admin OLE LYNN SNYDER is the senior member of the law firm of Snyder & Cook, but to the average Buffalonian Mr. Snyder is better known for the immense business undertakings in which he is a leading factor than in his capacity as an attorney. He is an able lawyer, a business man of remarkable grasp and breadth, and a brilliant orator.
Mr. Snyder is descended from an ancient French family that left France with Bernadotte and settled in Sweden, eventually going to Norway, becoming identified with that country and ranking among the most prominent residents of the cities of Christiania and Bergen. The family name was LaMoe. James O. LaMoe, the great-grandfather of the subject, was field marshal on the staff of Marshall Ney and served with Napoleon during his numerous campaigns. When Bernadotte became King of Sweden, James O. LaMoe was appointed by Bernadotte
Commander – in – Chief of the Swedish Army. The LaMoe family were military men, and to this career Jens LaMoe, father of Ole Lynn Snyder, was destined. Jens LaMoe was educated in the Military University of Norway, and upon graduation was appointed Orderly Sergeant and Dispatch Officer to the King. In the War of 1848 between Denmark and Germany he served as First Lieutenant. Jens LaMoe was married in Norway to Sirene Bronken, daughter of Samuel Bronken, who served as Captain in the War of 1812-14 between Sweden and Norway, and was given a gold medal by the Government for bravery.
When Ole Bull, the great violinist, came to America in 1852, Mr. LaMoe, the father of the subject of this sketch, his warm personal friend, accompanied him. Together they founded a Norwegian colony in Potter County, Pennsylvania, and the town of Oleona, in that county, was named after Ole Bull. When the Civil War broke out, Mr. LaMoe went to the front as Lieutenant in the 3d Wisconsin Regiment. He was also recruiting officer and Drill Major of the Regiment, and later commissioned Captain. He died from wounds received at the Battle of Gettysburg at forty-nine years.
Mr. LaMoe was married in Norway to Sirene Bronken. They had three sons, Peter J. LaMoe, a resident of Springfield, Minn., who served through the War of the Rebellion in a Minnesota Regiment; Seward J. LaMoe, who lives in Minnesota, and who served as Postmaster of Jackson, Minn., during Cleveland’s first administration, and also as Sheriff of Jackson County in that State; and Ole L. Snyder. The latter’s mother dying at his birth, the infant was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Michael Snyder of Sweden, Potter County, Pa. He was a prominent farmer, and for their devotion and kindness, Mr. Snyder chose to retain the surname of his foster-father.
Ole L. Snyder was born in Potter County, Pennsylvania, in 1852. He graduated from the Pennsylvania Central Normal in 1878, and the Law Department of the University of Michigan in 1880.
Mr. Snyder first practiced in Pennsylvania for six years, when he removed to Buffalo. Here he became a member of the firm of Snyder & Stoddard, an association which continued until the latter’s death. Both legal acquirements and executive ability have combined to identify Mr. Snyder with industrial enterprises carried on upon a large scale. No Buffalonian is better known in big financial circles throughout the country.
One of the chief enterprises with which Mr. Snyder is connected is that of the Denver and Salt Lake Railway Tunnel Company, which is building a tunnel through the Rocky Mountains at the base of Mount Kelso, cutting through the Continental divide. The tunnel is to be four miles and a half long, and its completion means that the traveling distance between Denver and Salt Lake City will be shortened by 220 miles. Up to the present time the cost of the undertaking has been one million. To finish the task will cost two million and the expense of equipping the tunnel for railway use will be two million more. The tunnel is cut through the solid rock. It is a labor colossal in conception and accomplishment and is destined to be one of the classical examples of American engineering.
Mr. Snyder is also deeply interested in coal and timber lands in Wyoming and Logan Counties, West Virginia. He is the founder of the Niagara Storage Company and of the Adirondack League Club. The admission fee to this celebrated club is $1,000. The League owns in fee 86,000 acres of land, and the properties it holds under lease amount to 25,000 acres more. It is said that the Club is the owner of the largest hunting and fishing preserves in the United States. Mr. Snyder owns a beautiful Swiss chalet situated upon the League’s preserves on the shore of Hennedager Lake, in the wilderness.
Always a Democrat, when Cleveland ran for President the first time, Mr. Snyder took the platform for him, speaking in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio throughout the campaign. In the Bryan campaign of 1896, Mr. Snyder spoke under the auspices of the Democratic National Committee, for Mr. Bryan, in New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Colorado.
In the State campaign of 1897 he supported Van Wyck for Governor, and spoke throughout the State in his behalf. He later received the Democratic nomination for Congress to oppose Col. D. S. Alexander in the Western District of Erie County. In the ensuing contest Mr. Snyder made a splendid showing in this strongly Republican district. Upon the organization of the Independence League in Erie County in 1906, Mr. Snyder was its first President. Mr. Snyder belongs to Highland Lodge of Masons, to Buffalo Consistory and Ismailia Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also Past High Priest of Arnold Chapter, No. 254, of Port Allegany, Pa., and has been a member of St. John Commandery, Knights Templar, of Olean, N. Y. He is a Mason of the 32d degree.
In 1888 Mr. Snyder married Miss Ora L. Lillibridge of Port Allegany, Pa., daughter of Alvah N. Lillibridge, son of Lodwig Lillibridge, one of the first settlers of Port Allegany. Mrs. Snyder’s mother was Leora S. Viner, a daughter of Isaac Viner, whose father served in the Revolutionary War. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder have one daughter, Olga Leora, who was born in Buffalo in 1897.
SOURCE: Memorial and Family History of Erie County New York; Volume I