. Straub, of Reading: John H., a manufacturer of jewelry, of Reading; and Arthur G., manager and part owner of the King Dramatic Co.

Joseph H. Snyder spent his boyhood and early life in Reading and obtained his education in the Reading schools. At the age of twenty he went West and worked at the machinist’s trade for several years at St, Paul, Minn., and for three years was identified with the Chicago & Great Western Railroad. Later he accepted a profitable mercantile clerkship in which he remained until 1896, when he returned to Reading, and in the same year became associated with J. C. Behney, the present partnership being formed. Mr. Snyder is a young man full of business enterprise, a member of the Carlisle Board of Trade, and one of the busy and public-spirited citizens of that place.

In 1889, in Reading, he was married to Maggie, daughter of Jacob Doughty, and the two children of this union are: Arthur B., fifteen years old, and Jennie M., eleven years old, both bright students in the local schools. Religiously, the family is associated with the Reformed Church.