Perry and Anne Snyder (nee Cromarty)
by Mrs. Sokolotosky

    Perry Snyder came to Pakan after many years of extensive travel throughout the United States and Canada. He was born in 1868 and at the age of fourteen left home to make his own life. Some years later he came to Pakan, met and married Annie Cromarty, daughter of Magnus Cromarty. Annie was a descendant of one of Canada's earliest settlers who had arrived by sailboat from the Orkney Islands and later became Chief Factor for the Hudson Bay Company at Fort Churchill. Perry and Annie settled first near Vilna where he sold machinery, then later moved to Pakan on part of his father-in-law's homestead, forty acres of River Lot no. 12, (a long easterly strip). There they began their family and Perry put his many skills to work. He worked in a sawmill, was a carpenter and a bricklayer as well. He had a complete line of blacksmith equipment and spent many hours sharpening shears, fixing farm machinery and shoeing the neighbours' horses. He also served as a local vet and tended to his neighbours' stock. Working among the European settlers he soon learned the language and made many life long friends among these warm hearted people. Perry held 100 Horse Power steam papers and for this reason ran one of the first threshing machines. Many neighbours apprenticed under him and eventually learned to run their own machines. Massive engines on these machines devoured cords of wood and large quantities of water usually hauled from the river.

    During these years his wife gave birth to eight children: John (who died during the diphtheria bout), Bill (who married Hazel Campbell), Garth (married Gladys Campbell), Magnus (died on Feb. 25, 1956)

Picture is of Perry, John and Annie's gravestone (not necessarily the original gravestone, but the one there now). All three were buried in Victoria Park Cemetery.

Return to Settlement Menu
Return to the Victoria Park Cemetery Collection
Or to the Smoky Lake History Archive