Howard L. Snyder, M. D. Doctor Snyder is of old American family. His paternal ancestors came out of Holland in colonial times and located in Southern Pennsylvania. From that state the family by successive stages had come fully half way across the continent.
Doctor Snyder was born in Woodford County, Illinois, October 10, 1878. His father, David Snyder, was born in Ross County, Ohio, in 1820. He moved west to Woodford County, Illinois, in 1848, and became one of the leading farmers and stock raisers there. He died in Woodford County in April, 1895. David Snyder was a republican in general politics, but during his last years he voted the national prohibition ticket. In Woodford County he did much to support and always took an active part in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was married in Woodford County to Miss Mary E. Whittaker, who was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1841, and died in Winfield, Kansas, in 1911. Of the six children, Doctor Snyder was the fourth. The oldest, John D., is a farmer, and had an interest in a furniture business at Hutchinson, Kansas, where he resided. The daughter, Mary E., died of typhoid fever at the age of nine years. David L. is a farmer near Winfield, Kansas. Thomas B. is also a farmer and stockman near Winfield. Anthony K. is in the drug business at Winfield.
Doctor Howard L. Snyder spent his early life on his father’s farm in Illinois. He attended country schools and also the high school at Washburn, Illinois, and had a preparatory course in the Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington. He was a student through the Freshman year in the Southwestern College at Winfield, Kansas. Doctor Snyder attended one of the oldest and best known medical schools in the country, Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, where he was graduated M. D. in 1904. Every year since then he had taken some time away from his work for post-graduate study.
Doctor Snyder after graduating in medicine began practice at Winfield. He is surgeon to St. Mary’s Hospital at Winfield. He is a man of the highest standing in medical circles, and is president of the Cowley County Medical Society, is vice president from Kansas and chairman of the surgical section of the Medical Association of the Southwest for 1917, and is a member of the Kansas State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
He had his offices in the First National Bank Building, and his residence is at 1210 East Ninth Avenue. Doctor Snyder is a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and had fraternal relations with Winfield Lodge No. 110, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Winfield Chapter No. 31, Royal Arch Masons; Winfield Commandery No. 15, Knights Templar; Winfield Lodge No. 732, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Winfield Camp No. 583, Modern Woodmen of America; Winfield Lodge No. 18, American Order of United Workmen, and Council No. 16, Fraternal Aid Association.
He was married at Guthrie, Oklahoma, in 1902 to Miss Genoril E. Dawson, a daughter of George W. and Cora (Orvis) Dawson. Her parents now reside at Winfield, Kansas, her father being a traveling representative for the Winfield Marble Works. Doctor and Mrs. Snyder are the parents of five children, all of them at home and all except the youngest being educated in the local schools. Their names and dates of birth are: Howard E., March 15, 1903; Cecil D., March 13, 1905; Catherine E., October 29, 1906; Robert E. L., January 5, 1909; and Dorothy Marguerite, September 16, 1915.