John Owen Snyder

    John Owen Snyder, the man who cannot stop walking. Now we come to describe the first wonder of the kind in the history of the world, the man who for twenty-seven months has not been able to cease walking without great pain, except for a few minutes, possibly two or three times in twenty-four hours.

    John Owen Snyder, the subject of this strange sketch, was born in the year 1833, in Madison County, Virginia. His parents were James and Fannie (Carpenter) Snyder, both natives of the same State, and farmers, bringing up their children in their humble calling. In the fall of 1849 they immigrated to Randolph County, Indiana, locating in the northwestern part of the county. In the year 1855 John was married. In the fall of 1863 he moved to Iowa, spending the following winter in Appanoose County. Next he moved to a point near Maquon, on Spoon River, Knox County, Illinois, where he resided four years, when he moved back to Randolph County, this State. Five or six years after this again, being a poor man and always renting farms, he moved to a place about two and a half miles south of Trenton, in Blackford County, where he lived about six years, clearing up twenty acres of land. Then he removed to a farm, upon which was a log cabin, about two miles southeast of Millgrove, or three miles west of Dunkirk, renting here a little over a year, when he finally, in the spring of 1887, moved upon his present place, a forty acre farm on section 27, Jackson Township, about a mile north of Millgrove and a half-mile east. This place he bought of Mr. Fulkerson, partly going in debt for it, and making a payment upon it, which he was enabled to do from the proceeds of the exhibition that was made of him in the city museums during the preceding winter. Upon this place he built a small frame house, divided into two equal rooms, in one of which he is now performing his endless rounds of circumnambulation.

    Mr. Snyder was married in June, 1855, to Nancy McKinney, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Anthony W. and Elizabeth McKinney. Their children are: Joseph Leonard, born in 1859; Mary Adeline, in 1861, Almeretta, Horatio Frederick and Eliza Jane.

    Now the origin and history of the strange affliction that has rendered Mr. Snyder a noted man. In 1883 he had a severe attack of what his physician called typho-malarial fever. On recovering from it, in August, he began to feel a curious affection in his arms, on account of which he kept his bed most of the time until the following March, when he seemed to recover; but was up and down, part of the time walking about the room, and a part of the time doing chores about the premises. After a little a strange sensation supervened; he felt as if all his strength lay in his arms. He would chop or saw wood with all his might, sometimes a half a cord before stopping, and without feeling tired! Thus he labored from morning until night. Said he to his wife, "There's something wrong with me; for I don't feel tired; if I am tired I cannot feel it." At night, or when the weather was inclement, he would, for the sake of arm exercise, scrub the floor, with an old-fashioned hickory-splint broom he happened to have in his possession.

    This condition lasted about six weeks, when the affection seemed to leave his arms and shoulders and pass down into his hips and lower limbs, and would not permit him to remain in a state of rest; walking was the only thing that would relieve him. This metastasis of the "evil-spirit" was not suddenly complete, but moved down by spells and gradually. At first for some days he generally walked rather slow, but then he had to accelerate his gait, and sometimes walk very fast, or even run. He endeavored to stand still, but could not; he tried to remain quiet in other positions, but with worse results, cramps and pains setting in with irresistible impetuosity. Many a time he was obliged to run for two or three hours, even in the hot sun, when he did not seem to suffer, either from exhaustion or from heat. In a few instances he ran five hours at a time, still without fatigue or feeling the heat of the sun. The "thing" would not let him go, day or night. The sensation is sometimes that of cramping, sometimes simply aching, and occasionally a nervous attack that shakes him all over as if he had the ague. He dares not lie down, lest the attack becomes too severe to manage.

     One time, before the affliction became fully settled in his lower extremities, he was plowing, when the plow became fastened in a root. After making one vain attempt to free the implement he found he could hold on no longer; the position was too stationary for him; and after walking once around the team he veered off, leaving them and the plow hitched to earth. They were soon afterward taken care of by one of the sons.

    Mr. Snyder always prefers a smooth, hard surface to walk upon. A floor or pavement is preferable event to smooth, soft ground or a sawdust track. he cannot climb fences, or get over logs and rough places without great distress, much less climb or "run up" stairs, as has been falsely advertised. Could he do all things, life would not be so monotonous to him, as he could then roam about the woods, among the neighbors, and even visit the towns and witness the changing scenery.

    In the fall of 1886, the propensity to run began to diminish, since which time he has had to be dragged along by the species of locomotion very little. Yes, he eats and sleeps walking. While sleeping, he is generally supported upon the arm of some member of the family, not, however, with the aid of an apparatus, as has been rumored. He can change the garments of the upper portion of his body with comparative ease, as he can do that while walking; but he has to watch for his chances in changing those of his lower extremities. Occasionally the affection will dodge still lower down, below his knees, for a few minutes, possibly two or three times in twenty-four hours, when he can sit down and sleep, someone supporting him. Indeed, some members of the family must be with him constantly, day and night.  A few times within the last year the peculiar sensation remained below his knees twenty to forty-eight hours, during which time he assumed the sitting posture a great deal, with comparative ease; and for these and other reasons he sometimes thinks he is improving in his health. During the first four months of the present year (1887), he has been persuaded, much against his will, to attend the museums of Chicago and Indianapolis and suffer himself to be an object of exhibition; but confinement in the foul air of the rooms, and restaurant diet, characteristic of city life, has greatly diminished the general tone of his health, and he is now (May, 1887), spending a few weeks at his quiet home in the rural retreats of the back woods, to recruit his physical powers. Poor man!

    If the public could only be made to know the truth -that he cannot stop walking it would be the source of a much larger income; but his exhibitors labor under the disadvantage of not being able to give occular demonstration of the negative "cannot", and the public are not interested in simply seeing a man walk. They regard the claim, "cannot stop walking," as  an advertising dodge. Mr.  Snyder would never submit to a stage dress. "They can't get me into a monkey jacket," says he. In traveling upon railroad trains he has to be placed in the baggage car and given space to walk his accustomed rounds, which is always done turning to the right. This is due to a peculiar lameness in his left hip. Of course he must be assisted up and down the car steps. He cannot even stoop without great pain. For his feet he prefers course plow-shoes and a pair of common woolen socks. Walking on cars he had to turn so shortly, bringing undue pressure upon the region of the right foot back of the great toe, that he produced a sore, from which, however, he afterward recovered. Either from  this circumstance, or from some of his jests about "walking the soles off his feet," the rumor got out that he insanely imagined that he had several sores on his feet to be worn off by walking, and that he indulged in the peculiar propensity from mere insanity.

    Indeed, at one time he was taken to an insane asylum for treatment; but the confinement there made him worse, and the physician, soon ascertained that he was not insane, and that they could do nothing for him. Of course the disease must be wearing him out. "After all," exclaims the poor man "how willingly I would give up everything I have could I but just regain my health sufficient to enable me to lie down and take a night's good rest, as I used to!"

    Interviewing Mr. Snyder's attending physician Dr. H. C. Davison, of Hartford City, the writer could learn but little in addition to what has been related. In compliance with the request for a technical statement of the pathology of the case, he was shrewd enough to be "ignorant". All he could say was, "It is an unequal distribution of the nervous energy; it is not St. Vitus' dance. The subject is not insane, nor a monomaniac."

    In personal appearance Mr. Snyder is a man of medium weight when in health, with an innocent, passive countenance, blue eyes, heavy chin beard, receding cheek bones, and a kindly, affable manner that enlists the respect of the most cultivated.

Source: Biographical and Historical Record of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887.