Oscar Augustus ("Gus") Snyder was born on October 23, 1856 in Richmond, Nemaha, Kansas. He was the son of Oscar John Snyder and Caroline Louise Whitney. He had a younger brother, John Charles, who died when about seven years old. After his father died, Oscar Augustus and his mother lived with his maternal grandparents, David Whitney and Margaret Karr in Rochester, Olmsted, Minnesota and then in Jasper County, Missouri. He married twice, first to Tennessee Ozark Scott and then to Mary Belle Gilbreath. From the first marriage he had two sons, John Charles and Thaddeus Sobieski. From the second, he had a daughter, Beulah Irene and son, Oscar Whitney. Mary Belle had an earlier marriage to Lionel Otho Cannon and son, John Noble Cannon. For most of his life, Oscar Augustus lived in Jasper County, Missouri near Scotland and Jacksonville. He died on December 3, 1909 and his buried in Sterling Cemetery, located near Scotland in Jasper County, Missouri.