John Pillsbury Snyder

John Pillsbury Snyder
Birth date	January 8th, 1888
Birth place	Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Boarded at	Southampton
Escaped the sinking in	Lifeboat 7
Death date	July 22nd, 1959
Death place	Woodhill Country Club, Orono, Minnesota
Death cause	Hearth attack

John Pillsbury Snyder was a First Class Passenger onboard RMS Titanic. He was an American businessman and politician.

Early life

Snyder was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 8, 1888. His father and mother had big names. His father was a law firm associate named Fred Bale Snyder. His mother was the Minnesota governor's daughter, Susan May Pillsbury, born to John Sargent Pillsbury, who was elected once. John Pillsbury came from a widely known milling family.

John Snyder went to the public schools and to the University of Minnesota, where his father became president of that same university. Both were born in Minnesota. John Pillsbury Snyder was also the nephew of the founder of the Pillsbury flour company After college, John opened his own car dealership, right when the automobile was becoming more affordable and not merely a toy for the wealthy.

Snyder married Nelle Stevenson, also from Minnesota, on the 22th of Janurary, 1912. They soon went on honeymoon to visit Europe. Not all went smooth during the voyage. The captain of the ship they sailed on gave the order 'full steam ahead' while it was still tied to the New York pier, which ripped a good part of the dock away. Then it ran aground on a sandbar near Gibraltar, preventing anyone from going ashore. Nevertheless, they had a good time. John had manage to arrange some deals for his car dealership, among which were some Fiat cars.

In April, the couple retuned from their honeymoon in Gibraltar and Italy. In the meantime John had arranged a dealership of Fiat cars for his own business.

Titanic

For their return voyage from London to New York, the ship they were booked on was cancelled due to the coal strike. But Nelle was thrilled to learn they were being re-booked on the brand new Titanic. That is, until she learned the name of Titanic‘s captain. The ship’s captain on their voyage out of New York was also named Smith. “I don’t think this man is careful enough,” she told her husband. But John insisted everything would be fine, the Titanic was unsinkable, and she needed not to worry.

They took the voyage from Southampton (ticket number 21228 which cost £82, 5s, 4d). They occupied cabin B-45. During the voyage of the ship they became acquainted with other First Class passengers from Minnesota: Walter Donald Douglas and his wife, William Baird Silvey and his wife, and Constance Willard.

On April 14, late in the evening, John noticed that everything started to become very cold. He and his wife were in their cabin, because on deck it was no longer comfortable with the temperature drops, and he had turned on the electric heater in his cabin. It was around 11:40 P.M, when they felt a bump or a jar and it woke them up. They went out onto the hallway to see what happened, and bewildered passengers were standing around. A steward passed by, and Nellie pulled his sleeve. They learnt the ship had grazed an iceberg. But the steward was treating it lightly and said they could continue sleeping. They retreated but it wasn't long before an acquaintance knocked on their door. He had been on the upper decks and told them that what happened, must be serious. A crewmember came by and said the gathered passengers should get lifebelts. The Snyders did so and went up.

Snyder and his wife survived the sinking of the ship. They escaped in the first lifeboat, number 7. Their boarding went smoothly and everything was calm and done in an orderly fashion. Loads of passengers didn't want to go in. Having been rowed a good distance away from the ship, they began to see the seriousness of the situation, and could perceive that ship's portholes slip beneath the seas steadily, one after the next. Seeing this, it was decided to row the lifeboat further away.

John watched the bow go dark, except for foremast light and starboard sidelight. Soon, he heard two muffled explosions, which he thought to be boilers hit by sea water. Just afterwards, the ship plunged into the ocean. The ship, in his opinion, was not broken, despite what several press accounts state:

“If the liner parted in the middle, I did not see it, and I was watching it closely.”

There were several accounts published under John Snyder's name that have nothing to do with him. These notably described three passengers in his lifeboat being shot and their bodies dumped overboard, as well as three explosions before the Titanic sank. John Snyder himself called these accounts "absolutely false stories".

Later life

John and his wife came back to in Minneapolis and lived there. Nelle gave birth to three children: John Pillsbury (1913-1989), Thomas (1915-1976) and Susan (1918).

John Snyder later served in the United States Army and was commissioned major. He was involved with the politics, as a as a Republican in the 1920s , in the banking and automobile businesses. He also served in the Minnesota House of Representatives (like his father before him) in 1927 and 1928.

John had lots of passions. Cars, fishing, bowling, hunting and golf. He also loved traveling like his wife.

At one trip in Europe in 1938, they had to flee Vienna in Austria when the Anschluss happened, and Nazi troops marched into the city. The Snyders took voyage on the RMS Queen Mary to leave to New York.

In 1955 Snyder went into retirement.

In 1959 he died suddenly from a heart attack while playing golf at the Woodhill Golf Course in Orono, Minnesota.