Thomas B. Snowden

Biography:

The Reverend Thomas B. Snowden, born on October 12, 1843, in Westminster, Maryland, was the tenth of fourteen children. The child of Rev. John Baptist and Margaret (Coone) Snowden, after Thomas had received as much formal education as he could get during those days, he worked as a farmhand on neighboring farms. He learned the skills of masonry and carpentry. He borrowed books from his white friends to learn as much as he could.

Following the Civil War, he obtained permission from his parents and walked to Washington DC to enroll in the newly-opened Howard as a high-school freshman. He worked various jobs during the day, caring for horses and cleaning outhouses. He worked this way for four years, and entered Howard as a college freshman in 1873. Thomas studied education, in order to become a teacher to other African Americans. He obtained his college degree in 1877.

Thomas returned to Westminster, and worked as a farmhand, bricklayer and carpenter to save up money to go to Boston University. He walked to Baltimore and took the train to Boston, one of the few African Americans in his class. He graduated in 1881, the second in his class, with a degree in theology.

Reverend Snowden’s first job was with the Centenary Biblical Institute, now Morgan State University, in

Baltimore, Maryland.

In 1887, Rev. Snowden entered the active ministry with the Washington Conference of the Methodist Epis-

copal Church. An early assignment was in Appleton, Maryland, where he found Mrs. Carrie Dorsey, a former student and now a widow, in his congregation. She was working as a teacher. They married in 1896.

They had 11 children as they moved about West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia in his ministry. In 1913, he retired and bought a home in Laurel, Maryland. On Christmas Eve 1918, he suffered an asthmas attack and passed away in Washington DC.

Rev. Thomas B. Snowden was returned to Westminster, and buried near his parents in Ellsworth Cemetery, in an unmarked grave.

We are much indebted to his grandson, Houston Snowden, who wrote a book, “From Whence Cometh” in 1980, for details about Rev. Thomas Snowden’s life.