Note: This profile is currently under development by the granddaughters of Minnie (Strohecker) Snyder. While suggestions for corrections and familial links are certainly appreciated, please understand that family members who had close, lifelong relationships with Minnie's children are currently engaged in researching Minnie's life, and are working hard to honor her memory. Changes are being made to Minnie's profile and those of her husband and children only after data has been confirmed and various research phases completed.


Minnie Rebecka Elizabeth Strohecker, daughter of Samuel and Annie (Troutman) Strohecker, was born in Gordon, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in January of 1872. There is some discrepancy as to the actual date of her birth. The obituary written for her, which appeared in the "Pottsville Republican," shows her date of birth as 25 January; however, this obituary contained numerous errors (spelling her maiden name incorrectly as Strawhecker, listing her birth year incorrectly as 1873, etc.).

The application of her son, John Sylvester Snyder, which was submitted to the Sons of the American Revolution attesting to the family's relationship to Revolutionary War veteran, Johann (John) Nicholas Schneider, also shows her date of birth as 25 January 1872 – as does a family pedigree that was completed by her daughter, Catharine Rebecka (Snyder) Courtney, with the help of a professional genealogist, and a third family pedigree completed by Minnie's daughter, Lillian Estelle Snyder, during her retirement years from a career in nursing. However, other family records show the date of birth as 15 January 1872.

What is known for certain is that Minnie married John Hartranft Snyder, the third child born to Civil War veteran, Timothy Matthias Snyder, and Catharine (Boyer) Snyder, and the first to survive infancy. John was born on 13 November 1873 in Ashland, Pennsylvania.

Rev. John Teel officiated at their ceremony, which was held in the parsonage of the Plymouth Meeting Evangelical Congregational Church in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania on 3 August 1896.

John H. Snyder, who became a respected county and business leader with Minnie's love and support, served as one of the co-founders of the Lavelle Telephone and Telegraph Company, which was incorporated in 1908. He was responsible for installing the first telephone lines in the Lavelle Valley, as well as in rural areas south of Ashland, Pennsylvania.

During the firm's early days, its main communications center was based at the Snyder family home on Main Street in Lavelle. As a chief stockholder and secretary of the company, John H. Snyder oversaw the firm's expansion which connected the Lavelle center with Bell Telephone Company's Ashland facility. After 47 years of transmission, full control of the firm was transferred to Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania in 1956.

In addition to the involvement of her husband, John, with the Lavelle Telephone and Telegraph Company, Minnie, John, and their oldest children also operated a dry goods store from the ground floor of the Snyder family home, which was located directly across from the Lavelle School.

John and Minnie had eight children: Timothy P. Snyder (1898-1913); Nona May (Snyder) Albert (1900-1987), who went on to own and operate Albert's clothing store in Pine Grove with her husband, Allen A. Albert; H. Corrine Snyder (1901-1988), a bookkeeper with the Jewel T Company who was affectionately known as "Eenie" by family; John Sylvester Snyder (1904-1969), the long-time Mason who was a construction manager with McKinney Construction in Northumberland County and then Portland Cement in Allentown; Catharine Rebecka (Snyder) Courtney (1906-1995), an executive assistant with the New Holland Company who was married to businessman, Charles F. Courtney (1900-1950); Lillian Estelle Snyder (1908-2001), a former head nurse at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston who later became a nursing instructor at Allentown Hospital before working for the pharmaceutical giant, Merck; Chester Hartranft Snyder (1910-1983), the long-time Mason who became an insurance company executive; and Willard Emery Snyder (1917-1972), who worked in the telephone business first for his father and then, following his honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy Seabees after World War II, for Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania.

Minnie and her family experienced several tragedies. In 1911, the Snyder family home in Lavelle was destroyed by fire. The family subsequently rebuilt their home at the same site on Main Street, but underwent several years of hardship living in Ashland while John H. Snyder rebuilt their house.

And in 1913, Minnie and John's oldest son, Tim, had his life cut short when he died from injuries that he sustained in an accident at a coal mine in Locustdale when he fell from a train. According to Tim's death certificate, Tim had been a laborer there at the time. Family historians believe he was working there to help the family meet ends during the rebuilding of their home and lives following the fire.

Throughout the difficulties, Minnie's Christian faith sustained her. She was a member of Christ Evangelical Congregational Church in Lavelle, and remained an active member of the church during her life, along with her older sisters, Agnes Lavena (Strohecker) Paul and Sevilla Louise (Strohecker) Paul, and other friends and family.

Agnes and Sevilla both preceded Minnie in death. Agnes, who had married Henry W. Paul, passed away following a three-month illness in 1943, and is interred with Henry at Lavelle's Sunnyside Cemetery. Sevilla passed away in 1946, following a two-week illness. The wife of Albert Earl Paul, she was interred with Albert at Citizens' Cemetery in Lavelle near the graves of Minnie and her husband, John Hartranft Snyder, who suffered terribly from cancer at the end of his life. Submitting to major surgery in 1944, John H. Snyder passed away 5 August 1944 at the Snyder family home.

Following World War II, Minnie's youngest son, Willard Emery Snyder, returned home from his service with the U.S. Navy Seabees. He and his wife, Genevieve (Krupa) Snyder and their daughter, Judy, resided with Minnie at the Snyder family home until relocating to Frackville in the early 1950s.

Minnie, who like her husband John and her sister Stella, suffered from cancer at the end of her life, passed away at 8:35 p.m. on 29 April 1952 at the Allentown home of her daughters, H. Corrine Snyder and Lillian E. Snyder. Lillian had returned from her job as a head nurse at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston to care for Minnie as her condition worsened in the mid-1940s. (Note: Minnie's obituary in the "Pottsville Republican," which contained multiple errors, listed the date as 26 April; however, her obituary in the 30 April 1952 "Reading Eagle," indicates that Minnie died the previous evening.)

Funeral services were held in Mt. Carmel, as well as at Christ Evangelical Congregational Church in Lavelle.

John Hartranft Snyder and Minnie Rebecka (Strohecker) Snyder were interred with their oldest son, Timothy P. Snyder, at the Snyder family plot in Citizens' Cemetery in Lavelle, Pennsylvania.

Their graves are easily spotted from a distance. They are enclosed by a low brick wall. A large, rectangular, gray marble slab covers their 3 graves. The graves of Minnie's sister, Estella C. (Strohecker) Enterline, and her husband, Thomas E. Enterline, and two of their children, George S. Enterline, and Bright S. ("Pat") Enterline, are located just above the Snyder graves and enclosed within that same brick wall. T.E. Enterline, also a respected member of the county, founded and operated the Lavelle general merchandise store.