Rebecca Snyder (maiden name: Eckley) was born around 1825 in Pennsylvania to John and Ann Eckley. She married Barnett Snyder in the early 1840s, and they had at least six children: Julia, born around 1845; Isaac, born around 1849; Franklin, born around 1854; Matthew, born around 1856; Hannah, born around 1859; and Frances, born around 1862. They settled in Lower Dublin, Pennsylvania, which became part of Philadelphia in 1854. Her husband worked as a day laborer, and by 1850, they owned $600 of real estate.
A decade later, they owned $100 of personal property. Barnett enlisted in the Union army in September 1862, and he died in a Confederate prison camp in December 1864. Rebecca applied for a widow’s pension in April 1865 and secured one soon afterward. She remained in Philadelphia and continued to raise her children on her own. She died there of a cerebral hemorrhage on October 31, 1913.