Snyder, TX (Hale County)

Snyder is on a country road two miles west of Farm Road 400 and six miles south of Plainview in eastern Hale County. Settled in 1907 by Mennonite families from the midwest, Snyder was named for Peter B. Snyder, the Mennonite minister of the new community. He was the first to purchase land on the site, and made several trips to the midwest to encourage other families to move to the community. A one-room schoolhouse was built in 1907, and the next year the Mennonite Church of Snyder was organized, meeting at the schoolhouse. The community built a succession of school buildings in the first part of the twentieth century. In the early 1920s many farm families were driven away from Snyder by dust storms and poor harvests, and the community never recovered its previous population level. A Home Demonstration club was formed in Snyder in 1924, but the church was disbanded the next year. In 1940 the community comprised the school and scattered dwellings. The school was consolidated with that of Plainview in 1947. During the 1970s the school building still stood. The community was still named on maps in 1992.