Born a Slave

Snap Dabbs

William Henry ‘Snap’ Dabbs was born August 22, 1854, in Springfield Missouri before the Civil War according to his death certificate. His father was Peter “Puss” Dabbs; his mother, Mary Elizabeth Ford Dabbs, was a weaver during the Civil War and died in 1911. 

While Snap was very young, he with his two brothers, his sister and his mother were put on the auction block in Louisville Kentucky.  They were bought by R J Patterson, a young lawyer.  His mother was sold for $1200 including the baby girl, and the three boys brought $1000 each.  The lawyer freed them and sent them to Missouri where his father had been taken before the war.  Patterson put them on the train, but their money ran out about Lawrenceville, but the conductor didn’t notice it until they were past the town, so they were put off at Bridgeport Lawrence County Illinois.  She found work and reared her family there.

Another version of their origin story in Lawrence County Illinois says that some Union Soldiers found the Negro family and passed the hat in an effort to collect sufficient funds to send Snap and his mother to Missouri where Snap’s father was believed to be.  But the fund was short several dollars, so they did the only thing possible under the circumstances. They boarded a train headed west and told the conductor to take them as far as he could for what money they had.  At Bridgeport Lawrence County Illinois the train stopped, and the family was put off. This was about 1863. Every member of the family found work. Snap was employed by W B Gray of Bridgeport.

In the 1900 Bridgeport Lawrence County Illinois census Henry, widowed, born August 1858 was living with his mother and his daughter Maude, born July 1885. Henry worked at the Grist Mill in Bridgeport.

Henry was still living in Bridgeport Lawrence County Illinois with his aged mother in 1910. He worked as a salesman for the grain exchange. He moved to his daughter’s home in Princeton Indiana about 1940 after living for 70 years in Bridgeport, Lawrence County Illinois.  The newspaper reported under a column titled Bridgeport Society News that D Leach, W B Gray, C Whittaker and Lehr Ridgely visited Henry in Princeton.  

William Henry ‘Snap’ Dabbs died June 2, 1941, age 86 years, 9 months and 10 days, at the home of his daughter Mrs. Maude Harmon in Princeton Gibson County Indiana. The cause of death was stomach cancer. Burial was in Bridgeport City Cemetery. The sole survivor was his daughter because his wife preceded him in death several years ago.