NOTE: The following was a typewritten copy of the newspaper obituary for Judge John Snow. The author, Thomas N. Davis, is listed in the Encyclopedia of Mississippi History as one of the prominent citizens "in the early days" of Webster County and also an early county representative in the legislature, as well as the board of supervisors mentioned below. Webster was formed from Choctaw County.

Ira Noel Snow, a grandson, added the heading and penned a note in the margin that said, "I had an outstanding paternal grandfather. He died before I was born. From a Mississippi paper, 1885."

Someone gave a copy to Marie Hoover Brantner with this additional note, "Marie - this was your grandmother Embry's father - your great grandfather. This wife (fifth wife, Miss Harvey, was circled) was your great grandmother."

Judge John Snow and Elizabeth Harvey are the parents of Cora Ophelia Snow, wife of William Alexander Embry, who are my great grandparents.

Webster County was established April 6, 1874, under the name of Sumner county. Its name was changed to Webster by act of Jan. 30, 1889, in honor of the great statesman Daniel Webster. It is carved from Choctaw county, the part north of the Big Black River, and from part of Montgomery County. Greensboro was the original seat of Choctaw County. It lay in the portion of Choctaw that became Webster County. Greesnboro is no more, and Walthall is the seat of Webster County.

C.R.B.

OBITUARY OF MY GRANDFATHER SNOW (by NOEL SNOW)

Died at his residence in this county near Embry on the sixth of June 1885 Judge John Snow age seventy-five years. The deceased came to this, then Choctaw County, in the fall of 1835, and in November 1835 was elected clerk of the Circuit Court of the county, an office which he voluntary declined a re-election, while he was elected Mayor of Greensboro, then a very important office which gave him concurrent jurisdiction with other justices of the peace all over the county.

He was also, during the time he was Circuit Clerk, Postmaster of Greensboro. These two latter offices being incompatible with that of Circuit Clerk, he was afterwards in 1851 elected to the office of Judge of Probate Court which he held four years.

After the War he served two years as a member of the board of supervisors when it was composed of such men as A. G. Young, T. N. Ross, Rev. T. W. Castle and the writer hereof. He discharged the duties of every office he ever held with ability and to the entire satisfaction of those who elected him.

Judge Snow had been married five times. His first wife he married in Alabama. He had three children by her. His second, third, fourth, and fifth wives he married in Choctaw County. His second wife was a Mrs. Leggit, a daughter of Dempy Davis. His third wife was a Miss Miller. By neither his second nor his third wife did he have any children. His fourth wife was a Miss Berryhill and a daughter of the late Samuel Berryhill by whom he had several children. His fifth wife was the daughter of the late Thomas Harvey. She still survives him. He had several children by her.

In politics the deceased was a Democrat until the celebrated contest between Foote and Davis for Governor when the main issue among them was union or secession. Being a devoted union man he voted for Foote. He was opposed to secession but when the State seceded he went out with it, being a devoted Southern man - none more so. May he rest in peace.

Thomas N. Davis