BIO: JOSEPH H. SNYDER, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
   
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
  OCRed by Judy Banja

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
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  >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
  Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 264-265
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    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
    
    CUMBERLAND COUNTY.  265
    
  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.