OBIT: Daniel SNYDER, 1946, Rockwood, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2007.  All rights reserved.
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DANIEL SNYDER

B & O Trackman's Death Caused by Four Young Boys
Daniel Snyder Dead Owing to Placing of Pebbles on R.R. Track

  Daniel Snyder, 62, of Rockwood, B & O track inspector and repairman, was 
killed at 1:30 p.m. last Friday by being thrown from a railroad motor car two 
miles west of Rockwood, while following an eastbound train on his way home from 
Confluence.
  When found lying between the tracks where he had fallen by a member of the 
crew of a passing local train, he was still alive, but unconscious.  He was 
placed aboard a caboose and rushed to the Rockwood station, but was pronounced 
dead upon arrival there by Dr. C. T. Saylor, deputy coroner of Rockwood.  Dr. 
Saylor found that death was caused by a crushed skull.
  Snyder was born in Somerset County, August 24, 1883, a son of Francis and Ella 
Snyder, and had been in the employ of the B & O for 25 years.
  He is survived by his wife, Emma (Lape) Snyder, one daughter, Mrs. Myrna 
Miller, Rockwood; one brother, Edward Snyder, Garrett; and two sisters, Mrs. 
Homer Bowman, Westernport, Md., and Mrs. Sally Paxton, Akron, Ohio.
  Funeral services were conducted at 3:30 Sunday afternoon, Rev. R. W. Raley of 
Jennerstown officiating.  Interment in Rockwood IOOF Cemetery.

Four Young Boys Caused Snyder's Death

  Four young Rockwood boys are blamed for having caused Snyder's death.
  Railroad detectives accused the boys, ranging in age from six to nine, with 
placing the stones on the railroad tracks, thereby causing the derailment of the 
motor car Snyder was operating when he was thrown from the car to his death.
  Information against the four was filed by Detective John Lint before Justice 
of the Peace C. J. Harrison Jr. in Somerset.  Lint and Thomas Cook, captain of 
the B. & O. detectives, presented the case information to District Attorney 
Thomas F. Lansberry.
  After conferring with the district attorney and Attorney C. L. Uhl, counsel 
for the railroad, the information was filed and warrants for arrest of the four 
boys were issued.  The youths were arranged before Judge Norman T. Boose in 
juvenile court by Probation Officer A. D. Shaffer.  The court remanded them into 
the custody of their parents.
 
Parents Were Warned

  Detective Lint said he had repeatedly warned the parents of the two sets of 
brothers to keep their children off the railroad property, and four times this 
year had gone to their homes to warn the parents that something would happen if 
they failed to heed.
  Officers said the four youngsters admitted playing along the railroad right-
of-way.  They said a flyer had just gone past, and they had placed pebbles on 
the tracks to wait for the next train to crush them.  Instead, Daniel Snyder 
came along on his motor-driven speeder which was derailed and he was thrown from 
the car with fatal result.
  Coroner Uphouse will hold an inquest into the fatal accident at 7 p.m. Friday 
in the Rockwood Municipal Building.

Meyersdale Republican, July 18, 1946