Morgan County GaArchives Biographies.....Snellings, John Anderson March 24, 1857 - January 6, 1917
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Bill Hansford wchansford@aol.com October 29, 2005, 10:56 pm

Author: A Neighbor

TRIBUTE TO A GOOD MAN           Published January 1917. Bostwick, Georgia

Mr. John Anderson Snellings was born March 24, 1857, and died January 6, 1917. 
He was the son of Mr. Madison Branch Snellings and Mrs. Nancy A. McIntosh 
Snellings.

Mr. Branch Snellings' father was one of two brothers who came to Georgia from 
Virginia. Mr. Branch Snellings' father settled in Morgan County, on the road 
from Athens, near Rehobath. The other brother settled in Elbert County.

The site on which Rehobath church now stands was donated to the Methodist by 
Mr. John A. Snellings' grandfather.

At the time of her marriage Miss Nancy A. McIntosh was an orphan and lived in 
Madison.

Mr. Branch Snellings made his home in Morgan County, having as his nearest 
neighbors, Dr. L. G. Anderson and Mr. T. L. Nolan. He was highly esteemed by 
his community and generally known as Judge Snellings, a title he sustainded 
with dignity of older days.

When the writer first met Mr. John Snellings, his mother and three sisters he 
was affectionately called "Reb" by his friends, because of the Confederate 
cognomer of "Johnny Reb" and "Reb" he continued to be to the inner circle of 
friends and family.

A young man of handsome appearance and genial winning manners; he had many 
friends and no wonder that when he sought the hand of Miss Lizzie Nolan in 
marriage, she did not say nay, and their marriage was consumated December 19, 
1886.

Miss Nolan was the youngest daughter of Mr. T. L. Nolan and Mrs. Matilda 
Bostwick Nolan.

Full of vivacity, which sparkled in his brown eyes and found expression in 
animated conversation and quick repartee, he was the life of the home of his 
widowed mother to whom he was a loyal devoted son.

He continued to make his home with his mother until her death when he moved to 
Bostwick and built the home now occupied by his family. His family consists of 
his wife, four daughters, Misses Neva, Florice, Roselle, and Velna Elizabeth, 
and three sons, Roy Nolan, John A. Jr., and Donald. The second son, Thomas 
Branch, died at the age of three years.

One of Mr. Snellings most striking characteristics was his love of home. Truly 
to him there was no place like home,  and no home-builder ever loved more to 
improve and beautify his surroundings than he. No man was ever more loyal to 
his conception of duty to home and family, more industrious in the discharge of 
that duty than he.

The few occasions upon which he left his family and home found him always 
hastening thither to return when the business which took him away was finished, 
and his going away now is the most heart-breaking sorrow that could ocme to 
those he leaves behind.

"Lead, Kindly Light, Amid the Encircling Gloom."

Mr. Snellings was a Mason who discharged the highest offices of his order 
worthily and well, a citizen  ever ready to serve his community, county, state, 
and country. He held many positions of trust and discharged all obligtion with 
ability.

He was trustee of the Methodist Church and the Bostwick High School. Had it not 
been for his business foresight the deeds to the church property would have 
been lost.

The last evening of his life he attended a meeting of the school trustees and 
as chairman of the body was most actively interested in the business transacted.

He was remarkable for his willingness to help his neighbors in their hour of 
affliction or bereavment and many are those who remember gratefully his 
kindness. His family, his Masonic Lodge, his community, his country will miss 
him.

Those in touch with his inner life, know him to have been charitable in his 
judgments, forgiving toward all, Christian in spirit. There was no such as 
comes to so many after they have met the disappointments of life.

Not quite a year ago serious illness came to him and from that time he suffered 
much, but bore his pain heroically, though knowing the days of his life woud be 
few.

The morning of January 6, he left home with Mr. Copeland to attend to a matter 
of business and in passing Mr. Matt Nunnally's responded to his inquiries after 
his health saying that he felt very well indeed.

And just beyond, near Rock Springs church, silence fell upon him, his head 
bowed, and his spirit returned unto God who gave it. 

Thus wrapped about by the sunshine, lulled by the wind's soft whispers of 
eternal life to the sentinel pines, out in the open he so dearly love, from the 
finite into the infinite he passed.

Amid a large gathering of white and colored friends, the burial took place 
January 8, 1917. Rev. Jordan, paster of the Methodist church read the 90th 
Psalm and made a fervent prayer followd by an impressive sermon. 

After the singing of "In the Sweeet By and By" and "Gathering Home" by a 
quartette of male voices the Masons took up the srvices.

Rev. W.E.Ivy of Walton County, who is a Baptist minister and Mason, spoke with 
feeling and eloquence of Mr. Snellings character as a Mason and man. The burial 
was concluded with the beautiful symbolism of Masonary and he was laid to rest 
where the sunshine fell upon his grave and the frgance of the flowers breathed 
of God who giveth his beloved sleep. 





Additional Comments:
Mr. Branch Snellings parents were Alexander and Virginia (Mann) Snellings who 
were married in Chesterfield County, Virginia in 1807 and removed to Morgan 
County, Georgia in 1808. Madison Branch Snellings was born in Rehobathville in 
1810 and was named for his maternal grandfather, Branch E. Mann. It may have 
been John's father who gave the land for the Methodist church as there is a 
deed in Morgan County "Madison Branch Snellings to the Methodist church." 
John's mother was married 1851 in Madison, Georgia, in the home of her mother, 
Sarah (Cartwright) McIntosh; Daniel McIntosh,her father died in 1836. John's 
mother died in 1899 and soon after he built his home in Bostwick. Every attempt 
has been made to locate a photograph of the house as it was said to be 
beautiful, a large victorian house with detailed millwork, and was located next 
to the Methodist church where the present methodist parsonage now stands. The 
house burned. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Nolan Snellings studied music at the Atlanta 
Conservatory of Music and taught piano, voice, violin, and organ in her home at 
Bostwick. John was named Anderson in honor of his parents neighbor, Dr. 
Anderson. His daghter, Florice (Ms. Lawrence Stokes, married to Lawrence Stokes 
of Madison),  said that when the northern troops occupied Bostwick in the civil 
war they used the Branch Snellings house as headquarters. She said the troops 
in no way harmed the family and played with her father calling him "Reb" and 
that remained with him for life. One of John's daughters married Carter Tate 
Barron for whom the Carter Barron amphitheater in Washington D.C. is named. 
Both John and Lizzie Snellings are buried in the enclosed Nolan lot in the 
Bostwick cemetery located directly in front of where their house once stool. 
Judge Branch Snellings had been Justice of the Inferior Court of Morgan County.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/morgan/bios/snelling73nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/gafiles/

File size: 7.7 Kb