Kinnaird, son of John Fryatt and Louisa (Kinnaird) Snodgrass, was born at Parkersburg, May 30, 1838, died at Parkersburg, February 11, 1907. He received a thorough and liberal education, and graduated with honor from St. James College at the age of nineteen. On June 11, 1859, he was admitted to the bar of Parkersburg. In 1862 he retired to his farm at Williamstown, Wood County, West Virginia, where he resided until 1878; in that year he returned to Parkersburg. He lived an honorable, upright, useful life, exemplary in all respects. His intellect was bright, yet pure; his disposition warm and genial; his character firm and resolute. Devoted to his family and true to his friends, straightforward in all his dealings, ever ready to assist others, he won the love and commanded the respect of all who knew him, and his friends were legion. Although he could never be classed as an office seeker, he held many positions of responsibility, and in these he served the public ably and satisfactorily, so that his life is an important part of the history of Wood county. Under the West Virginia constitution of 1863, he served as a member of the board of supervisors. From January 1, 1877, to January 1, 1881, he presided as judge of the county court, which then had jurisdiction of law and chancery cases and administered the fiscal affairs of the county also. He served as commissioner of the circuit court from September 4, 1879, until he resigned November 27, 1887; from July 1, 1887, to July 1, 1889, he was recorder or judge of the police court. He was deputy clerk of the county court from June 23, 1890, to January 12, 1904; and from October 8, 1883, until his death, he was commissioner of accounts. Whatever Judge Snodgrass did was always well done.

He marred, at Marietta, Ohio, October 24, 1865, Sarah R. Bukey, who died January 17, 1907. She was a woman of lovely charm. Children: 1. William, superintendent of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company, at Tampico, Mexico; married Selina Bakewell Martin, of a New Martinsville, West Virginia, family. 2. George Lewis, well known in social and club life. He is a member of the fire insurance firm of Burwell & Snodgrass. 3. Kinnaird, an enterprising young business man of Parkersburg, and a member of the firm of Shattuck & Jackson, wholesale grocers of Parkersburg; in this firm he holds the offices of secretary and assistant manager. 4. Virginia Quarrier, married John A. Luttrell. 5. Nannie. 6. Lucy. 7. Juliet.


Thomas Condit Miller and Hu Maxwell, History of West Virginia and Its People, Three Vols. (New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), II: 484-485.