Born in Amsterdam, Montgomery County, New York, he attended the common schools and was employed in various capacities in knitting mills until 1887.

[1] An obituary of Snyder published in The New York Times described him as "one of the outstanding and outspoken champions" of Native Americans.

Shortly after WWI, the two companies decided that Harris would stop making complete bikes and Snyder would buy all their hardware (cranks, stems, etc.)

Snyder/Harris then started buying up struggling bike companies, including Peerless, Great Western, Pioneer, Overland and possibly others.

A 1927 Snyder Boy's Bicycle, designed to look like a contemporary motorcycle, is displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

[6] During the Great Depression, Snyder began manufacturing bikes for other retailers including Montgomery Ward, who sold them under the Hawthorne name.

[7] In 1938, Snyder acquired the Excelsior Mfg Co cycling company located in Michigan City, Indiana (not to be confused with the Chicago-based Excelsior cycling company, owned by Schwinn) and used it as an assembly plant and Midwest shipping hub for bicycles they made for D.P.

At that time, Snyder mostly made bikes for DP Harris under the "Rollfast" name, as well as contracts for Montgomery Ward.

[9] Around 1976, Mossberg lost their contracts with DP Harris and Ward, and terminated Snyder's bicycle production on May 7, 1976 after 81 continuous years in business.