DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's quite a story. A Mennonite minister and farmer named Peter B. Snyder was born in Illinois in 1864, and by the time our story gets rolling, he'd already made his way to Minnesota.
Now, something drew his eye southward — a search for inexpensive land — and that search led him straight to Texas. In 1906, he bought property in Hale County from a man named John H. Buntin, and then he did what any good community builder would do: he started urging other Mennonites to come join him.
Build something out here on the plains. Come on down. The land is cheap.
So they came. Peter Snyder and his family traveled by train to Plainview in 1907, and for a stretch, home was a tent. That's not a figure of speech — actual canvas between them and the West Texas sky.
They got a proper house erected in 1908, and meanwhile, others were arriving. The Reverend Andrew Brenneman. John and Joseph Hartzler.
Joe Guengerich. The Reverend Jonas Kreider. Milton H.
Near. And the Rastetter family — Ferdinand Rastetter among the first. These were the families who planted themselves in what would become the Snyder community.
They built a one-room schoolhouse on land donated by H. R. and Alevia Newcomer, and that little building became the center of something bigger than any one faith. Settlers of all faiths attended — school sessions, worship services, social events — all of it under that one roof.
Peter Snyder planted a peach orchard near his home. Sank an irrigation well after 1911. A man was putting down roots, literally.
But Hale County had its own opinions about all that. Dust storms came through. Prairie fires.
Hail. And then the droughts of 1915 and 1916 hit like a verdict. The land had been inexpensive for a reason, and the colonists were starting to understand it in full.
Most of them — including Peter B. Snyder himself — had left by the mid-1920s, off to seek better conditions somewhere else. The man who started it all, born in 1864, gone from the place that bore his name.
He'd live until 1948, so he had years enough to look back on what was built and what was left behind. Because something was left behind. The Rastetter family — they stayed.
Without interruption, right there in that locality, when everyone else had moved on. The Snyder School merged with Midway Rural School in 1921, and then again with the Plainview School District in 1947. The colony had scattered, but the ground remembered.
Some things, it turns out, outlast even the people who planted them.
What the marker says
Born in Illinois, Mennonite minister and farmer Peter B. Snyder (1864-1948) was living in Minnesota when a search for inexpensive land led him to Texas. In 1906, he bought property in Hale County from John H. Buntin and urged other Mennonites to join his colony. Snyder and his family traveled by train to Plainview in 1907. They lived briefly in tents before erecting a house in 1908. Among the first Mennonites to settle this farming community were the families of The Rev. Andrew Brenneman, John and Joseph Hartzler, Joe Guengerich, The Rev. Jonas Kreider, Milton H. Near, and Ferdinand Rastetter. The colonists built a one-room schoolhouse on land donated by H. R. and Alevia Newcomer. Settlers of all faiths attended the school sessions, worship services, and social events held in the building. Although Snyder planted a peach orchard near his home and sank an irrigation well after 1911, life was harsh. Dust storms, prairie fires, hail, and the severe droughts of 1915 and 1916 discouraged the colonists. Most, including Peter Snyder, left by the mid-1920s to seek better conditions elsewhere. Only the Rastetter Family remained without interruption in this locality. The Snyder School merged with Midway Rural School in 1921 and with the Plainview School District in 1947. (1977)