Byron Wilfred Snippen

 August 4, 1908 - June 7, 1992   

83 years,  10 months, 3 days 

Marriage:  Gladys Harriet (Peterson) Snippen  - married on May 15, 1934

Byron is Jon Q. Peterson's Uncle.  Byron's wife, Gladys and Jon's dad, Pete, are siblings.

From “Golden Jubilee 1906-1956 Ryder, North Dakota” 

The booklet was prepared and presented by the Ryder Commercial Club for the Golden Jubilee celebration July 18 and 19, 1956

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Snippen

(The following was written by Byron's mother, Elsie Snippen)

In the year 1902, Mrs. A.P. Matson, Nee Sophia Rudh and I, Elsie were teaching country school in Creel School District near Devils Lake, ND.  We boarded ourselves at the Jacobson farm home, located midway between the two schools.  Our transportation was bicycles.  Roads then were quite different than now, winding wagon trails, mud holes, ruts and rocks, so we took a few spills.

Having in mind to take up homesteads and receiving word July 2nd to come to Minot immediately if we were interested in Fort Berthold Reservation claims, we mounted our bicycles the same day school closed and rode the twelve miles into Devils Lake and were fortunate the train to Minot was late, so we made connections.  We arrived in Minot early the next morning and stayed at the Waverly Hotel until the land office opened.  We filed on our claims and were able to return to Devils Lake the same day.  Now we each had 160 acres of land.

In making that trip to Devils Lake on a detour I fell off my bicycle and said “For the land sake”.  Mrs. Matson calmly replied “It’s for lands sake we are making the trip”.  We kept on teaching and made arrangements to go out to the homesteads awhile in the fall.

The 26th of April 1903, we landed on our homesteads again.  We had not unpacked fully when Mr. Ole Rostad came asking for help as his wife was very ill.  Mrs. Rostad and their five children had arrived from Minnesota just two weeks earlier.  Mrs. Rostad passed away May 1st, the children were taken back to Minnesota.  

Mrs. Matson commuted on her claim in the fall of 1903 and returned to Minnesota.  I took a school at Centerville, later called Ryder.  A homestead shack owned by Mr. Luther served as school house, equipment consisted of home made benches and a long table, blackboards was building paper between the 2 by 4’s, the usual inside finish of homesteader’s shacks.  Chalk was ordered from Minot.  Having about twenty pupils, I recall only some of the names, Sampsons, Gettle and Amundsons.  Sorry I can’t name more.

On the 12th of September a bad blizzard raged more than two days and put an end to my teaching which should have been three months.  Those with families moved to Minot.   Many homesteaders lost stock, which drifted with the storm and perished in the alkali slough, sometimes known as the Linnertz slough.

Almost all the homesteaders had five or ten acres of flax, this was snowed under but came out pretty good.

In April 1906, I proved up my claim and was married to Henry Snippen and proved up another claim where our four boys, Harlow, Byron, Earl and Milton were born.

In 1916 we sold the homestead and moved into Ryder where Mr. Snippen went into the farm Implement Business.

Milton makes his home with Earl and family in Seattle, where I also have a home.  At this time Mr. Snippen is with Byron and his wife, the former Gladys Peterson, daughter of a Ryder pioneer Mr. Louis Peterson of Bismarck.  Bismarck is also Byron’s home.  Harlow passed away in 1949.

Kinstories (home)  -  Peterson Family (home)  -  Johnson Family  -  Susag Family  -  Flatau Family  -  Beckman Family
Granquist Family  -  Anderson Family  -  Stout Family  -  Walker Family  -  Morris Family  - Cauble Family