The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1883-09-19
JUDGE j. L. T. sNEED.
Biographical Sketch From a
North Carolina Paper.

! following brief pen picture OF Judg
Sneed will be read with interest an
pleasure In all parts of TENNESSEE
and wherever this popular and gift
ed man is known:
Among all the Carolina men VIII
have become distinguished in othe
States, there is not one more deserv
ing of mention than Judge Jno. /
Il. Sneed, now living near Memphis
Tenn. A prominent Tennesseal
says of him that "there is no offic
of honor in the gift of the State o
Tennessee which he cannot hav'
for the asking" He was born il
Raleigh, N. c., May II, 1922, in The
house Of his grandfather, Hon. Johr
Louis Taylor, at one time Chief JUS
tice of North Carolina, after whom
Judge Sneed is named. He is de
scended from noble stock, sucf
names as Hon. Matthew Rowan anC
Judge CASTOR appearing among
those of his maternal connections
His fathers ancestors came from
Derbyshire, England, first settled in
Virginia and soon after removed to
Granville county, N. g., where they
were highly esteemed as excellent
citizens and prosperous business
! men. Major Junius Sneed, the
father of the subject of our sketch,
was for a long time Cashier of the
State Bank of Salisbury. Judge
Sneed's mother died when he was
quite a child, and he was taken in
charge and educated by his uncle,
the late Stephen X. Sneed, then liv-
ing in Granville county, n. c., but
who soon afterwards removed to
West Tennessee. Hereyoung Sneed,
after receiving an academic eduea-
ton, began the study Of law in the
office of Hon. V. ID. Barry. In 1S43
be settled in Memphis for the prac-
tice of his profession, and two years
later he was elected to the General
Assembly of Tennesseesby the peo-
pie Of Shelby county. In 1846-47
he was a Captain of Volunteers in
the Mexican war, and served with
distinction. Immediately after the
close Of the war he was married to
Miss Mary Ashe Shepherd, former
ly of Orange county, N. c., a daugh-
ter of Col. William Shepherd, and a
grandniece of the late Judge John
Haywood Mrs. Sneed is related to
the Ashos of North Carolina. In
1851 Judge Sneed was elected by
the Legislature Attorney General of
the Memphis judicial district, which
he resigned three years later 10 be-
come candidate for the position of
Attorney General of the State of
Tennessee, to which office he was
elected by a large majority. The
five volumes Of Sneed's Reports at
test the fact that he held the office
for five years. We next find him a
candidate for Congress on the Wing
ticket, but it was a futile race from
the start, for the Democratic party
was overwhelmingly in the majori-
ty in his district. He made a good
run, however, and though beaten,
his opponents majority was COM
paratively quite small. When the
war came on he was found right
where he belonged-on the South
ern side. He was appointed with
Cheatham, Zollicoffer and others a
Brigadier General of the Provision.
al Army of Tennessee, and organic
ed splendid brigade; but notwith-
standing that the Governor, mem
bers of the General Assembly of
Tennessee, and officers of the brig
ade, made it personal request of
President Davis to continue him in
the command, he was not given a
commission.
Nothing daunted, and determined
10 serve his country regardless of
favoriteism or neglect, he entered
General Johnston's army as a pri-
vate, and was with him near Vicks-
burg when he was contemplating
the rescue of Pemberton's army,
then besieged by Grant, when he
received a dispatch summoning him
to Georgia, having been appointed
by Governor Harris a commissioner
to settle the affairs of Tennessee
with the Confederacy, and also to
settle the accounts of the Paymaster
General and Quartermaster General
of the Provisional Army of Tennes-
see. He was engaged in this work
when she war closed, and he then
went back to Memphis and began
again the practice of law. His pee-
pie, however, had tried him and
finding him faithful they were not
willing that he should remain a pri-
vate citizen, for the records show
that in 1870 he was again elected to
office and this time to the high and
honorable one of Judge of the Su-
premo Court, position which he
held eight years. He afterward ac-
cepted the position Of Judge of the
Court of Arbitration rendered him
by Governor Marks. This was a
court erected to aid the Supreme
Court in working off it's immense
docket. In 1880 he was made elec-
tor for the State at large on the
Hancock ticket and last year he
was elected q Vice President of the
American Bar Association at Sara
toga. In 1888 he was appointed
one of the Judges of the Court of
Referees, a tribunal created for the
same purpose as the Court of Arbi
tration. This position he now holds,
with his seat ofjudgment at Knox
vile. - 8d
it will be seen that Judge Sneed
was the recipient Of almost continu
GUS hours at the hands of his peop-
lie, and yet strange to say, he never
yet sought political advancement.
In his case it is literally true that
the office sought the man, and not
the man the Office. He is = very
\ l.