William Snowden was born to Henry A. and Hettie Rebecca Johnson Kirkland in Dale County, Alabama. Henry, a private in the Confederate Army, was killed at Petersburg, Virginia on 28 October 1864 and buried in a mass grave, probably in Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg City, Virginia, and the burial site of approximately 30,000 unknown CSA soldiers. Rebecca never remarried and raised her four sons alone. Snowden who was the oldest farmed for a living. On 13 January 1879 he married Miss Harriet R. Beard in Henry County, Alabama at the home of his grandmother, Sarah Kirkland, widow of Benjamin H. Kirkland. A note at the bottom of the marriage license reads "I hereby certify upon oath that Wm. S. Kirkland & Harriet R. Beard are both over twenty one years of age and that neither has ever been married. January 13th 1879. S. S. Kirkland (signed). It is uncertain who S. S. Kirkland was unless it was Snowden's grandmother, Sarah. The statement that they were both over 21 was true because Snowden was about 23 and Harriet was about 32, nine years older than Snowden. But whether or not Harriet had ever been married before is open to question. This is because on the 1880 census which gives Snowden's age as 24 and Harriet's as 30, there is also a daughter, Gussie, whose age of 10 places her birth before Snowden married her mother. It is unlikely she was Snowden's daughter because he would have been 14 when she was born. On the 1920 census, Snowden and Harriet are in the household of Clayton Kirkland. Snowden, age 68 is listed as Step-grandfather, and Harriet, age 73 is listed as Grandmother. The census information seems inconsistent with the claim in the marriage license regarding Harriet's marital status unless she had a child out of wed lock. Their residence on the 1920 census was Hokes Bluff, Geneva County, Alabama. When Snowden died 7 years later on 7 September 1927, his place of death was listed as Midway, Holmes County, Florida. Midway is where Midway United Methodist Church is located in Holmes County just a few miles south-west of Geneva, and he may have been living with one of his many Kirkland relatives who resided there. Possibly, Harriet, who would have been 80 in 1927, had previously died but no record of her death has been found. Snowden's burial was on 8 September, the day after he died. He and Harriet are buried at Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church Cemetery in Fadette, a little community located south of Geneva and a few miles north-east of Midway. A relative of Snowden's whose name was identical to his is buried at Kirklands Cemetery in Henry County, Find A Grave mem #30177225. This info is provided to avoid confusion between the two of them.

Sam Carnley
12 October 2017