J. E. Snedeker, Osawatomie, Kan.—In every profession or line of business activity men of ability and integrity are eagerly sought and their rapid advancement to positions of increasing trust and responsibility are not the result of chance but the due recognition of merit deserved through their own well directed efforts and conscientious performance of whatever duty at hand. It was through such faithful discharge of duty that Mr. Snedeker advanced in his railroad career from the position of a brakeman to that of superintendent of the central Kansas division of the Missouri Pacific railroad, with headquarters at Osawatomie.

Mr. Snedeker was born in Caldwell, Noble county, Ohio, in 1860, and is a son of William H. and Maria J. (Baker) Snedeker, the former of whom was also a native of Noble county. During the Civil war William H. Snedeker served in the Ninth Ohio cavalry, which was organized in 1863 to serve three years. The regiment's first service was in Alabama and it subsequently formed a part of Sherman's cavalry division on the "march to the sea," in which skirmishing continued more or less until the general engagement took place at Waynesboro, Ga., in which this regiment made the second charge and broke the Confederate lines. The regiment joined in the campaign of the Carolinas and was engaged at Aiken, S. C., where it assisted in driving the Confederates from their position. It also participated in the engagements at Monroe's crossroads and at Averasboro, and at Bentonville fought the last battle of that campaign, skirmishing a little at Raleigh before entering the capital. The regiment was mustered out on July 20, 1865, at Lexington, N. C. In 1873 the parents of our subject moved to Delaware, Ohio, where the mother passed away in 1909, but the father is still living and resides near the old home place.

Mr. Snedeker was reared on the farm and received the most of his education in the public schools of Delaware. He came to Kansas in 1884 and entered the employ of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railway Company as a brakeman. Shortly afterward he became similarly employed with the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, making his runs out of Sedalia, Mo. After two or three years' service as a brakeman he was promoted to be a conductor. In 1903 he was made a train master for this company, with headquarters at Jefferson City, Mo., where he remained two years, being then transferred to Sedalia, Mo. On Dec. 1, 1906, he was made superintendent of the southern Kansas division of the Missouri Pacific, with headquarters at Coffeyville, and remained there until May 1, 1908, when he was transferred to the central Kansas division, with headquarters at Osawatomie.

In 1889 Mr. Snedeker wedded Miss Hazel Shahan, of Delaware, Ohio, and to their union has been born one son, Herbert, who is now engaged in the real estate business at Kansas City, Mo.

Fraternally, Mr. Snedeker affiliates with the Masonic order and with the Order of Railway Conductors. He is a member of the Presbyterian church. He has one hobby of great interest and pleasure to him. All of his life he has been a great lover of fine driving horses and wherever he has been it has been his pride to own the finest driving horse in the community. He is also an auto enthusiast and keeps a fine car for use besides the railroad motor car in which he can often be seen speeding along the tracks of his division. It is such men as these, men who have achieved a distinctive success along some chosen line of endeavor and thereby have contributed to the progress and development of our whole country, that are worthy of recognition in a work of this kind and whose biographies are of interest to the reader for their record of accomplishment.