Snyder House - Abandoned

The Captain Sampson Snyder Farm is a historic property with an abandoned house located in Randolph County, West Virginia.

History

The Captain Sampson Snyder Farm is a historic property located in Randolph County, West Virginia, situated along Horsecamp Creek and Dry Fork. The farm was settled around 1800 and was spread over thousands of acres on the north and west of Dry Fork. ¹ It features a two-story wood frame cross-gable residence built by Captain Sampson Snyder in 1880 after his service in the Civil War.

The Snyder family, originally spelled Snhneiders, migrated to the Americas aboard the sailing vessel Samuel and Elizabeth from Germany in 1740. ¹ They settled in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, area before moving down into Virginia along the South Branch in Randolph County. John Snyder III was the first to travel to Virginia, and his son, John Snyder IV, who first settled along the Dry Fork, married there and had nine children, including Sampson Snyder.

During the Civil War, the Snyder family, of German descent from Pennsylvania, were staunch Union supporters. ¹ Both John and Sampson served as captains in the Union Army. Sampson enlisted in the Federal Army in 1861 at Beverly, and later enlisted in General Grant’s army and helped them push toward Vicksburg. However, before Lee’s surrender, Sampson was sent back to West Virginia to guide Union troops because of his familiarity with the region. In 1864, Sampson was commissioned Captain of the Independent Scouts of Randolph County by Governor Boreman, who organized a company to protect the county from marauding. During this service, Sampson was captured and escaped from a Confederate army and was involved in the capture and killing of many Confederate officers and patrols.

After the war, he served on the Randolph County Board of Supervisors from 1866 to 1872. ¹

Sampson and his wife, Elizabeth Bonner, had 12 children and resided in a cabin far off the Dry Fork before constructing the Snyder residence, ¹ a two-story wood frame cross-gable building that featured wood clapboard siding, 1/1 double-hung windows, a roof sheathed with standing seam metal sheets, and a foundation built of cut stone block and later repaired with timbers and concrete block. The front porch was initially confined to the entrance but was later extended to a full width. A two-story rear addition was completed post-1880.

After Sampson died in 1910, his wife continued to live on the property. ¹ The farm was split between heirs and descendants during the early 20th century, and several other houses were built on the property, including the Judy Harman house and the Anna Harman house, built during the 1930s. The Double-Pile Cottage, a 1½-story frame cottage, was also likely built around the same time.

The Snyder house was abandoned circa 1979 when a new family house was constructed nearby.