Historical Marker
Snyder Community
Plainview, Hale County · Texas
Erected 1977
Snyder lies on a country road two miles west of Farm Road 400, six miles south of Plainview. The Handbook says Snyder made several trips back to the Midwest to recruit families, and that in 1908 the settlers organized the Mennonite Church of Snyder, which met in the schoolhouse. A succession of school buildings followed. Dust storms and poor harvests drove many families away in the early 1920s, and the community never regained its numbers. A home demonstration club formed in 1924, but the church disbanded in 1925; by 1940 Snyder was a school and scattered houses.
What the plaque says
Snyder Community Born in Illinois, Mennonite minister and farmer Peter B. Snyder (1864-1948) was living in Minnesota when a search for inexpensive land led him to Texas. In 1906, he bought property in Hale County from John H. Buntin and urged other Mennonites to join his colony. Snyder and his family traveled by train to Plainview in 1907. They lived briefly in tents before erecting a house in 1908. Among the first Mennonites to settle this farming community were the families of The Rev. Andrew Brenneman, John and Joseph Hartzler, Joe Guengerich, The Rev. Jonas Kreider, Milton H. Near, and Ferdinand Rastetter. The colonists built a one-room schoolhouse on land donated by H. R. and Alevia Newcomer. Settlers of all faiths attended the school sessions, worship services, and social events held in the building. Although Snyder planted a peach orchard near his home and sank an irrigation well after 1911, life was harsh. Dust storms, prairie fires, hail, and the severe droughts of 1915 and 1916 discouraged the colonists. Most, including Peter Snyder, left by the mid-1920s to seek better conditions elsewhere. Only the Rastetter Family remained without interruption in this locality. The Snyder School merged with Midway Rural School in 1921 and with the Plainview School District in 1947. (1977)
Where it stands
34.10895, -101.69646 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Hale County — 3.7 mi
- Emma Grigsby Meharg — 4.8 mi
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