DAVID SNELL

I'm looking for any articles in the Minden Herald or the Webster Review written by Minden "high school student" and resident, David Snell. Since he was born in 1921, he would have attended high school between (about) 1936 and 1939.
Thank you.

Bill Streifer
The Flight of the Hog Wild
http://www.my-jia.com/The_Flight_of_the_Hog_Wild

Bill, will send us a summary of David Snell when he has finished his book to replace the paragraph below when it is finished. He will also let us know what bookstores will carry it.

Thank everyone for me.... the David Snell HS photo fills in one of the missing "gaps." You can take down the request...since I received two already! Now, see if you can find Julia William's HS photo... his beloved wife (well, that's another story)   Bill Streifer

         MHS Class of 1938

Photo submitted by Ann Mays Harlan

Son of Ada Jack Carver and John Barnard Snell who was principal of MHS from 1913-1917 when he left to join the army.  Ada was born in Natchitoches, La. She and John married in Shreveport, Caddo Parish in 1908. They were the parents of John Hampton and David. David became a well known reporter. Ada was a well known short story writer. Her husband, Col. Jack as he was called kept peacocks and eagles in his back yard in Natchitoches. David's brother, John Hampton died when David was two days old on March 8, 1921.

Reporter David Snell was the author of the story of Japan's successful atomic bomb test. He joined the army in 1945 and  was a member of the Constitution's reportorial staff.  He was in charge of the Constitution's News Bureau at Marietta before entering the Army and lived for a while on the city staff in Atlanta. During his Army service, David filed a number of stories to the Constitution both while in training in the U.S. and after arriving with the occupation forces in Korea. One of his stories in Korea was an interview with Bishop A. J. Moore, of Atlanta who visited China, Japan, and Korea representing the American's Bishop's Association to survey church conditions preparatory to the return of missionaries. In Korea, Snell was assigned to the 24th Criminal Investigation Detachment checking on crimes against the U. S. His discovery of the atom bomb story was not his official line of duty and was not part of his official assignment. During the time he was with the Constitution.  He is married to the former Julia Williams of Augusta, Arkansas. They are the parents of a son, Barry Snell who was born while they were living in Marietta.

I wonder if any of your members recall an African-American girl named Christine James who took care of Ada Jack Carver's son, David Snell, after Ada Jack's first son tragically died in 1921. Christine James continued to take care of the Carvers for over twenty years. She was also David Snell's nanny for four years in Marietta, Georgia (and some say Paris).

  


 I have attached a photo of David at the age of 3 1/2 and (I believe) Christine James taken in 1924. "David and 'Orange' his 'nurse'" is wrotten on the back of the photograph. Can anyone verify that the little girl in the photo is Christine James who died (Christine James Britton) in Minden in 2007 at the age of 96?



I have also attached a photo of David Snell who eventually became a Senior Editor of LIFE magazine until it closed shop in 1972, the same year that Ada Jack Carver died.


 

Bill Streifer

Greg Grambling, Class of 1968

I much enjoyed reading about Ada Jack Carver and her successful literary son in Minden Memories.
 
Ada Jack Carver (Snell)  or David Snell alone would each make  interesting literary courses in fiction and journalism at Minden High.  Mrs. Carver's short story "Redbone" set on Cane River has relevance even today, as do her other Cane River stories like "The Old One" and "Maudie."  And Mr. Snell's writings and influence at Life are a great record of our early Twentieth Century culture. These were local people who, like William "Billy" Faulkner, were revered around the world and hardly know by many in local circles. I hope that this can be rectified in our Louisiana schools someday.
 
I have some book collections from Mrs. Ada Jack Carver's personal  library in my office. They had belonged to her father. One is a portion (six books) of the thirteen volumed Library of Southern Literature, copyrighted 1907. I like to think that some of the short stories in those volumes influenced her later published works. 
 
Another is a beautifully bound set, The Library of American History.   I often read from it to classes when I taught American history at Doyline High. The  detail and insight those books gave about events like the Burr-Hamilton Duel and the onset of The Great Depression went way far beyond the information provided in the approved textbook at the time. The ten volumed American history set ends with "The Great War" (WWI). I also have an 1810 copy of The Federalist which belonged to her father. I have read each page of these mentioned books, and they have been of great value to me over the years.
 
William Watson
Class of 1966
 

A photo of David Snell as a little boy, and later as

Senior Editor of LIFE magazine. Perhaps you've never seen this one.
 
Bill Streifer




Christine,  David Snell - The top one is already on the web




Dixie and David Snell (This one is new)
 

House 412146152 John B. Snell Head of House

In the 1830 Census in Minden, LA, you will find

Ada Jack Carver and her son, David (at the age of 9).

David Snell died in 1987 at the age of 66.