CLINTON COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY CEMETERY GUIDE            

MUNICIPALITY:  Lamar Township
CEMETERY NAME:   Snyder Cemetery SCHADT NUMBER:  094

AKA: 

Number of Burials (approximate):  10

Dates of Activity:  1811 - 1870

 

Documentation/Publication: 

CCGS, The Cemeteries of Lamar and Porter Townships (2003)

 

Directions/GPS: 

Take the Lock Haven Exit (Old Exit 26) of I-80.  Take Route 220 for approximately one mile, turning right onto Auction Road.  Follow Auction Road for approximately 1.3 miles until you arrive at an intersection with Hackenberg's store.  Turn left and follow this road until you pass the Lamar Township Elementary School.  Turn right onto East End Mountain Road and follow it for 3.4 miles.  The cemetery is on your left in a field.  Be sure and park in the raised grass access path and not on the private land adjoining.

GPS = N41 05.655 W77 23.116

Landowner / Caretaker:

Snyder Cemetery

Mill Hall, PA 17751

 

Condition/Needs: 

Excellent

 

History:

 

In 1791 Christopher Snyder bought land in Lamar Township, Clinton County. He came from Snyder County from that part that was once Union County. Christopher had served in the Revolutionary War in 1777 and was a First Lieutenant in Capt. Benjamin Weiser’s Company in the German Regiment stationed in Philadelphia. At the time he came to Lamar Twp. it appears he came with his third wife, Elizabeth and several children, including his oldest son, John, born in 1787.

Christopher died in 1811. There were no cemeteries established in the area at that time and it is supposed he was buried on his farm, as was the custom in those early days. Elizabeth died about 1820 and was most likely buried by his side. Thus the Snyder Cemetery came into being.

John inherited his father’s farm. In 1865 John’s wife, Nancy, died and was buried in the Snyder burial plot along with several other relatives who died before her. John then drew up a will that excluded the cemetery from the farm and this exclusion remains in deeds since that time. A low stone wall had been erected around the cemetery and later a fence with beautiful iron posts and an iron gate was erected around the plot within the stone wall where John, who died in 1870, and his wife Nancy were buried. A tall spire was erected for John and Nancy.

John and Nancy’s son, Elias, inherited the farm and built the lovely home to the east of the cemetery. Elias sold the farm “out of the family” and the Snyder Cemetery lay undisturbed and untended for many years. The spire had fallen from its base, snakes and groundhogs took up residence and the stone wall and fence were in ruins.

The sorrowful state of the cemetery came to the attention of some members of the Clinton County Genealogical Society and they enlisted the aid of the Society to restore the cemetery. With a lot of hard work and cooperation of the neighboring farmers and the Lamar Township Supervisors, the Snyder Cemetery was restored and is now a beautiful, peaceful place of rest for these early pioneers to Nittany Valley. A stone was erected to the memory of Christopher Snyder and the Snyder Cemetery was re-dedicated September 29, 2002.

Note: Christopher Snyder’s stone has a birthdate of 1752; it was later verified he was born in 1747.  It is also known that a number of Fursts, connected to the Snyders by marriage, were removed from this cemetery and reburied in Cedar Hill Cemetery in the late 19th century.