My parents, Frank and Margaret (Hart) Snyder, were married in 1903. They
     made their home at Hackberry Springs on the Brownback ranch where my father
     worked.
       I was born at home in 1907 on my sister Agnes' third birthday. As my sister
     Eva was only twenty months old, we 3 girls were almost like triplets. When
     my 3 brothers were born, Alfred in 1909, Earl in 1911, and Wilbur in 1913,
     we had a lively household. We only had 4 rooms. Our house stood on a hill
     by the creek, on the main road. We had many good times playing in the creek,
     canyons, and climbing trees. After a rain, we always watched the buggies
     and wagons cross the creek. After one flood, it was awful to see Mr. Goff,
     salesman for the Raleigh Products, lose his fine horses and buggy as they
     rolled over and over in the swift current. Luckily his wife floated out to
     the other side as her winter plush coat made a "life jackt" for her. She
     had to walk a mile south to the neighbors to spend the night. He stayed
     with the neighbors west of us. When people were fortunate enough to have
     cars, my father pulled many of them across the creek after a rain. We
     children had a big thrill when Mr. Brownback gave us our first ride in a
     car, his big Lexington sedan.
       We three girls attended our first school at Hackberry in 1912, in a
     schoolhouse that my father and neighbors built. Lula Lukens was our teacher.
     We really had a noisy school when all 15 of us had the Whooping Cough. In
     1917, Hackberry District built a new standard school. Grace McMurtrey was
     our teacher. The pupils were Harts, Snyders, Hadas, Vanamans, and Roberts.
     In 1919, at the Hardtner Fair, we children saw our first airplane, the same
     day my brother Bethel was born. In 1921 I graduated from Hackberry with
     Adela Thom as my teacher.
       After graduating from Hardtner High SChool in 1925, I attended Emporia
     State Teacher's college and received a 3 Year State Certificate. On my first
     day of teaching it was snowing, and I had one pupil, John McGrath. The
     Frank Smith children were absent because of their grandmother' death. This
     was at the Julian School - in February. After teaching 2 more years, I went
     back to emporia State and received a life certificate. Then I taught 3 years
     at Aetna and forty years in Comanche County. Twenty-nine years of this time
     I taught fifth and sixth grades at Coldwater. In 1954, I received a B.S.
     Degree in Elementary Education from Northwestern State College at Alva.
       Some of my early day teaching experience were: A big prairie fire which
     was close to our schoolhouse at North Hackberry; at Aetna the first year,
     the school room was a disaster area the morning after Halloween; at the
     Brass Chool, after I had just put a bucket of coal in the furnace, the
     long stovepipe fell down, but I managed to put it together before I was
     smoked out.
       Agnes, Eva, and I taught a total of 85 years. We were saddened by the 
     death of Eva (Mrs. Deyoe Rogers) in 1973. Since my retirement in 1973, I
     enjoy living in my home in Medicine Lodge. I belong to the Methodist Church,
     Wesleyan Circle, Golden Age, AAUW, Retired Teachers, and Delta Kappa Gamma.
     I enjoy living near my sister Eleanor and family who have been a lot of
     company for me.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas, pg. 429 
     Submitted by: Mabel Snyder