COL. A. LOUDON SNOWDEN,
Second Superintendent,
was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and descends from one of the old families of Pennsylvania.
He was educated at the Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. On the completion of his collegiate course he studied law, but on May 7, 1857, just before being admitted to the bar, accepted the position of Register, tendered him by his uncle, the late Hon. James Ross Snowden, then Director of the United States Mint.
In 1866, a vacancy having occurred in the office of Coiner of the Mint, he was appointed by the President, and entered upon the duties of this office October 1, 1866.
At the request of President Grant, in 1876, he was induced to accept the Postmastership of Philadelphia.
He assumed the duties of that office January 1, 1877, with much reluctance, but soon manifested as Postmaster the same capacity for thorough discipline and organization which had distinguished him in the Mint. President Hayes, in December, 1878, tendered him the position of Director of all the Mints of the United States, made vacant by the expiration of the commission of Dr. Linderman. After the death of Dr. Linderman the President again sent for him and urged his acceptance of the place, which he was believed to have declined previous to Dr. Linderman’s death from motives of delicacy, having long been the friend of the late Director.
This offer he again declined, as the acceptance of it would necessitate his removal from Philadelphia to Washington.
In the following February the President again made a tender of office. This time it was the superintendency of the Philadelphia Mint, and, as its acceptance of it restored him to a service agreeable to him in every particular, and permitted him to remain among his friends in Philadelphia, he promptly accepted, and assumed control of the Mint on the 1st of March, 1879, and continued in charge of the “Parent Mint” of the United States until June, 1885, when he resigned his commission.
In January, 1873, he was elected vice-president of the Fire Association, one of the oldest and largest fire insurance companies of the United States. In 1868 he was elected its president. In October, 1880, he was elected president of the “United Fire Underwriters of America,” an organization embracing the officers of more than one hundred and fifty of the leading American and foreign companies doing business in the United States, representing a capital of over $118,000,000.