Here we have one of the many men of Pennsylvania Dutch stock who owe their success to having all the characteristics of that thrifty people. His grandfather, Jacob Kryder, was born in Union County, Pa., he being one of the first white children born in that county. The Indians at that time gave some trouble to the settlers there, and it was always necessary to carry the trusty rifle wherever they went. His father was John Kryder, who came across the Atlantic prior to the Revolutionary War, in which struggle it is supposed he took a part. He probably came of German parentage and possibly was a German by birth. He finally settled in Centre County, and there died at the age of sixty-eight. His remains are buried in the cemetery at Aaronshurg. Jacob Kryder, the grandfather, went with his parents to Centre County, Pa., in his early years.

He owned a good farm in Centre County, which he lived on until he was about seventy-eight or seventy-nine years of age, at which time he died and was interred in the graveyard at Aaronsburg. He had married, in Centre County, Miss Elizabeth Neidigh, who was born and reared in Union County, Pa. She was about sixty years old at the time of her decease. She was the mother of thirteen children, three sons and ten daughters. John Kryder, the father of our subject, was the eldest child, and was born in Centre County, where he grew up on a farm in Haines township. He married in Centre County, Susanna Keun, who was born and reared in the same township and county, and who became the mother of all her eight children in that county.

Our subject is the eldest child; the only daughter and five brothers are yet living, two having ded in infancy. Those living are William, David, Jacob, Andrew J., Sarah J. and John J. All are married and have families. All live in Illinois except two younger ones now in Green County, Wis. The early life of our subject was spent in Centre County, until he was nine years old, when his father went to that part of the same county since incorporated into Clinton County, where they lived on a farm, from 1829 until 1847. After the marriage of Mr. Kryder, of whom we write, he, his parents and other members of the family came to Illinois in May, 1847, locating on the farm where he now lives. The farm was really purchased by the father in 1846, and was in a slight state of improvement. Since then they have made it a farm of high cultivation. The parents died here: the father in 1884, aged almost eighty-eight years; the mother in 1864, at about sixty years of age. The father was a Lutheran all his life, but the mother belonged to the German Reformed Church; in the last years of her life she became a Methodist, there being no German Reformed Church near her home. In politics the father was a Democrat.

Our subject, William Kryder, was married in Clinton County in 1841, to Catharine A. Smull, daughter of Peter and Mary (Wagner) Smull, who came to Illinois and died here. The father was a plasterer and bricklayer. The mother was a member of the German Reformed Church, as was the father in the latter days of his life.

Mrs. Catharine A. Kryder died at her home in Rock Run Township, in February 1876. She was the mother of five children, three of whom are deceased: Mary E. is the wife of J. B. Schank, a farmer of Cadiz, Wis.; Susannah E. is the wife of Franklin Myers, and lives on a farm in Rock Run Township. The deceased children are: Lydia A., who died at seven years of age; John J., aged two years and James, who married Miss L. E. Marsh, and died when nearly twenty-four years old.

Mr. Kryder was married, the second time to Miss Sarah Crock, a native of Clinton County, Pa., but who came West with her father, Reuben Crock, now of Rock Run Township, and a farmer. After Mr. Kryder was married the first time he lived at home until he came West in 1847. He now owns 200 acres of fine land on section 5 of Rock Run Township. There are three residences on the farm, all substantia1 with good out-buildings. Mr. and Mrs. Kryder are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Dakota. Mr. Kryder has been Trustee of the church continuously since it was built. Politically he is a sterling Democrat.

History of Stephenson County 1888 Portrait & Biographical Pg 540