Snyder S. Kirkpatrick

Kirkpatrick was born near Mulkeytown, Illinois to John Foster Kirkpatrick and Hester Ann Dial Kirkpatrick. He attended public schools schools.

During the Civil War, he served as a private in Company A of the 136th Illinois Cavalry Regiment from April to October 1964. He re-enlisted in the 20th Illinois Cavalry but that had been filled before he reached rendezvous with the regiment. He tried again for the 63rd Regiment of Infantry in which his brothers William A. and Reuben D. were serving, but before he arrived to serve with that regiment the war had ended.

Kirkpatrick engaged in mercantile pursuits at Du Quoin, Illinois from 1865 to 1867. He entered the law school at the University of Michigan in 1867 before returning to Illinois. He was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Illinois on June 30, 1868, and commenced practice at Cairo, Illinois.

In 1873, Kirkpatrick moved to Kansas and settled in Fredonia, engaging in the practice of law. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Wilson County in 1880, and served as a member of the Kansas State Senate from 1889 to 1893. He was an attorney for the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Company for many years.

Kirkpatrick was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1892 to the Fifty-third Congress. He was then elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1897). He ran for reelection to the Fifty-fifth Congress and for election to the Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses but was unsuccessful. Kirkpatrick served as member of the Kansas State house of representatives 1903-1905.

On December 25, 1867 he married Rosa H. Bowen in Mattoon, Coles Co., IL. Rosa and Solomon has five children: Elsie; Otto; Mark; Byron; and Hobert. Rosa died at Fredonia on 13 February 1887. Kirkpatrick remarried. His second wife was Mrs. Floren Adell (Oakford) Buker of Chicago.

Kirkpatrick died in Fredonia, Kansas on April 5, 1909 and was interred in Fredonia Cemetery.

• United States Congress. "Snyder S. Kirkpatrick (id: K000238)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Snyder S. Kirkpatrick at Find a Grave