For Intro to History I was tasked with going to
Forest Hills Cemetery (which is huge) and picking a random gravestone and name to write a complete biographical sketch on. After 5 hours spent in the local library with microfilms and dusty records, a few hours online, and 3 hours of writing, I have finally finished. And I must just say that this has been one of the most rewarding projects of my life. I have been reaffirmed and comforted and excited in my choice to be a History major. So without further ado, the life of David L. Snodgrass as researched and compiled by Samantha Moreland:
David Lafayette
Snodgrass (1851-1917)
Thomas
Snodgrass married Elizabeth (Eliza) Jane Evans on July 8th 1847 in
White County, TN. Thomas was 25 and Eliza was 14 years old. Three years later
they had their first child, Sevier (named after Eliza’s father). The year after
that David Lafayette Snodgrass was born unto them. David would eventually have
a total of 10 siblings. Thomas was a legal representative before the Civil War
broke out and remained a Union sympathizer even though he and his new family
lived in Sparta, Tennessee throughout the war. His brother was a captain in the
Confederate army and Thomas operated a large cotton factory, practiced law and
medicine, and sold goods in the town of Sparta. Thomas liberated the slaves he
owned and was a supporter of ending slavery. Eliza was the daughter of Colonel
Sevier Evans who fought in the War of 1812. Their family was well known and
wealthy. They continued having children and eventually had eleven. After Sevier
and David there were, NV (born 1853), Mary (born 1855), William (born 1857),
Martha (born 1859), Susan (born 1861, the year Tennessee seceded), Edward (born
1865, the year Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox), Annie (born 1868),
Thomas (born 1870), and James (born 1873). The 1880 census shows that their
family was wealthy because it lists a widowed servant, Susan Hassler, and her 2
year old son. Eliza did not work, but kept house.
David grew up in Sparta with
his family and was 10 years old at the start of the Civil War. At the age of 13
the Battle of Dug Hill was fought just 10 miles from his Sparta home. His
father was well known and intelligent, a doctor and legislature, and so it is
only nature that David would follow in his footsteps. In 1870 he was a law
student living at home, most likely attending an academic academy in Sparta,
and then traveling to the University of Tennessee. The census listed his
father’s personal estate value at $1500, his mother’s at $800, and David and
Sevier’s at $600 each. He passed the bar exam in 1872, at the age of 21. At age
23 he married Eleanora Defrees (age 25) in White County on October 6, 1874. Eleanora
had been previously married to Edwin A Defrees (married November 11, 1869). Their
first son, James, was born four years later in 1878. This same year David’s
family moved from Sparta, TN to Crossville, TN. In 1879 David ran and was
elected as a White County representative in the state legislature on a “low tax”
democratic platform. A.S. Marks was the governor of Tennessee at the time. This
year of great joy was rattled by the tragedy of his sister, Susan, dying at the
early age of 18. The next year, 1880, he was re-elected as a representative and
his first daughter, Annie, was born; her brother James was 7 years old at the
time.
In 1883 his political career
leapt to new heights when David was appointed by the Supreme Court of Tennessee
to membership in the newly created court of referees. He served on the
Commission of Referees from 1883 to 1885. In 1886 David was elected to the
Supreme Court. This same year, on November 18, his wife Eleanora dies at the age
of 36. She is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery, Chattanooga, TN.
On March 4, 1889, David
Snodgrass marries Miss Blanche Fouche in Jackson in Madison County. Blanche’s
nickname was Bonnie and when she married David she was 25 and he was 38.
Blanche was born in Grantville Georgia on September 20, 1864. She was the
daughter of Morton Fouche and Adolpha
Pratt and had French ancestry. In 1890 they had a daughter and named her
Dorthea. Another daughter named Blanche followed in 1891. In 1894, David was
elected as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. In 1895 he made
local newspapers after being involved in a violent act against an attorney in
an office in the Times building. On December 16th in the law offices
of Brown and Spurlock in Chattanooga, Chief Justice Snodgrass came calling and
was met by Colonel John R. Beasley. Beasley had written an article in the Chattanooga
Times about the Chief Justice in a bad light and Chief Justice Snodgrass
accused him of lying. According to witnesses and the papers published at the
time, Col. Beasley reached toward his gun, and David shot twice with his own
pistol. David’s second shot grazed Beasley’s left arm and wounded him.
Snodgrass was charged and served with a warrant. He was released after being
found not armed (he had disposed of the gun) and Beasley was treated by
doctors. In 1896 David L. Snodgrass, Jr. was born. In 1898, Blanche’s father,
Morton Fouche dies.
The 1900 United States census
records Blanche and David as having been married for 11 years, and that Annie
(age 20), James (age 18), Dorthea (age 10), and Blanche (age 9) live in the
household. In 1900, David was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States
Senate. He served as the Chief Justice until 1902. After retiring, David opened
a law firm with his friend T.C. Latimore. They practiced law together because it
was their lifelong interest and passion. In 1909 David was a circuit clerk at a
courthouse. The last statement on a civil case that David made was about the
Leo Frank case. Leo Frank was a white Jewish man convicted of murdering 13 year
old Mary Phagan. He was put in prison but a mob stormed the prison and lynched
him. In Marietta, GA on August 17, 1915 he was lynched. David Snodgrass
predicted that a mob would murder him for his heinous crime and he was right.
David Lafayette Snodgrass died
at age 66 on October 11, 1917 after a 6 year illness. He died in his son, David
Jr.’s, home on East 4th street at midnight. It made the headlines of
page 3 in the Times on the 11th and was a great tragedy in the city
of Chattanooga. His obituary said of him that he had an “alert mind and
positive character.” The funeral was officiated by Dr. Bachman. His 6 children
are listed as survivors (D.L. Jr., James H, Mrs. T.O. Trotter, Mrs. W.H.
Dewitt, Mrs. Oscar Spears – Blanche, and Mrs. Dorthea Townsend). David was
buried in Forest Hills Cemetery next to his first wife, Eleanora. His tombstone
reads, “SNODGRASS / David L. Snodgrass 1851-1917 / Wife Eleanora 1849 – 1886). He
was survived by his wife, Blanche. Blanche would live until she was 79, and die
at her home of 55 years on January 14, 1944. Blanche was survived by two
grandsons that were both United States Army Retired. Her funeral was private
and family only, and she laid to rest in the family mausoleum with her father
and mother at Forest Hills Cemetery, Chattanooga, TN.
On the bank of the Little Miami River sits an unimposing little dwelling. It is the Loveland Castle, the road down to which is almost as bad as the W road of Signal Mountain. Hannah and I made our way there around noon this Saturday. After we had payed our $3 to explore the castle and the grounds, the odd man at the desk told us a little about Sir Harry Andrews who built the castle. The website has this great information about Harry: 
