Mary Jane Alexander

The Home Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. commissioned The Rev. C.W. Alexander to establish a church and Sunday school in Mobeetie in 1885. While on the trip to bring his wife and family to the Panhandle, he took a cold from being wet and never completely recovered, dying within the year. Mary Jane Alexander was encouraged to purchase land and begin a livelihood for her family of five children.

She bought a section of land on the Washita in Hemphill County and moved her young family to that land. There was a one room log schoolhouse about four miles from the Alexander home that doubled as a church when a preacher was at hand. All of the Alexander children were educated including, notably, Nona. When she was 14, she was sent to Park College in Missouri for four years of prep school and four years of college.

While in college, Nona met E.H. Snyder, who was preparing to become a doctor. He was attending Ohio State Medical School in Cleveland, and they stayed in Ohio for a few years after their marriage. They moved to Canadian in 1909 and began a medical practice that would be maintained by Dr. E.H. and his son, Rush, for many decades. Mrs. Alexander lived with the Snyder’s in Canadian until her death in 1929 at the age of 89.