Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Snyder 1887, Emma April 30, 1887
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Pat Blood pat.blood@gmail.com March 20, 2010, 7:54 pm

Ionia Standard – Friday 6 May 1887
KILLED HIS WIFE WITH AN AX.
Horrible Murder by an Alleged Insame Man  Near Palo
The township of Bushnell, Montcalm County, was the scene of a horrible wife 
murder and attempted suicide on Saturday morning.  A Standard reporter visited 
the scene on Sunday.
The murderer is John A. Snyder, who was living two miles northwest of Palo 
with his wife and two children.  They had not lived happily of late.  Mrs. 
Snyder was a young, intelligent and handsome woman.  It is said she was in 
good circumstances before her marriage.  At this time the family was living in 
a miserable log hut on a corner of Snyder’s father’s farm.  The cabin is only 
about 12 by 18 feet, built of logs, with shanty roof only seven feet high in 
front and five feet back.  The floor was scoured white, the log walls were 
neatly whitewashed and even the door yard was neatly swept.  Undoubtedly this 
mode of living was not satisfactory to a woman of 25, with a husband in good 
health and not much older.  It is said Snyder was jealous, and of late it was 
thought he was also insane.  An examination had been had and Dr. Hargrave, of 
Palo, pronounced him of unsound mind.  An effort had been made to send him to 
the state insane asylum, but they were all full and it could not be done.
On Saturday morning he did not come to the barn as usual to do his chores, and 
his brother, Edward, also living on the family homestead, sent a boy of seven, 
over to see what was the matter.  He came back terrified and said his aunt was 
still abed and the floor “was all bloody”.  The brother hastened over 
expecting he hardly know what.  He went into the cabin and there lay his 
brother’s wife peacefully in bed, just as she had retired.  The bedding was 
scarcely disarranged, but several gaping wounds were in her head and the skull 
was crushed and the blood still flowing.  It had saturated the bedding, 
dripped on the floor and flowed a crimson stream across the floor.  The two-
year old baby was on the bed.  It had tried to awaken the mother, gone to her 
final sleep and had dipped its little hands in the flowing life blood.  All 
along the whitewashed logs forming the bed room walls were marks of its 
fingers.  On the white floor were the plain foot prints stamped in blood of a 
bare-footed man.  A careful search brought to light a blood stained ax from 
under the bed; but John Snyder could not be found.  A second child, two years 
older, was in a crib crying lustily and badly frightened.
The neighbors were aroused and search for the missing man begun.  He was 
tracked across the farm into the swamp that borders Prairie creek.  Here it 
was found he was bleeding freely and the trail became plain.  About ten 
o’clock in the forenoon, while the men of the neighborhood were still trailing 
the fugitive, he burst into the house of Geo. Forshee, a mile and a half north 
of the scene of the tragedy.  He had fallen into the creek and was covered 
with water and mud.  He had on only his shirt, pants and boots.  While in the 
swamp he had attempted suicide by cutting his throat with a razor, inflicting 
three deep gashes, one of which opened the windpipe.  The blood was still 
flowing down his shirt front while the air sputtered out of the windpipe 
opening.  Mrs. Forshee did not stop for a second look but fled out of the back 
door and began ringing the farm bell as though her life depended upon it.  
Help soon came and the lunatic or murderer was easily secured.  He made no 
resistance, but he was weak and exhausted.  He was taken back home, a doctor 
summoned and his wounds sewed up.  While lying on the lounge, he was seen to 
rise furtively and shake his fist at the dead body of his wife.  He was taken 
to jail at Stanton and the latest reports indicate he will recover.
Mrs. Snyder was advanced six months in pregnancy.  She had told her friends 
that she had “hid the ax and razor to keep them out of John’s way”, but it 
seems she did not hide them securely enough.  She came to Palo Friday and 
purchased some under garments for her husband to wear when he was taken to the 
asylum and some people think she must have shown them to him, which may have 
caused him to think she wanted to get rid of him.  Her father takes the 
children to his home in Niles.


Additional Comments:
Sunny Hill Cemetery

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