North Huntingdon VFW post to celebrate 100th anniversary

A century after an Irwin soldier was killed while repulsing a German attack during World War I, he is being remembered during the 100th anniversary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 781 in North Huntingdon.

The VFW Post on Billot Avenue, which was chartered on June 24, 1921, is named after John Howard Snyder, the only soldier from Irwin to die in combat in World War I. Snyder died near Arras in northern France on Aug. 13, 1918, less than three months before the signing of the armistice ending the war on Nov. 11, 1918.

The 100th anniversary celebration is set for Saturday at the post.

J. Howard Snyder was nine years older than his brother, William N., said William R. Snyder, who is the grandnephew of the fallen solider and owner of the Snyder Funeral Home of Irwin.

Snyder was working as a clerk at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. in East Pittsburgh when he was drafted into the Army in February 1918. He trained at Camp Lee, Va., before he was shipped to France in May 1918.

A fellow solider in the 320th Infantry of the 80th Division told the grieving family that Cpl. J. Howard Snyder was fatally shot during a charge by 60 to 100 German soliders against a smaller squad of Americans in trenches. They were fighting in an area described as the Somme Front, according to news accounts of the day.

William N. Snyder, the nephew of J. Howard Snyder, recalled in a May 26, 2001, Tribune-Review story that his grandfather, J.W. Snyder, was notified of his son’s death by a telegraph messenger while he was at work as gasoline attendant at an Irwin station. William N. Snyder said his grandmother, Mary, was devastated by the loss of her son.

J. Howard Snyder was buried near the village of Blairville in France. His body was returned home in April 1921.

The event was considered so significant that Irwin’s burgess, the mayor in today’s government, ordered businesses to close during Snyder’s funeral. He was buried in Irwin Union Cemetery with full military honors and a pilot flew over the gravesite, dropping a bouquet of flowers.

William R. Snyder has kept some mementos of J. Howard Snyder, including a photo of him in his uniform and newspaper clippings that are brittle with age, he said. The family’s gold star (representing a member of the U.S. armed forces killed in war) has been preserved as well, Snyder said.