Snow, Richard P.

Born: 1821-XX-XX New York

Died: 1897-02-14 Council Bluffs, Iowa

Flourished: 1848 to 1853 Sangamon County, Illinois

Richard P. Snow, merchant, was in Illinois by the time of his first marriage to Allah (Allahly) Ann Buckley in Tazewell County in 1842. Following her death, he married Medora E. Tabor in Sangamon County in 1848, and by the early 1850s he was working in the mercantile line in Springfield. Both of Snow’s marriages produced children. He partnered in a series of firms in Springfield, including Snow, Hill & Company with James L. Hill and John B. Moffett, which was succeeded on its dissolution in February of 1850 by the firm of Snow & Hill. Later that same year Hill sold his interest in the business to Isaac Keys and the firm became Snow & Keys. The partnership of Snow & Keys encountered Abraham Lincoln in Sangamon County Circuit Court in lawsuits over debts. In 1853 Snow and Keys dissolved their partnership and Snow moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa. He continued his mercantile career there in various roles, including as an auctioneer, commission merchant, and wholesale and retail dry goods dealer. Snow partnered for a time with Marshall Turley as the auction and commission firm of Snow & Turley. He was elected to the first city council of Council Bluffs in 1855. The following year Snow was involved in a violent dispute over a property claim in Elkhorn, Nebraska Territory, during which his father-in-law reputedly shot and killed Snow’s assailant. At the time of the 1860 census, Snow owned real estate valued at $5,000 and possessed $5,000 in personal property.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Tazewell County, 24 March 1842; Sangamon County, 21 November 1848, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 122; Daily Register (Springfield, IL), 11 February 1850, 2:4; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 10 September 1850, 3:1; 15 February 1853, 3:1; For legal cases involving Lincoln, search Participant, “Snow & Keys,” Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org; Council Bluffs Bugle (IA), 12 January 1855, 1:4; History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1883), 50, 210; Homer H. Field and Joseph R. Reed, History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1907), 1:25-26, 30; Rock Island Weekly Advertiser (IL), 19 March 1856, 2:6; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, IA, 39; Weekly Council Bluffs Bugle (IA), 29 February 1860, 2:3; Evening World-Herald (Omaha, NE), 15 February 1897, 3:2; Gravestone, Fairview Cemetery, Council Bluffs, IA.