Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 6 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 9

The oil industry has contributed, in a greater degree, to the wealth of California, during the past two decades than any other business enterprise in the state, and in the Coalinga oilfield section of Fresno County it has given a wonderful impetus to the development of all lines of business endeavor. Perhaps no corporation has been more intimately associated with the advancement of the oil industry, in the Coalinga field, than the Associated Pipe Line.

The efficient superintendent of the Maricopa division of the Associated Pipe Line, George H. Snyder, is a native of Flemington, N. J., where he was born November 16, 1864, a son of Henry and Mary (Riley) Snyder, natives of Germany and Ireland, respectively. Henry Snyder was a carpenter by trade and emigrated to the United States when a boy of seventeen. He engaged in the building business in New York, afterwards becoming a farmer in New Jersey, near Flemington. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Snyder were the parents of six children, four boys and two girls, George H. being the oldest child, and the only one living in the Golden State. When he was fourteen years old, George H. Snyder was apprenticed as a machinist in the Long Island Railway Shops, at Long Island City, where he remained three years, when he accepted a position with the Lehigh Valley Railway Shops at Perth Amboy, N. J. Mr. Snyder was next employed by the New jersey Central Railway at Elizabethport, N. J., where he was foreman of the erecting department. After the memorable blizzard of the winter 1888, George H. Snyder, took a trip to Mexico, where he accepted a position with the International Railway Company as master mechanic, remaining with the company four years, after which he was for ten years the master mechanic of the Coahuila and Alamo Coal Company. Later on he was associated with the Sabinas Limited for two years as superintendent of their irrigation plant on the company's large farms. In 1904, George H. Snyder came to Los Angeles, Cal., where he accepted a position with the Interurban and Pacific Electric Railway, having charge of their power plants. His next position .was as master mechanic for the firm of J. G. White & Co., in charge of their construction work, for the Government, on the Colorado River above Yuma. In February, 1905, he returned to Los Angeles, where he assumed full charge of power plants of the Los Angeles Interurban and Pacific Electric Railway, and became the master mechanic of their shops. Mr. Snyder remained in the employ of the railway company until 1907, when he resigned to accept a position with the Tracy Engineering Company, of San Francisco, his duty being to install boilers for the company along the line of the Associated Pipe Line, between Bakersfield and Port Costa. About one year afterwards he became the inspector for the Associated Pipe Line between Bakersfield and Port Costa with his headquarters at Fresno. So satisfactory was his service to the company that in 1911 he was appointed superintendent of the Maricopa division which includes the business of the company between Maricopa and Mendota, a distance of 150 miles, his headquarters being located at Coalinga. So loyally and efficiently has Mr. Snyder discharged his duties to the company, that he still retains the position.

Fraternally, Mr. Snyder is a member of the Odd Fellows, of the Knights of Pythias, and is an ex-director and member of the Coalinga Growlers Club. He is greatly interested in every worthy movement that has as its aim the forwarding of the best interests of Coalinga and Fresno County and has been very active in all the war movements.