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Submitted by Cheryl Van Wormer.


				GEORGE W. SNYDER, M.D.
			    MRS. MARY C. (BOWMAN) SNYDER.

GEORGE W. SNYDER, M.D.  The medical profession is represented in Sebewa, Ionia County, by men of 
extended knowledge and practical skill, and an honorable place among them is held by Dr. Snyder, 
who belongs to the Eclectic School.  He hung out his "shingle" here in the fall of 1878, 
immediately after his graduation from the Bennett Medical College in Chicago.  He has 
successfully competed with other practitioners, and has won the confidence of the community and 
secured a practice that is the source of a good income.  A lithographic portrait of this 
successful physician appears on the opposite page.
	Dr. Snyder is of Dutch descent in the paternal line, but prior to the American Revolution
one of his progenitors was living in Canada and crossed the border to enter the Colonial army.  
By so doing he lost his property, it being confiscated by the British Government, and at the 
close of the war he settled in Pennsylvania.  Another of the ancestors was John Cooper, who also 
fought in the Revolutionary forces, he having emigrated from Ireland prior to the Declaration of 
Independence.
	John A. Snyder, father of the doctor, was born in Schoharie County, N. Y., and removed 
to this State in 1862, settling in Barry County, where he is still living.  His wife, formerly 
Fanny M. Palmatier, was of French and Dutch descent, and was a daughter of Thomas and Martha 
(Drumm) Palmatier.  She was a native of the same county as her husband, and a member of the same 
church, the Methodist Episcopal.  She entered into rest in 1865.  The parental family comprised 
seven sons, all but one of whom are yet living.  The exception is Thomas, who died in adult 
years.  The survivors are William Henry, George W., Francis M., Charles N., John L. and James A.
William, George and Charles are physicians; John is a minister of the United Brethren Church; 
and James and Francis are farmers.
	Dr. Snyder of whom we write, was born in Chemung County, N. Y., August 26, 1845, and 
with the exception of one summer spent in Pennsylvania, he lived there until his parents came 
to Barry County.  At the new home he remained until the last of September, 1864, when his father 
and older brother went to Hastings, leaving him to finish cutting the corn, there being but half 
an acre standing.  When this was done he had nothing to do but follow the bent of his own 
inclination, and so went to Jackson, and on October 1 enlisted in Company H, Twenty-first 
Michigan Infantry.  Eight days later he started to the front and joined the regiment at 
Chattanooga, Tenn., whence they went to Dalton, Ga., and took up the line of march with Sherman 
to the sea.
	Mr. Snyder was at Savannah during the seven days' siege, after which the troops rested 
thirty days before starting on the return trip.  They marched to Goldsboro, captured 
Fayetteville, and reached Bentonville March 19, 1865, meeting the combined forces of Gens. Bragg 
and Johnston.  The hardest fight in the march to and from the sea took place there, and the last 
engagement led by Gen. Sherman.  In one charge made by three hundred men, nearly a third were 
left on the field, so great was the slaughter.  Continuing on toward the North after witnessing 
the surrender of Gen. Johnston, Mr. Snyder was afflicted with rheumatism and was sent to 
Washington via Newbern, N. C.  He was place in the hospital at Alexandria, Va., where he
received his discharge June 16, 1865.
	Returning to his home in Barry County with the $600 he had carefully saved from his 
soldier's earnings, Mr. Snyder bought eighty acres of wild land in Maple Grove Township, and for 
two years labored at its development and at the carpenter's trade.  He then sold the property, 
bought in the town of Barry, and began the study of medicine under Dr. Watson, of Bedford, 
Calhoun County.  He entered the medical college before mentioned, and after his graduation and 
establishment at Sebewa exchanged his Barry County property for land in Ionia County.  He now 
owns one hundred and thirty acres which he superintends, having the work thereon done by hired 
help.
	In February, 1866, Mr. Snyder was united in marriage with Mary C. Bowman, daughter of 
Henry and Mary Bowman of Johnston, Barry County.  Mr. Bowman was a native of New York, but 
immigrated to the wilds of Michigan about 1836.  He was by birthright a member of the Society 
of Friends, and never departed from his faith, although he was deprived of association with any 
body of Quakers after he came West.  Doctor and Mrs. Snyder are the parents of five children--
Edwin M., Fanny E., Winnie B., George W. and Henry P.  The oldest was graduated from a Detroit 
Medical College in the Class of '88, and is now a practicing physician and druggist at Sunfield, 
Eaton County; Henry P. married Eva, daughter of Benjamin Probasco.  Fanny is pursuing her 
studies in Portland, and is now in her junior year; Winnie died when seven years old.
	Dr. Snyder belongs to Henry Rice Post, No. 151, G.A.R., at Sebewa, and is a member of 
the Odd Fellows Lodge, in which he has held all the Chairs.  He has always taken an interest in 
politics, and has frequently served as a delegate to county, State and Congressional conventions,
where he has been quite active.  He is an unwavering Republican.



This biography is taken from "PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, 
MICHIGAN."  Chapman Brothers.  Chicago, Illinois.  1891.  Pages 385-386.