Westmoreland-Northampton County PA Archives Obituaries.....Snyder, Daniel John June 28, 1953 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Paula Norman Snyder paulas1218@aol.com March 27, 2010, 4:15 pm Greensburg Daily Tribune, 6-29-1953 D.J. Snyder Sr., Retired County Jurist, Died At Home Here Sunday Was Active For Many Years in Reformed Church From Greensburg Daily Tribune, City Edition Vol. 68, No. 21 Greensburg, PA, Monday, June 29, 1953 Judge Daniel J. Snyder, Sr., who retired from the Orphan's Court bench on Jan. 5, 1942, died at his home, 20 Division street, Sunday afternoon at the age of 85 years. He had been in ill health for a long time. He served two years on the Common Pleas bench by appointment of Gov. Martin G. Brumbaugh, and then was elected president judge of the Orphans Court in 1921. He voluntarily retired at the end of his second 10-year term. Before going on the bench he had practiced law since 1896, and had served as a member of the Legislature from 1915 to 1917. He tried the first murder case, probated the first will, and tried the first equity case, after the present courthouse opened. Judge Snyder was a 32nd degree Mason, for many years was an officer of Forest No. 77, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and was a Shriner. He was also a member of the Knights of Malta, United American Mechanics, Woodmen Circle, Woodmen of the World, Odd Fellows and the Greensburg Kiwanis Club. CHURCH ACTIVITIES Judge Snyder was an active member of the Commission on Church Union during the entire period in which the Reformed Church and the Evangelical Synod were negotiating with a view of uniting, and he aided in the preparation of the Plan of Union for the uniting of these denomination. He was chairman of the committee of lawyers appointed for the purpose of solving the many different problems which arose in bringing the final consummation of that union. Twice he was elected vice president of the General Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, which is the highest honor the church can confer upon a layman. He was also a member of the executive committee of the General Synod and active in the Churchmen's Brotherhood. For many years he was an elder in the First Reformed Church of Greensburg and he was the teacher for many years of perhaps the largest adult Bible class in the county. Last September he was given an award for 50 years of service in the Pennsylvania State Sabbath School Association at the convention of the organization held in Harrisburg. In all, he had been active in Sunday School work for 62 years. He was graduated from Heidelberg College (Ohio) in 1892, with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and from Yale University Law School in 1895, with the degree of L.L.B. Later he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Heidelberg College. In 1938 Franklin and Marshall College conferred upon him a Doctor of Laws degree. In 1945 Judge Snyder and his cousin Dr. W.J. Snyder, Avalon, established an award at Heidelberg College to be awarded to the man and woman, who during four years in college, showed outstanding qualities of leadership. FUNERAL WEDNESDAY Besides his wife, Winifred Fowles Snyder, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Eleanor Rector, Evanston, Ill., and a son, Daniel J. Snyder, Jr., Greensburg. Five grandchildren also survive. Funeral services will be held at 2 o'clock Wednesday afternoon in the Coshey- Buchanan Funeral Home, 319 West Pittsburgh street. Friends are being received there from 3 to 5 and from 7 to 9 p.m. The family requests that flowers be omitted in favor of donations to the Red Cross. Interment will be in St. Clair cemetery. Judge Snyder was born in Penn township, this county, where his great- grandfather, Mathias Snyder migrated from Northhampton county. Mathias Snyder served in the Continental Army, and was with Gen. George Washington at Valley Forge. Mathias Snyder's son, Daniel, married Elizabeth Rowe, and their son, David L., the father of Judge Snyder, was born in 1833. He spent his entire life in Penn township as a teacher and farmer, and died there in 1896. Mary A. (Kline) Snyder, the mother of Judge Snyder, was born in Penn township in 1838, and died there at the age of 89. Her parents John and Elizabeth (Knappenberger) Kline spent their entire lives in Penn township on a farm. John died in 1855 and his wife in 1890. PENN TOWNSHIP SCHOOLING Judge Snyder received his early education in the public schools of Penn township and at Greensburg Seminary. It was in 1896 that Judge Snyder was admitted to the Westmoreland county bar and began to practice in Greensburg. In 1907 he formed a partnership with J.R. Smith, which continued until 1919, when he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland county. In 1921, he was elected president judge of the Orphans Court, and in 1931 was re-elected for a second 10 year term. In line with his profession, he is a member of the Westmoreland County Law Association and the Republican. He was married to Winifred Fowles on October 22, 1810. [1910] This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 5.3 Kb