Saturday, June 8, 2013

Pipe Smoker: D. H. Snyder

Dudley Hiram Snyder (1833 - 1921)

Although not famous enough to warrant a Wikipedia page, D.H. Snyder was fairly well-known in his time.  Born in Mississippi, he eventually made his way to central Texas where he engaged in various activities to make a living, starting out by hauling cedar logs (cedar is still widely used for fence posts because of their natural bug- and rot-resisting qualities).  Taking his profits to Missouri, he bought wagons and hauled apples and other such items back to Texas to sell.  He invested his earnings from this into a herd of Spanish ponies which he drove to Missouri and traded for draft horses.  (The "Spanish ponies," or wild mustangs that had been broken for riding, were very popular for use in cattle driving).

He earned a reputation as a "safe man," or someone who could be relied upon, and this got him a job driving cattle to supply Confederate troops with beef during the Civil War.

Snyder eventually became a very wealthy cattle rancher.  His place in Texas history is honored by the above portrait, which hangs on a wall of the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas among numerous other prominent cattle ranchers of the 1800s and early 1900s.  He passed away in Georgetown, Texas in 1921.

Link:  FindAGrave.com (where you can see a stately photo of an elderly D.H. Snyder without a pipe)

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