Joplin Rotary Club

Joplin, Missouri

Founded in 1916

PIONEER ROTARIAN HONORED

John Abbott Snyder

~ 1875 ~ 1931 ~

John Abbott Benham Snyder, founder-owner of the J.A. Snyder Transportation Company, died at Freeman Hospital March 18, 1931, following a brief illness. He was 55 years old at the time of his death.

Mr. Snyder was born on July 14, 1875 in Ashtabula, Ohio. He was reared in Muncie, Indiana and Piqua, Ohio. He was a son of Ashtabula residents Orson Hamlin Benham and Olive Merriman Benham Snyder, who (according to Ashtabula records) married Nov. 2, 1871. He was the adopted stepson of Andrew Griffin Snyder of Piqua, Ohio and a nephew of William A. Snyder of Piqua. The Merriman family operated Bentwood factories in Indiana and Ohio. The Snyder family operated the Blaine Harrow Manufacturing Company, and the Pioneer Pole & Shaft Co. at Piqua, Ohio.

John Snyder was a grandson of Ashtabula pioneers Charles Merriman and Martha Gillette Merriman, natives of New London, Conn.

Mr. Snyder married Mabel Darlington Mitchell at Piqua, Ohio in 1905, Mabel was a daughter of Clara Swift Mitchell and Thomas Darlington Mitchell, Wellsville, New York. She was a granddaughter of Rachael Ormerod Swift and James Swift of Caudersport, Penn.

At the time of their marriage, Mr. Snyder was superintendent of the Blaine Harrow Manufacturing Co.

The Snyders moved to Galena, Kansas in 1909 in order to establish a branch of the Blaine Harrow Plow Factory of Piqua, known as the Galena Harrow Company, of which John Snyder served as general manager and Ira Perkins served as secretary.

The Snyder family moved to 302 Moffet Ave. in Joplin in 1914, when John Snyder founded the J. A. Snyder Transportation Company, also known as the Snyder Bus Line, an interurban bus line serving the communities of Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas. Mr. Snyder also operated the Snyder-Studebaker Motor Car Sales Co.

In 1920, the Snyders purchased the Landreth home at 412 North Moffet Avenue, where they resided for many years.

Mr. Snyder also operated a “nickel taxi” service and he introduced Snyder Drive-It-Yourself service to the Joplin area.

The Snyder Bus Depot, located between Pennsylvania and Virginia Avenue, served connecting bus lines as far west as Denver, north to Kansas City, east to St. Louis and south to New Orleans.

John Snyder designed and built pontoon bridges at various points throughout the Ozarks to accommodate his buses, which served points as far south as Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Mr. Snyder served as a member of the board of directors of the First State Bank. He was one of the first members of the Joplin Rotary Club and of the Joplin Chamber of Commerce. The Snyders were charter members of Oak Hill (Twin Hills) Country Club. They were also members of the old Joplin Country Club at Spring River, Kansas.

John Abbott Snyder died at Freeman Hospital in March 1931. Pallbearers included Congressman Joe Manlove, Herbert Schnur, Ira Perkins and J. Neff Wells.

Mr. Snyder was a 30^th Degree Scottish Rite Mason at the time of his death.

Following his death, members of the Joplin Rotary Club held a special memorial service in his honor.

He was survived by his wife Mabel, who died in 1962, his daughter Clara Olive Shepherd, who died in 1976, and his sister-in-law Helen Mitchell, who died in 1975 at her home in Monterey, California. John Snyder was also survived by a brother, W.C. Benham, Muncie, Indiana.

John Snyder’s mother, Olive Merriman Snyder, Muncie, Indiana, died at Freeman Hospital ten days after her son’s death,, following a stroke.

The Snyders were long-time members of the First Presbyterian Church. He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Mr. Snyder was a nephew of Florence Merriman Johnson and Abbott L. Johnson of Muncie, Indiana, founders of the Warner Gear Company at Muncie, Indiana, and the parents of John Edgar Johnson, Ray Prescott Johnson and Florence Grace Johnson, who married Charles Strout Davis, all Rotarians and founders and directors of the Borg-Warner Corporation. John Snyder’s brother W. C. Benham was also affiliated with Borg-Warner.

Charles Strout Davis was chairman of Borg-Warner and a director of City National Bank and Trust of Chicago. His wife was Florence Grace Johnson Davis, daughter of Abbott L. Johnson, a founder and president of the Warner Gear Co., - forerunner of Borg-Warner.

Florence Grace’s brother was Ray Prescott Johnson, whose daughter, Margaret, married Barry M. Goldwater of Phoenix in 1934.

At the time of John Snyder’s death in 1931, the Snyder Bus Company was sold to Charles and Chester Brown, who operated a bus line known as the Crown Coach Company, later acquired by Jefferson Lines.

Rebekah Blair Hughes, who later served as president of Woman of Rotary, said of her father Clay Cowgill Blair Sr., also one of the first members of Joplin Rotary Club and a pallbearer at Mr. Snyder’s funeral: “My father was deeply saddened by the death of John Abbott Snyder. I never before in my life saw him cry as he did on the day he heard John Snyder died. He wept all day long. He loved and respected the man dearly.”

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