Jamaica's history - always something new to find out!
  • home
    • start here >
      • links
      • about me
      • my blog >
        • comments
      • another blog
      • facebook page
      • just something special
    • my articles >
      • Sam Sharpe - a note 1831
      • PKB Memorial Fund
      • Mrs Seacole & Queen Emma
      • 1891 Exhibition
      • All but unique: H. A. Joseph
      • Three Historic Buildings
      • Andrew Bogle
      • Jamaican politics 1866-1920
  • people
    • - 'ordinary' people >
      • 'extraordinary' lives >
        • Marie Francis
        • William Henry Hinson
        • James H Blackwood >
          • teacher
          • politician
          • bee-farmer
          • Human Rights activist
    • remarkable families >
      • family of C E Moody >
        • Harold Moody
        • Elise Moody
        • Charles Aston Moody
        • Ludlow Moody
        • Ronald Moody
        • Locksley Moody
      • family of R M Nicholas
      • family of C A D Phang >
        • Rosalind
        • May
        • Hilda
      • family of H B Phillips
      • family of A T Stewart
    • in the churches >
      • George Fox and early Friends >
        • 1692 and beyond
      • Rev. S. J. Washington
      • Rev. W. Theo Bailey
      • Rev. E. E. Brown
      • Rev. I. N. D. Gordon
      • Rev. J. J. Fuller
      • Church of England >
        • Rev. Francis Humberstone
        • Rev. J. M. Trew
        • Edward Maunde Thompson
        • Rev. R. Gordon
        • Rev Dr Hugh Croskery
        • Rev. T. Banbury
        • Rev. R. O. Taylor
        • Rev. H. L. Phillips >
          • as an Episcopalian priest
        • Rev. C. C. Douce
        • Rev. A. Cole
        • A. L. "Teacher" Walcott
        • Rev. and Mrs W. A. Burris
        • Rev. W. L. Brown
      • the Moravians >
        • Rev. W. V. Moses
    • in education >
      • brief lives >
        • Thomas Terence Sherlock
      • Francis Williams
      • ~ Woodlawn 1896
      • Matthew Josephs
      • T. B. Stephenson
      • Robert Lindsay
      • W Thomas Linton
      • S. C. Thompson
      • W. H. Plant
      • Sigismund C. Walker
      • Thomas I. Brown
      • E. Luther Brookes
    • in legal professions >
      • Peter Moncrieffe
      • J. T. Palache
      • A. A. Fleming
      • H. R. Walters
      • H. A. Joseph
      • M. H. Spencer Joseph
      • J. L. King
    • in medical professions >
      • - doctors >
        • Sampson Altman
        • J. J. Edwards
        • A. J. Thomas
        • R. M. Stimpson
        • E. C. Kinkead
        • E. V. Smith
        • T. A. Dryden
        • Cicely Williams
        • Roderick Atkinson
        • - in the U.S.A. >
          • Simeon I. Battiste
          • David Newton Emanuel Campbell >
            • portable window fire-escape ladder
          • A. E. Forsyth
      • - dentists >
        • Pedro Pompey
        • A. T. Cooper
        • E. E. Clark
        • J. H. Nicholson
      • - dispensers >
        • Anthan F Berry
        • Charles E Moody
      • - nurses
      • - psychiatrists
    • in politics & public affairs >
      • early Black politicians [slideshow]
      • Edward Jordon
      • Jim Russell >
        • the 'Great War'
      • Colonel George Hicks
      • Samuel Page Smeeton
    • in business >
      • drogher/droguer women
      • Edward Vickars
      • Charles Phillip Lazarus >
        • Charles Philip Lazarus remembered
        • foundry >
          • - 'City of Kingston'
          • - Jamaica Cycle Company
        • building contracts
        • politics and public affairs >
          • 1909 Party of Progress
      • J. H. & J. O. Milke
      • beekeepers >
        • Hill/Darwin correspondence
      • Robert Mitchell Nicholas
      • Joseph Milward Gordon >
        • Gall's News Letter 1890
      • John Cassis
      • Jacob Hume Stewart
      • Christopher L Barnes
      • Ernest Clarke
      • Lance E. Drysdale
    • on the land >
      • John S. Levy
    • in sports >
      • athletics >
        • Alfred Reynolds Downer >
          • education
          • athletics career >
            • - amateur
            • - professional
          • . . . but after that
      • boxing
      • chess >
        • Arthur Ford Mackenzie >
          • tributes
      • cricket >
        • J. K. Holt, snr
        • S C Snow
        • O. C. 'Tommy' Scott
      • cycling >
        • Johnnie Weir
        • A. A. "Bill" Johnson
        • Washington 'Teacher' Battiste
      • football
      • horse racing
      • tennis
    • Maroons in Jamaica >
      • Gleaner references
      • 1796 Richard Brinsley Sheridan
      • 1802 Maria, Lady Nugent
      • 1836 Popular Encyclopedia
      • 1844 Edwin Tregellies
      • 1844 Philip Henry Gosse
      • 1859 Richard Hill
      • 1860 Atlantic Monthly
      • 1862 Edward Cust
      • 1865 Col. Fyfe
      • 1865 Once a Week
      • 1866 Charles Town Maroons
      • 1867 Trip to the Tropics
      • 1890 Historical Geography
      • 1898 New York Tribune
      • 1898 Edith, Lady Blake
      • my articles: >
        • 1996 'Trouble with the Maroons'
        • 2001 'A brave and loyal people'
    • . . . some more Jamaicans
    • and even more
  • places
    • Kingston & St Andrew >
      • various places >
        • Knutsford Pen
      • street corner cannons
      • the Old H-W-T Courthouse >
        • four 18th century houses >
          • Hibbert House >
            • Hibbert House - over time
          • Constantine House
          • Bull House >
            • Peter Blaise Desnoes
            • North Street Villa
          • Harmony Hall
        • 19th century
      • Kingston Market
      • Kingston Race Course >
        • Pratter's/Prater's Pond
      • Retreat Pen >
        • Peter Alexander Espeut >
          • P A Espeut interview
      • Waireka >
        • a trip to 'Wareka' 1896
      • Park Lodge >
        • Susan and Mary Burton >
          • Mount Mansfield
      • Date Tree Hall >
        • Blundell/Blundle Hall
        • Barkly/Clarendon Hall
      • the Parade >
        • - the Church
        • - Barracks
        • - Theatre
        • - Coke Chapel
        • - other buildings
        • Parade Gardens
      • Harbour Street >
        • The Treasury >
          • the Treasury clock
        • Streadwick's Marine Gardens
        • Breezy Castle
      • Up Park Camp
      • Admiral's Pen
      • Rockford Gardens
      • "Babbin's" Church
    • other parishes >
      • Old Harbour
      • Bog Walk Gorge
      • Fern Gully
      • Moneague Lakes
      • Colbeck Castle
      • Blue Mountain Estate
    • Botanical Gardens >
      • Wallen's Cold Spring
  • institutions
    • education >
      • elementary & all-age schools >
        • West Branch
        • Miss Knibb's School, Falmouth
      • secondary schools >
        • Collegiate School >
          • 1850s & '60s
          • 1870s
          • 1880s
          • 1890s
          • 1900 & after
          • headmasters
          • alumni
          • cricket
        • Potsdam
        • York Castle
        • Mary Villa College
        • Kingston High School for Girls
        • Kingston Technical High School
      • tertiary institutions >
        • 'the Mico'
        • Montego Bay Academy
        • University College
        • Kingston Commercial College
    • culture >
      • Victoria Institute >
        • - 'Victoria Quarterly'
    • sport >
      • athletics
      • boxing
      • cricket >
        • Kingston Cricket Club
        • Clovelly Cricket Club
      • cycling
      • football
      • golf
      • horse racing
      • tennis
    • security >
      • constabulary
      • West India Regiments
  • the arts
    • theatre >
      • Kingston's theatres >
        • Kingston Theatre
        • Theatre Royal
        • new Theatre Royal
        • Aaron Mendes Sollas >
          • Joshua A M Sollas
          • the Sollas family in Jamaica
      • actors & actresses >
        • Rudolph De Cordova
      • the comic tradition >
        • the Murray family >
          • H. G. Murray
          • A. C. Murray
          • W. C. Murray
          • legacy
          • Dr R. O. Murray
        • Lionel Trim
      • magic >
        • Prof. W. A. Barclay
    • magic lantern & beyond
    • literature
    • music and dance >
      • the classical musicians >
        • - Eleanor Alberga
        • ~ Neville Atkinson
        • - Nerine Barrett
        • - Richard Beckford
        • - Harold St Nicholas Cartier
        • - Frederic H. Cowen
        • - Noel DaCosta
        • - Louis Drysdale
        • - Samuel Felsted
        • - Maxine Franklin
        • - George and Hilda Goode
        • - David Johns
        • - John Lyon
        • - Marie McMarrow
        • - Edmund Reid
        • - Orrett Rhoden
        • - Oswald Russell
        • - Paul Shaw
        • - Don Shirley
        • - Stephen Tucker
        • - George Walker
        • - Curtis Watson
        • - Willard White
      • Jamaica Choir
      • 'practice dances'
    • art >
      • painting >
        • Zithri J Atkinson >
          • Bruce Grit article
        • Frederic E Church
      • sculpture
      • photography
  • events
    • & everything else >
      • - manumissions
      • - drugs >
        • - tobacco
        • - opium
        • - cocaine
        • - cannabis >
          • 1913 legislation
    • public holidays >
      • crop-over
      • May 24th
      • June 7 >
        • Port Royal 1667
        • Great Earthquake 1692
      • August 1st >
        • 1888 - 50 years
      • Christmas >
        • 18th century
        • 19th century >
          • Christmas with Belisario
          • Christmas in Kingston >
            • - Creole Airs
            • Christmas at the Asylum
          • and across the island
          • Christmas Races
        • early 20th century
        • lotteries & raffles
      • other days >
        • Valentine's Day
        • Mother's Day
    • exhibitions >
      • 1891 >
        • the phonograph
        • merry-go-rounds
        • Amphitrite
      • 1932 >
        • the Exhibition starts >
          • a walk around the Exhibition
        • Exhibition extended
        • Exhibition sports
        • - D T Wint
        • - 'Exhibition' Beecher
        • - W A W Mitchell
        • - L. A. Thoywell-Henry
      • 1934
      • 1946 - Exhibition that wasn't
    • natural disasters >
      • earthquakes >
        • - 1692
        • - 1907 >
          • Kingston burning
          • reports >
            • map
            • - Capt. T. T. Lovelace
          • damage
          • who was Joseph E Thomas?
          • afterwards
        • - smaller 'quakes
      • hurricanes >
        • Jamaica's climate
        • Dampier and hurricanes
        • 18th century >
          • 1780s - hurricane decade
        • 19th century >
          • - 1815
          • 1830s & 1840s
          • 1870s & 1880s
        • 20th century
        • 21st century
      • fires >
        • 1843 >
          • 1843 Colonial Magazine
        • 1862
        • 1875
        • 1882
      • diseases >
        • cholera
        • 'Dandy fever'
        • "Spanish" 'flu
sports  >
cricket  >
Samuel C. Snow


​Samuel C. Snow

ca1880 - 1930


'The fabulous Sam Snow - he of the Isthmian and "Snow" ball fame'

Julian Smedmore, Gleaner, August 8, 1968
Picture

      It is not entirely certain where Samuel C Snow was born. One source claims he was born in British Guiana in 1880, but Jamaican sources claim he was born in Jamaica, about the same time; it seems fairly certain that his father was Austin Snow, of Regent Street, Allman Town, a sergeant in the 1st Battalion of the West India Regiment. His name is first mentioned in the press in 1898 playing on an All Jamaica team against Kensington Cricket Club. He made a duck in the first innings and 2 in the second, but he did take two Kensington wickets. This was not an impressive start to a career in cricket, and there is no reference to the club he played for, or why he was picked.
      His name appeared again three years later; then he featured as a valued player for the Lucas Cricket Club until 1904. Years later he said that he had been associated with Lucas ‘from his earliest days of cricket’. In 1902 he played on All Jamaica and Jamaica Born teams against R A Bennett’s visiting English team, and earned a fine reputation for courageous batting. As a young player he also had a reputation for being a crowd favourite for his amusing behaviour both when batting and bowling, though later he became more serious. By mid-1904 he had left the island, first playing cricket in New York, and then later in British Guiana. Beyond references to his appearances for that colony in cricket, little mention of Snow appeared in Jamaican newspapers until early 1910, when he was in Panama. In April that year Snow made a remarkable suggestion – that he should bring a team from the Isthmus to play against Jamaican teams – and after consideration the Jamaica Cricket Council agreed to the proposal for an Isthmian team to visit Jamaica in July. 
     The visit of Snow’s Isthmian team was the highlight of the summer of 1910; a souvenir score-book was published for the tour. The team arrived on July 1 and practised at the nets at Sabina in the afternoon, watched by an interested crowd. The first match started next day at Sabina. A writer in the Gleaner welcomed Snow back; there were rumours that he intended to stay in Jamaica, and the writer, who had followed his career during his years away, hoped he would return to his old club, Lucas.
Picture
Picture
      The Isthmians did not distinguish themselves in the first match, which Jamaica won by an innings and ten runs. They were entertained at a concert by the Jamaica Choir at Rockfort Gardens on July 4. The next match in Port Antonio on July 7, against a Northside team, went better for the visitors, in spite of rain, and they won by 75 runs. After that it was all down hill for the visitors; St Catherine beat them by 73 runs, in the second ‘Test’ against an All Jamaica team, they were defeated by an innings and 147 runs, and Jamaica’s ‘Next Twelve’ gave them another beating. But it was clear that the tour had been much enjoyed by all and Melbourne C C put on a ‘smoker’ for the Isthmians the night before they left on July 15. Snow did stay in Jamaica, and did return to his old club.
Picture
      1911 saw the visit of an MCC team to the West Indies early in the year. Three matches were played in Jamaica; the first two, in which Snow played, were drawn. Snow then stood as an umpire in the third match which produced a remarkable and perhaps questionable result. In an atmosphere of growing excitement, Jamaica needed two runs to win with the last pair at the wicket. The other umpire, Lockwood, who was very unpopular, called the over after 5 balls or one ball short, and Scott, who was a very weak batsman was now facing the bowling. Snow then called the first ball of the new over a 'no ball' - later to become famous as the 'Snow ball' - thus tying the match. Two balls later the unfortunate Scott was caught and Jamaica missed out on what would have been a notable victory against the great MCC.
PictureJ Alexander Stewart
       Snow played for Lucas for most of the following decade. He was captain for much of the time, though there were intervals when others, J K Holt, senior, and J Alexander Stewart, the prominent teacher, took up the post. Finally in 1919 Snow resigned for good, and J K Holt, senior, was unanimously chosen as captain. Snow’s time at Lucas was not incident free; clashes of character, problems of clubs ‘poaching’ each other’s members, disputed decisions by umpires, were some of the issues which caused controversy. By the end of the decade, Snow, having contributed enormously to the success of Lucas, was organizing his own teams and involving himself with other clubs, especially Clovelly, where he was a committee member by January, 1920.

Picture
Picture
      Clearly S C Snow had to have a means of earning a living in Jamaica; it is not clear what he did between 1910 and 1914, but in 1915-6 he was running a dry cleaning business at 65 Harbour Street, just opposite the Myrtle Bank Hotel; he had been living at that address at least from 1913. There was a flurry of advertisements during those two years, pointing out the necessity of such services, especially in wartime. Snow gave his qualification for the work as a Diploma of Merit from the Perth Dye Works in Scotland; Pullars of Perth, the biggest dry cleaning operation in Britain had its headquarters at the Perth Dye Works. This qualification was presumably obtained while living in Britain at some time between 1904 and 1910, when he was away from the island.
      He remained on Harbour Street for some years. In January 1917 an important meeting of the Lucas Club was held there and later that year it was designated as one of the places where young men could sign up to join the army. In 1919 Snow was promoting the Lucas Athletic and Cycle Meet at Wilson Park on Empire Day, Monday 26th May; those wishing to compete could obtain entry forms at 65 Harbour Street or Dr Phillips’ Dispensary at 8 East Parade. In 1920 he was one of a group who attempted to set up a movie theatre company, promoted from his Harbour Street address. The proposed company was called the Black Star Motion Picture Theatre and Vaudeville Company, and among its objects were ‘to carry on a general Theatre business for the social, economic, and industrial uplift of the Negro race’ and ‘to utilise local talents as much as possible in its theatricals for the benefit of the race.’ In spite of the name and objectives of the company none of its board appear to have had any direct connection with the  U N I A.
      In 1920 his father, Austin Snow, died at his home on Regent Street in Allman Town, mourned by his wife, son and daughters.
Picture
      In July 1920, Snow cut all connection with Lucas, bitterly hurt by what he felt were aspersions on his honesty as an umpire when chosen to stand in a match in which Lucas was one of the teams. In an angry letter to the Gleaner he pointed to all his services to the Club, and queried what in his record could have led the Lucas captain to object to him as umpire. After leaving Lucas, Snow continued to be connected with Clovelly C C for several years, but by 1924 he had left his location on Harbour Street.
      He apparently left the island, and there is only a brief mention of him playing cricket in Cuba until the news of his death in Venezuela, after a brief illness, was reported in early October 1930. The report claimed that he was born in Jamaica, and was survived by his wife, Anita, three children, two sisters and other relatives here. The ‘fabulous Sam Snow’ was no more.
Picture
Picture

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.