Charles Snyder is the proprietor of the Juliaetta Hotel, and is practically one of the founders of the town, having secured the establishment of the post-office, and also promoted many of the leading enterprises of the place. His labors have been most effective in its upbuilding, and his name is therefore inseparably connected with its history.
Mr. Snyder is of German birth. He first opened his eyes to the light of day on the 8th of November 1827, and is of honorable German ancestry. He was educated in his native land, learned the cabinet-maker’s trade, and in 1850 bade adieu to friends and fatherland, preparatory to trying his fortune in the United States. When he came to this country he was entirely ignorant of the language of the people, but possessed native intelligence, a good knowledge of his trade and was energetic and ambitious, and through the combination of these qualities he has secured a handsome and creditable competence. Landing at New York he thence made his way to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked two years. He then went to Detroit, Michigan, and accepted a position in the car shops, where he remained three years, and in 1855 he went to Kansas. That state was just opening up to civilization. He located at Wyandotte, just across the river from the present site of Kansas City, helped plat the town and had a tenth interest in it. After two years spent there he believed that the town would not amount to anything, and consequently abandoned interests which, had he retained them, would make him today an independently wealthy man. In 1857 he opened a carpenter shop in Kansas City, then a small town.
In 1859 Mr. Snyder was united in marriage to Miss Augusta Keck, a native of Poland. She came with her parents to America when ten years of age and was married at the age of twenty, her husband being then thirty-four years of age.
They have reared a family of ten children, six sons and four daughters. It is now forty years since the wedding took place, and the parents and children are all yet living, and constitute a well informed, and highly respected family, of which fact Mr. Snyder has every reason to be proud. In 1861 he went to New York, where he took passage for San Francisco, California, going by way of the isthmus route, and arriving safely at his destination some weeks later. He located with his family in Sacramento, where he established a cabinet shop, working at his trade for two years. With the hope of making money more rapidly, he decided to join in the search for gold and went to the mines at Aurora, Nevada County, where he followed mining for seven years. He was the owner of the Garibaldi quartz mine, which was a good producer, but he had no mill, and the expense of hiring the ore crushed was so great that he only managed to make good wages and not to secure wealth at a rapid rate. From that point he went to Reno, being one of the first settlers. He aided in platting the town, established a store and conducted it for a year, after which he removed to Wadsworth and built a hotel. After continuing in that business for a year he sold out and removed to Folsom, Sacramento County, California, where he engaged in placer mining for six years, meeting with good success. He took out nuggets that were worth three dollars and a half, but thinking he had mostly exhausted the claim he sold to a Chinaman, who afterward took out quite a large amount of gold.
In 1877 Mr. Snyder came to Idaho and secured a claim of government land in Latah county, on the American ridge. This he improved and operated for five years and then sold it for four thou-sand dollars, after which he removed to what is now the town site of Juliaetta. He established the post office here and named it in honor of his two bright daughters, Julia and Etta. He was instrumental in forming a school district and opening the first school, and also opened a general mercantile store, selling goods to the In-dians. When Mr. Schupier platted his homestead for a town, Mr. Snyder moved his store and post office upon the site, and the town began to grow. He continued actively in merchandising until 1893, when he traded his stock of goods for the hotel building which he now occupies. He has enlarged and improved the place, and now has a very excellent hotel for a town the size of Juliaetta. A pleasant, genial host, he is assisted by his family in keeping a creditable hotel at reasonable rates, and all who enjoy his hospitality hold him in high regard. In 1894 Mr. Snyder went to Santa Barbara, California, and bought a fine twenty-acre fruit orchard, for which he paid eight thousand dollars. It is his intention to spend the evening of a useful and honorable life in that beautiful district, to which he will remove in October of the present year probably before this work is issued from the press.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Snyder are Julia, wife of Albert Patten, Robert, Nettie, Frank, Charles, William, Daisy, George, Gus and Clara. In his political views Mr. Snyder is a Democrat, and he has held the office of notary public for fourteen years. He has made a valuable citizen in the land of his adoption and is held in the highest regard.