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Note: From the History of Titus County by Traylor Russell, Vol. I, 1965, Page 134-136
THE SNODGRSS GOLD CASE IN TITUS COUNTY
(As related by Judge R. T. Wilkinson, of Mt. Vernon, Texas, to Traylor Russell on August 9, 1963)
The Snodgrass family lived in the southeastern part of Titus County in what is now known as the Chapel Hill - Hickory Hill community. This family probably came to Titus County long prior to the Civil War and were slave owners. They owned considerable land and continued to live in the same community after the war. The family was a very thrifty family and always had the reputation of having money buried around the old home place. My father was Dr. Wilkinson, a country doctor. He moved into the Town of Snowhill just about the time the Civil War began and practiced medicine there for awhile. Then he moved to the Chapel Hill community where he purchased the Daniel Wall home and lived there and practiced medicine for a number of years. I was well acquainted with the various members of the Snodgrass family except Ol� Mr. Snodgrass, whom I do not recall having ever seen, but I was well acquainted with all the participants in the in the Snodgrass Gold Case. My father-in-law was Capt. E. R. Nelson, who was also related to the Snodgrass family, and he knew all the facts of the Snodgrass Gold Case and related them to me on several occasions. This all happened in the early 1890�s, and I believe prior to the time that I married. My father died in 1891 and we were at that time living in the Chapel Hill community, and were living there at the time of the trial of the Gold Case.
Carrick Snodgrass was a son of Ol� Mr. and Mrs. Snodgrass, and was a principal character in the case. He lived at Floydada, Texas. Capt. Nelson lived about 5 miles east of Mt. Pleasant and in the same community. I married a daughter of Capt. Nelson. Mrs. Snodgrass was a very eccentric old lady and had quite a number of children. Carick Snodgrass was her favorite son. She and her husband were very frugal and money at that time was certainly worth something. They sold their cotton at Jefferson and always got payment in gold because they thought gold would always be acceptable and good money. Capt. Nelson told me that sometime prior to the death of Mrs. Snodgrass, that Carick Snodgrass came to his home and said that his mother had sent him word to come to Titus County - that she wanted to see him, and had something to tell him. He said that he had been to his mothers� and that she had told him that she had some money buried on the premises and wanted to tell him and show him where it was. She had some of it buried at the springhouse or milk shed as some called it. There was a good and large spring near the Snodgrass house and over this spring they had a shed built and a wooden trough in which the milk was kept in order to keep it cool. He said she also told him that there was some gold buried out from the milk shed between the shed and one of the springs, and that she wanted him to watch her and she would walk from the shed out to where the gold was and drop a piece of paper, and he could come on out and later on find out where the this gold was buried. She didn�t want him and her walk out there together and stop where the gold was because somebody might see �em and come out and dig up her gold. Some of her children were Mrs. Bill Allison, of Mt. Pleasant; Dave Snodgrass, John Snodgrass, who was the father of Mrs. Dave Nelson, Tom Snodgrass, John Snodgrass lived in Mt. Pleasant, and he was the father of Judge Snodgrass, who practiced law in Coleman, Texas. Carick Snodgrass further told Capt. Nelson that his mother told him that she didn�t know how much money was buried, but that when she died she wanted him to come to Titus County and dig it up and take care of it and see that her daughter, Frances, and her son, Bill, were always taken care of. The other children had done very well in life, but she wanted Bill and Frances taken care of because they had not accumulated any property. My brother, Frank, married one of the Snodgrass children. Capt. Nelson said that Carick Snodgrass told him that he didn�t know whether his mother had any money buried or not, and that it might be just some of her fanciful thinking, but that he wanted to tell Capt. Nelson what had been told him so that if anything happened to him, that Capt. Nelson would know where the money might be buried.
Shortly after Ol� Mrs. Snodgrass died, Carick Snodgrass spent the night with Capt. Nelson, and the next morning before going down to his old home place, he got a shovel and a rather large bucket and told Capt. Nelson that he was going down to his mothers� place and see if he could find the gold. He got one of Capt. Nelson�s Negroes to go with him and help do the digging. He came back to Capt. Nelson�s house late in the afternoon and the captain asked him if he had been able to find any money. He had the bucket with him and told Capt. Nelson that he had found the gold and that there was more of it than he thought was buried there. He showed Capt. Nelson about how full the bucket was. He took the bucket into the room where he was sleeping and spent the night there at Captain Nelson�s house, and left the next morning, with the gold, for his home in Floydada. Sometime after that, word got back to the other members of the Snodgrass family that Mr. Carick Snodgrass had come into the possession of some money somewhere, had gone into the mercantile business at Floydada, Texas, and was doing very well. This, of course, excited the curiosity of some of the other members of the family because they had always heard from different ones in the community that their mother had money buried around the old home place, but of course, nobody knew where it was except Capt. Nelson and probably the Negro who helped Carick Snodgrass dig it up., and neither of them had said anything about it. There had been a lot of digging around the house and the premises, but so far as known, no one had been able to find anything, except Carick. I think it was Judge Snodgrass� father that finally talked to his brother, Carick , about the gold. Carick told him that he had found a little of it there, but that there wasn�t much of it, and that he was going to keep it and use it for Frances and Bill, that they were needing it, and that he had the directions from his mother to use it for that purpose, but he would not tell him how much he found. Later on, Mr. John Snodgrass filed a suit in the District Court at Mt. Pleasant for the purpose of determining how much gold Carick had dug up and dividing it among the heirs. I think that Judge S. P. Pounders, of Mt. Pleasant, was one of the attorneys in the case, and that Sam Snodgrass, who was an attorney, who was also in the case, but I do not remember whether there were any other attorneys. The case was tried before District Judge John L. Sheppard. Capt. Nelson was a witness and the evidence disclosed about the same as what I have told, and then Carick Snodgrass was called as a witness, and he admitted that he had dug up the gold, but they were unable to determine from him just how much it was. But from him and from Capt. Nelson, it was determined about how much of it there was in the bucket; that is, how much of the bucket was filled with the gold. A bucket was secured, which was said to be about the size of the bucket that Carick Snodgrass took with him when he dug up the gold. That bucket was taken by some of the officers of the court to a bank in Mt. Pleasant and it was filled with gold to about the approximate level that Capt. Nelson said was equal to that which Carick Snodgrass had. Then this gold was poured out on the table there in the courtroom and counted, and some of those who were present in the court when it was poured out said it sure did make a big pile of money. It was said that some of the gold that Carick Snodgrass dug up was issued by the Spanish government and some by the Mexican Government, but they were not able to get him to bring any of it back into the court at Mt. Pleasant. You may be sure that the case attracted considerable attention, and tht was about the only thing that was being talked about for a while in the community. A judgment was rendered against Mr. Snodgrass for the other heirs, but I don�t remember how much it was, but whatever it was he paid it and then went back to Floydada. It was always felt that the judgment was not anything like as much as the gold was worth that he had dug up. It was often reported that long after the case occasionally eagles and double eagles would turn up around Floydada, being spent by the Snodgrass family, and these were called Snodgrass gold. As well as I remember there was some $15,000.00 or $20,000.00 that was in the bucket and exhibited in court.
The ol� gentleman was named Dave Snodgrass, and he had a son named Dave, who was killed by one of his brothers. I do not remember the given name of Ol� Mrs. Snodgrass, but I remember seeing her on many occasions and she had a wen that was attached to her body under he chin, and hung down almost to her waist, and she carried it in a flour sack tied around her neck. When we were kids out there, we thought she was an ol� witch. This wen was enormous and my father just couldn�t understand why it wasn�t taken off when it was small except for the fact that Ol� Mrs. Snodgrass just didn�t want to spend the money it would cost to have it taken off. Ol� Mrs. Snodgrass was of a very peculiar disposition, and one of her peculiarities was that she was always afraid that she was going to get poisoned. She visited my mother quite often, and would always bring her dinner with her and set it on the mantle piece. Then when we would go to eat dinner, she would eat that which she brought with her. She was not a person to encourage visitors to come to see her; and, in fact, she would do might near anything to keep people from visiting her in her home, or around her home. I suppose that was because she was afraid that they might find where she had her gold buried. She was telling my mother one time that one of her nieces had come to visit her. She asked this niece why she had come, and the niece said she just wanted to come see how she was getting� along. She said she told the niece: �Well, as far as I�m concerned. You just need not have come.�
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