Industrious, enterprising and progressive, and possessing the energy and ability that ever commands success in life, John Snodsmith is prominently associated with the advancement of the financial interests of Jefferson county, being cashier of the Belle Rive Banking Company, of Belle Rive, which was organized in June, 1910, by local and Mount Vernon capitalists, in connection with the Third National Bank of Mount Vernon. This company is capitalized at twelve thousand dollars, of which five thousand eight hundred dollars is paid in, and gives four per cent interests on time deposits, while its individual liabilities amount to a million dollars. Its officers are all men of ability and integrity, being as follows: President, F. E. Patton, of Mount Vernon; vice-president, A. Knowles, of Belle Rive; cashier, John Snodsmith, of Belle Rive; while its directors are F. E. Patton, George A. Cross, L. L. Emmerson, R. B. Kern, Kirby Smith. A. Knowles, W. F. Carpenter, E. B. O. Dayton, T. J. DeWill, George H. Batka and Henry Puckett.

John Snodsmith was born on a farm in Morris Prairie township, Jefferson county, Illinois, September 28, 1866, of German ancestry. His father, John Snodsmith, Sr., a native of Germany, immigrated to this country when very young, and after living in Saint Louis, Missouri, located on a farm in Jefferson county, Illinois. Energetic and thrifty, he succeeded in his agricultural labors, and at the time of his death, in 1885, owned a whole section of land, six hundred and forty acres.

During the Civil war he served his adopted country as a soldier, enlisting in Company E, Thirty-first Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, in which he served nine months and six days.

He married, in Saint Louis, Missouri, Eliza Thoensing, a native of Germany, and of their seven children two died in infancy, and the five that grew to years of maturity are as follows:

1. Mrs. Carrie Maxey, a widow, living in Mount Vernon;
2. Henry H., a farmer;
3. Adolphus, also a farmer;
4. Charles Augustus, deceased; and
5. John, of this sketch.

Brought up on the home farm John Snodsmith attended the rural schools of his district, after which he completed a course in bookkeeping in Lexington, Kentucky, later continuing his studies at both the Ewing College and the Valparaiso College. Fitted for a professional career, Mr. Snodsmith taught school five terms in Jefferson county, commencing when he was twenty years old. He has since followed farming most successfully, and in addition to owning one hundred and thirty acres of the parental homestead, having purchased in the summer of 1911 a farm of seventy-six acres in Morris Prairie township.

He is now devoting his energies to his duties as cashier of the Belle Rive Banking Company, a position for which he is eminently qualified, and which he is filling most acceptably to all concerned. Taking an active interest in political affairs, Mr. Snodsmith is an ardent supporter of the principles of the Democratic party. He served as assessor of Morris Prairie township three terms, and for one term was school trustee. Fraternally he is a member of Belle Rive Lodge, No. 992, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and religiously he is a member of the Missionary Baptist church.

Mr. Snodsmith married, in 1891, Ollie Jane Smith, daughter of Benjamin Smith, of Spring Garden township, Jefferson county, and they have one child, Juanita Jean, born October 7, 1897.

Source: History of Southern Illinois George Washington Smith, M. A. VOLUME I - III ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1912 Page 1529 - 1530
Submitted by Robert W. Loman