Alva E. Snyder, M. D., who is engaged in the active general practice of his profession in his native city of Bryan, has long held distinct prestige as one of the able and representative physicians and surgeons of Williams County, is a member of one of the well-known pioneer families of the Buckeye State, his parents having been born and reared in Columbiana County, this state, where their marriage was solemnized.
Dr. Alva Earl Snyder was born at Bryan, Williams County, June 12, 1869, and is a son of Dr. Alva L. and Mary (Richey) Snyder. In his native county the father gained his early education in the public schools at Salem, and in preparation for his profession he entered and was graduated in the Eclectic Medical College at Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the foremost institutions of Eclecticism in the United States. Upon coming to Williams County Dr. Alva L. Snyder first engaged in practice at Montpelier, but later he removed to Bryan, the county seat, where he continued in practice until his death, as a result of an accident, on August 14, 1908, his widow here passing away in 1910. He was a man of sterling character and high professional ability, and he held for many years a secure place as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Williams County. In connection with his practice he conducted a well appointed drug store at Bryan and in the later years of his life his practice was limited to his office. He was one of the honored and influential citizens of Bryan, was affiliated with various professional organizations, was a republican in politics and was identified with the Masonic fraternity. He served fully thirty years as a member of the board of trustees of the Bryan cemetery.
In the public schools at Bryan Dr. Alva E. Snyder continued his studies until he had completed the curriculum of the high school, and he early gained practical experience in his father’s drug store. Finally he perfected himself for service of this nature by completing a course in the Northwestern University Illinois College of Pharmacy, in the City of Chicago, from which he received the degree of Graduate in Pharmacy. As a licensed pharmacist he was thereafter associated with his father in conducting the drug store at Bryan, under the firm name of Dr. A. L. Snyder & Son, for five years, and in the meanwhile he became imbued with a determined ambition to prepare himself for the profession in which his father had achieved success and precedence. In consonance with this ambition he was matriculated in famous old Jefferson Medical College, in the City of Philadelphia, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894 and with the well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. He has since been actively engaged in practice in his native city and has not only achieved marked success but has also added materially to the professional honors of the family name. He has subordinated all other interests to the service of his profession, but is loyal and public-spirited m his civic attitude, with deep interest in all things touching the well-being of his native city and county. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, and in the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, his maximum York Rite affiliation being with Defiance Commandery’ No. 30, Kmghts Templar, at Defiance, and he being also a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine He is actively identified with the Williams County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
Doctor Snyder served from 1900 to 1909 as surgeon in the Ohio National Guard, with the rank of captain, and thus he was well fortified in incidental military experience when he interrupted his private practice to tender his services to the Government when the nation became involved in the great World war. He enlisted in the medical corps on September 28. 1917, and, as captain, was called into active service June 25, 1918. He was in service at various military camps in the South, was assigned to service with Evacuation Hospital No 18, and on August 30, 1918, he sailed for France. He disembarked at Brest on the thirteenth of the following month. He continued in active and efficient service until the close of the war, as well as for some time after the signing of the historic armistice. He received his honorable discharge May 31. 1919. and has since given his attention to his large and representative private practice in Williams County It may be noted that Doctor Snyder is the elder of the two survivors in a family of four children, his sister, Maude, being the wife of Rev. Richard L. Locke, a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church.
In 1894 was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Snyder to Miss Netta L. Viers. and they have three children: Wilmer E. was one of the patriotic young men who represented Williams County in the war activities in France, where he was in active service nine months, he having enlisted and been assigned to the One Hundred and Forty-Eighth Field Hospital, and his service having been with the One Hundred and Twelfth Sanitary Train. Thirty-Seventh Division, in France; Robert L. is in the aerial mail service of the United States; and Carlton R. is at the time of this writing a student in the Bryan High School. Doctor and Mrs. Snyder are active members of the Universalist Church at Bryan and their pleasant home is a center of much of the representative social activity of the community.
Source: Bowersox, Charles A. ed. A standard history of Williams County, Ohio: an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development , 2 vols. Publisher Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co. 1920.