MARK D. SNYDER.
Mark D. Snyder, retired farmer, living in Monrovia, Atchison county, Kansas, is a native son of Kansas, having been born in Atchison county November 2, 1858. He is a son of Hon. Solomon J. H. Snyder, one of the influential figures of the early pioneer days of Kansas, and who was a stanch and uncompromising adherent of the Free State principles. The father of Mark D. was born 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 mankind 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 1838, and died at her home near Monrovia, in 1896.
Mark D. Snyder, with whom this review is directly concerned, was born, reared, and reared his own family in Atchison county. He is one of the real native born citizens of the county. Upon the death of his father he took charge of the old home place, and when his mother died he purchased the family estate. By the exercise of industry and economy, aided by good financial judgment, he has become the owner of 240 acres of excellent land which is well improved and one of the most productive tracts of land in northeast Kansas. He cultivated his broad acres assiduously until 1909, when he turned over the management of his farm to his son, and retired to Monrovia, where he now resides.
Mr. Snyder was married November 30, 1881, to Helen M. Maxfield, and this union has been blessed with eight children, namely: Elsie and Minnie, deceased; John, who is farming the home place; Mark, living in Omaha, Neb.; Mildred, deceased; Margaret and Marguerette, twins, deceased; James, a boy twelve years old, living with John on the home farm. The mother of these children was born in Henry county, Illinois, a daughter of David and Anna (Freeze) Maxfield, who first emigrated from Illinois to Sedgwick county, Kansas, and in 1873 came to Atchison county. Mrs. Snyder died in 1909. Mr. Snyder has always been a loyal supporter of the Republican party, is an attendant of the Lutheran church, and is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of Effingham, Kan.
EDWARD PERDUE.
Edward Perdue, president of the First National Bank of Atchison, and extensive farmer, of Huron, Kan., has been a resident of Atchison county for the past forty-five years. Like other successful men who were pioneers in Kansas, he arrived here from Canada when a young man of twenty years of age without money, but possessed of strength, a willingness to work at honest labor and an ambition to succeed. How well he has succeeded is seen in the substantial fortune which he has accumulated and the honors which have been conferred upon him by his fellow citizens.
Mr. Perdue was born on a farm in Peterboro county, Ontario, Canada, June 27, 1850, a son of Thomas and Catharine Perdue, natives of Ireland, who left the Emerald Isle in their youth and settled in Canada. Edward Perdue was reared to sturdy young manhood on the parental farm and attended the country school in the vicinity of his home as opportunity afforded. In March of 1870 he arrived in Atchison, and during his first year worked at any odd jobs which were presented, including labor on the streets and harvesting on the nearby farms. During the following five years he was employed as a construction foreman on the grading and building of the Santa Fe railroad from Atchison to the Colorado-Kansas State line. He saved his money and by the exercise of strict economy, which meant the denial to himself of all but the actual necessities of life, he was enabled to accumulate sufficient funds to invest in a farm near the town of Huron, on which he resided for the next five years. He then sold this farm and bought another one about one and one-half miles east from Huron, which remains his home to the present time. Mr. Perdue has given his attention mostly to the raising and feeding of live stock in his farming operations and has succeeded in amassing a comfortable fortune during the forty years he has been an agriculturist. He has increased his land holdings until at the present time he is the owner of 1,040 acres of splendid farm lands in Lancaster township. His home farm is one of the best improved tracts of farm land in the county and all of his farms show the results obtained from soil conservation and advanced methods of farming.
Edward Perdue