Abraham Lincoln Snyder
Abraham Lincoln Snyder was born on 25 November 1863, in New York, in the middle of the Civil War. His father Jacob Snyder was a Union veteran who came home from the war without a leg. His mother was Elizabeth Ray. He was the eighth of their nine sons, and the name his parents chose was the president's.
He was called Lincoln as a boy and Lynn as a man, and appears in print as A. L. Snyder. The 1865 New York census lists him at Prattsville, Greene County, as "A Lincoln Snyder", with his parents and six older brothers. By 1875 the family was at Fremont in Sullivan County, and in 1880 at Liberty, where "Abraham L. Snyder", 16, lived with his parents and his younger brother James.
His first wife was Mary Jordan Brennan. She was the widow of a James Brennan and had three children with him. Mary was born in November 1853, ten years before Abraham. The date and place of their marriage are not known. They had two children of their own, Edna, born in March 1888, and Charles, born in January 1890.
By 1900 the family was back in Prattsville, where Abraham had spent his earliest years. The census that year lists Abram L. Snyder, 37, as head, with Mary, and four children all under the Snyder name: Mary E., born 1880, James H., born 1883, Edna and Charles. The two eldest were Mary's Brennan children. The 1905 New York census, again at Prattsville, sets the record straight and lists the stepson as James Brennan. In 1910 the household at Prattsville was A. Lynn Snyder, 46, Mary, Charles, and a Maude born about 1892, whose relationship to the family is not known.
Nothing more is known of Mary. She had died, or the marriage had ended, by early 1919. On 12 February 1919 Abraham married again, at the Presbyterian manse in Hancock, New York. The Hancock Herald carried the notice the next day: "At the Presbyterian manse yesterday afternoon, A. L. Snyder of Stamford and Miss Kathryn Lepulica of Equinunk were united in marriage by Rev. A. C. Stuart." He was 55. Kathryn was two days short of her twenty-ninth birthday. She was the youngest child of Stephen Lepulica, a Slovak immigrant who had settled at Equinunk, and she had been orphaned at eleven.
They made their home at Equinunk. He was a mechanic and carpenter by trade, the occupation later written on his death certificate. He and Kathryn had two sons: George Harvey, born 8 August 1921, and Charles Lynn, born 3 March 1928. His son Charles from the first marriage died in 1927, the year before the second Charles Lynn was born. The 1930 census found the family in Manchester Township, Wayne County: A. Lynn Snyder, 68, his wife Katie, Harvey, 8, and Lynn, 2.
On Thursday afternoon, 10 November 1932, Abraham and George Stanzage, an inspector on the Erie Railroad, set out in a canoe to cross the Delaware River between Lordville, New York, and Equinunk. The river was swollen by heavy rains. Neither man reached the other side. The next day the Wayne County coroner, Oliver Osborne, and the county detective, Charles Schweizer, led searching parties along the river. They found nothing but the canoe, overturned about eight miles below Equinunk.
The river kept Abraham's body for eleven weeks. It was found on 26 January 1933. The death was registered in Damascus Township, downstream of Equinunk, and the coroner's certificate reads: "Body of Lynn Synder drowned on Nov 10, 1932 and found Jan 26, 1933. Accidental drowning." His widow Kathryn gave the particulars. He was buried in the Equinunk Cemetery on 29 January 1933, with the Equinunk undertaker E. N. Higbee in charge. His stone reads simply "FATHER / ABRAHAM L. / SNYDER / 1863 - 1932".
He left Kathryn with two boys, eleven and four. She later married Jacob Hoke, but when she died in 1969 she was buried beside Abraham, under a matching stone marked "MOTHER".
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Cite: Heirology, "Abraham Lincoln Snyder (1863-1932)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/abraham-lincoln-snyder-1863-1932-7beba5.