Sheriff Joe H. Snow
Angleton, Brazoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1872 - 1920) Born in West Columbia, Texas. Married; had one son. Served as justice of the peace, Precinct 2, 1900-1912. Was appointed deputy sheriff of Brazoria County in 1913; elected sheriff in 1918; reelected for an additional 2-year term. Was killed in line of duty after long horseback chase to arrest a suspected horse thief. A brave, conscientious officer, who sacrificed his life in his service to the public. Recorded, 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Joe H. Snow rose through Brazoria County public life from justice of the peace to deputy and finally elected sheriff, winning a second term before his career was cut short. In 1920 he was killed in the line of duty at the end of a long horseback chase to arrest a suspected horse thief. His marker honors a lawman who gave his life in an era when frontier-style justice still meant riding a suspect down across open country.
Why it matters
Snow's death is a reminder of the personal cost of keeping order in rural Texas, where the horseback pursuit of a horse thief still meant a peace officer might not come home.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Joe H. Snow
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Angleton
Angleton, TX
First Baptist Church of Angleton was founded in 1896 under pastor Joseph Matthew Kailin, only to lose its sanctuary to the catastrophic 1900 hurricane. Members worshipped in borrowed spaces until a new building rose in 1911, and the congregation rebuilt after each subsequent storm as it grew. Over time it planted new missions, including Templo Bautista and Angleton's Second Baptist Church.
Old Brazoria County Courthouse
Angleton, TX
When Angleton won the Brazoria County seat in 1896, it needed a proper seat of government, and this courthouse rose the following year from plans first drawn for a neighboring county. Growth prompted a major enlargement and remodeling in 1927, but a 1932 storm damaged the building and pushed the county to erect a replacement. County offices lingered here into the 1970s, leaving the old courthouse as a landmark of the town's early civic life.
"Brit" Bailey Plantation
Bailey's Prairie, TX
James Briton Bailey staked this prairie in 1818 as an individual claim, later joining Stephen F. Austin's colony among the first Anglo settlers of Texas. Tall, fearless, and of Irish stock, Bailey asked at his death in 1833 to be buried standing upright, facing west, with his gun at his side. Local legend still says his restless ghost walks Bailey's Prairie by night.
Munson Cemetery
Bailey's Prairie, TX
In 1850 Mordello Stephen Munson — son of Henry William Munson, a member of Stephen F. Austin's colony — set aside this tract at his family's Ridgely Plantation on Bailey's Prairie as a burying ground for kin and friends. The little cemetery ties one of the founding colonial families of Anglo Texas to the coastal prairie they helped settle. It has stood as their resting place for well over a century.