California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


BENJAMIN SNOW. A skillful and thorough-going farmer and dairyman, Benjamin 
Snow, residing three miles south of Dinuba, is actively identified with the advancement and 
development of the agricultural prosperity of this section of Tulare county, and holds high 
rank among the prosperous and substantial citizens of his neighborhood. A son of Edmund 
Snow, he was born, November 13, 1847, m Scotland county, Mo., where he lived until after his 
marriage. A native of North Carolina, Edmund Snow was there reared and educated. Subse- 
quently following the tide of emigration across the Alleghanies, he came as far westward as 
Missouri, bringing with him his little family. He located first in Howard county, but soon 
removed to Scotland county, where he was engaged in tilling the soil until his death, in 1871, 
at the age of sixty-seven years. His wife, whose maiden name was Hannah Riggs, was born in 
North Carolina, and died in Missouri, in 1886, aged seventy-five years. Of the eight sons and 
three daughters born of their marriage, three sons and three daughters survive, the oldest 
daughter, Mrs. Louisa Wylie, residing in Nevada county, Cal. 

Brought up on the home farm, near Memphis, Mo., Benjamin Snow acquired his rudi- 
mentary education in the district school, and under his father's tuition early became familiar 
with the science and art of agriculture as then and there practiced. He subsequently engaged 
in farming on his own account, having eighty acres of land. In 1881, three years after his 
marriage, Mr. Snow disposed of his interests in that locality, and came with his family to 
the sunny state of California, locating on his present farm on July 5 of that year. Buying out 
a homesteader, he proved up his claim, and embarked in grain raising, in which he was quite 
successful. He continually added to the improvements on his estate, in 1889 getting the 
first ditch put through his land and that in the vicinity. That very season Mr. Snow put in his 
first crop of alfalfa, sowing eighteen acres, and since then he has levelled and checked ninety 
acres for alfalfa. In his home ranch Mr. Snow has one hundred and twenty acres, five acres of 
which is planted to fruit trees and vines, the remainder being alfalfa land, on forty-five acres 
of which he raises excellent crops by sub-irrigation only. In addition to general farming he 
carries on a profitable stock and dairy business, keeping about one hundred and eighty head of 
cattle, and a good herd of graded cows. 

In 1878, in Missouri, Mr. Snow married Mary A. Hicks, who was born in that state, a 
daughter of William Hicks. Mr. Hicks, a native of Tennessee, settled in Missouri when a 
young man. and from there, in 1881, came to Hanford, Cal., where he resided until his death, 
in 1885. Into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Snow nine children have been born, five of whom are 
living, namely : Nannie, John H., Minnie, Lillie and Bryan. A man of strong convictions, 
Mr. Snow has taken an active part in the Democratic politics of the town and county, and is 
a member of its county central committee, and one of its executive board. Mrs. Snow is a 
valued member of the Baptist Church.