SNYDER, DUDLEY HIRAM SNYDER, DUDLEY HIRAM (1833–1921). Dudley
Hiram Snyder, cattleman, was born in Mississippi in 1833. In
1854 he rode to Texas on horseback and settled on a farm at
Round Rock in Williamson County. When the Civil War broke out,
he secured a contract to deliver beef cattle to the Confederate
Army and did so by swimming his herds across the Mississippi
River. He also served as conscription officer in Williamson
County. In 1868 he formed a partnership with his brother, John
W. Snyder, with whom he drove large herds of cattle from Texas
into Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming. An extensive collection of
manuscripts in the University of Texas archives collection
records Snyder's activities as a cattleman. He had large ranches
in Cooke, Mitchell, Stonewall, Lamb, and Hartley counties, one
of which covered 130,000 acres. He was also one of the builders
of a link line from Granger to Austin that was purchased by the
Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway Company. He was a devout
Methodist and a liberal bene