My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH SNYDER, the present treasurer of Harlan county, although a comparatively young man, is nevertheless an old Nebraskan, and one of the first settlers of Harlan county, being a son of John Snyder, an old citizen of Mulally township.

Joseph Snyder is a native of Indiana. He was born in Wells county, that state, in 1852, and was reared there to the age of fourteen. His parents then moved to Nebraska and settled in Nemaha county. He lived there till 1872, when he came to Harlan county, stopping in Republican City. He took a homestead in Mulally township and lived on it and in Republican City till 1878, when he decided to go further west and moved that year to Hitchcock county, this state. He engaged in mercantile pursuits in the town of Culbertson, Hitchcock county, for two years. Quitting this he went into stock-raising, remaining in the county till 1883. He then returned to Harlan county and settled on his farm. He has been a farmer and stock-raiser almost all his life. While in Hitchcock county he was elected superintendent of public instruction for the county and served in that capacity for four years, from 1879 to 1883. In November, 1887, he was elected treasurer of Harlan county, served one term and was re-elected in November, 1889, in which election he was opposed by the labor union and prohibition candidates, but was elected by over eight hundred majority over both. He is a stanch republican and has always been elected on the republican ticket. The warmest political contest he has had was at his first election. He had two competitors, a democrat and a prohibitionist. The latter took a good many votes he otherwise would have got, as the prohibitionists are between three hundred and four hundred strong in the county and are drawn largely from the republican ranks. He was elected, however, by a safe majority.

Mr. Snyder was quite a lad when he came to the state. He has grown up on Nebraska soil. He married in Harlan County, May 27, 1883, the lady on whom his choice fell being Miss Mary L. Zumro, a native of Huntington county, Ind., whose parents came to Nebraska in 1878 and settled at Republican City, where they now live. To this union have been born four children, viz. — Victor, Earnest Joseph, Lois and Addie.

Nebraska and Nebraska people, particularly that part of it lying along the Republican valley, Mr. Snyder knows well. There is probably no man in Harlan county who can take more men by the hand and call them by name than he can. Having come to the county in 1872, he is himself one of the original old settlers, and when the county was not so thickly settled as now, he had a good opportunity to know all of the old-timers. Having traveled about a good deal, he has kept up his acquaintance with these and has formed new ones. He never forgets his friends and, fortunately, has not many enemies. His hold, therefore, upon the people of his county is secure. He is a diligent worker, a painstaking, faithful public official. He occupies the most responsible office in the county and he fully realizes the fact. His official bond is $80,000. To execute such a bond would alone put to its last test one’s friendship and personal popularity. But his fellow-citizens have known him long and well and have every reason to be satisfied with his integrity as well as with his business ability. In the administration of the affairs of his office Mr. Snyder has been fearlessly honest and faithfully exact. His books are open to the inspection of the public at all times and he is ever ready to make any explanations or render any assistance. Friend and stranger alike are treated with the utmost courtesy and their wants attended to with promptness and dispatch. Honest, courteous, neat and careful with his work and attentive to his duties, he is a capable and trustworthy public official, and in honoring him with office the voters of Harlan county honor themselves, for in so doing they display the wisdom, discrimination and sound policy that should characterize an intelligent and upright people.