Eight decades after his on-duty death, a Lake County sheriff's deputy is added to local, state, national memorials
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Lake County deputy sheriff who died in the line of duty nearly 82 years ago after sustaining a mortal wound while stopping a man who had gone on a shooting rampage in Lower Lake is receiving long overdue recognition for his sacrifice.
The death of Henry Valentine Snowbelt, killed in October 1937 at the age of 57, had been overlooked for decades when it came to honoring fallen local law enforcement officers.
However, after a year’s worth of effort by officials with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Snowbelt’s name was added last month to the state fallen officers’ memorial, to the Lake County memorial and to the national memorial.
“It is so amazing,” said his granddaughter, Janet Van Wert.
Van Wert, her son Jim, and her cousin, Shirley Carpenter, and Carpenter’s boyfriend Bob Pickle were guests at the state ceremony on May 6.
“It was beautiful. It was wonderful. We enjoyed it,” said Carpenter.
On May 10, Snowbelt’s name was added to the Lake County Safety Officers Memorial in Museum Park in downtown Lakeport. Undersheriff Chris Macedo unveiled a plaque with Snowbelt’s name; he is now listed among five law enforcement officers and two firefighters who have died serving the county.
Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, who took the lead on getting Snowbelt’s name added to the memorials, said Snowbelt’s name was added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC. His name was read at a candlelight vigil on May 13 attended by thousands on the Capitol Mall, which Paulich attended.
Paulich said the national memorial includes a new museum opened this year, which has a “Hall of Remembrance,” with etched glass markers with the names and pictures of those who are honored.
Early history
Snowbelt was born in Austria on Valentine’s Day, 1880, to Eda Schnaubelt. He came to the United States with his mother in 1883, when he was a small child.
Carpenter said her great-grandmother was reported to have been a lady in waiting in the Viennese royal court who was banished after having her son out of wedlock.
He took his mother’s maiden name and later Americanized it. Van Wert said that was a result of the anti-Germanic sentiment in the country in the early years of the 20th century.
Veterans Administration records state that Snowbelt was a veteran of the Spanish-American War in 1898, having served in the US Navy.
In 1902, Snowbelt married Danish-born Amelia Petersen at her family’s home in Elmhurst. Together they had three children – Anita, Thelma and Peter.
Two years after his marriage, at age 24, he signed a declaration of intention in Alameda County to become a United States citizen.
The 1910 Census shows the Snowbelts – with their children, Anita, age 6, and Peter, age 5, – living in Alameda County. Henry Snowbelt’s trade at that time was listed as “saloonkeeper.”
Amelia died at age 39 in 1918. She is buried at San Lorenzo Pioneer Memorial Park. Carpenter said her grandmother died of botulism after eating at a restaurant. Her children also became sick but survived.
Henry Snowbelt continued to live in the Bay Area for some time to come. The 1930 Census shows him at age 50 living alone as a widower in San Francisco. At that time he was working as a chauffeur.
Lake County News was not able to determine at what point after that he moved to Lake County; Van Wert said she didn’t recall when he came to the area.
Van Wert, whose mother was Snowbelt’s daughter Anita Reed, was a young girl when her grandfather died. She said she remembered him visiting her family at their San Francisco home.
During one visit he was cleaning his gun, which he thought was empty, and it went off. “My mother, in very salty language, told him he could never come again if he brought the rifle with him,” Van Wert said.
Anita and her husband, Lloyd Reed, often brought their children to Lake County for visits. Reeds brothers lived in Santa Rosa.
Van Wert recalls her grandfather playing with her and her siblings – including a brother and twin sisters – and chasing them into Clear Lake.
“I can remember him saying he was going to get us, and we said you can’t because you have your shoes on,” she said, noting she later realized he was wearing wading boots.
The shootout
The story of the shootout in downtown Lower Lake on Saturday, Oct. 2, 1937, that claimed Snowbelt’s life reads like an embellished tale of the rough and ready Old West.
“Citizens awed by Lower Lake fatal gun duel Saturday,” said the headline in the Lake County Bee of Thursday, Oct. 7, 1937.
The circumstances that led to the fatal shooting between Snowbelt and 32-year-old John Bert Thompson, an ex-convict who spent four years in San Quentin State Prison for a robbery in Calpella four years before Snowbelt’s shooting, developed over the course of that October day.
According to accounts of the incident given at the coroner’s inquest, Snowbelt – who also was a caretaker at Camp Lakeview – had gone on a drive that afternoon with Thompson and a friend, Walter Walker, to a place at Point Lakeview where Snowbelt repaired a radio. Thompson had with him a .22-caliber rifle which investigators said was the weapon he later used to kill Snowbelt.
That evening, they returned to Lower Lake, where Snowbelt had planned to cash his veteran’s check. Thompson and Walker went to Bill Millsap’s hamburger restaurant for a sandwich and Snowbelt went to the Wheeler Cafe.
Longtime Lower Lake resident Phil Adamson told Lake County News that the Wheeler Cafe was located on the north side of Main Street and east of the old jail. He did not recall the location of Millsap’s place. Based on newspaper accounts, Millsap’s appear to have been across the street from the Wheeler Cafe.
While at Millsap’s, Walker had reportedly used profanity and been asked by Millsap to stop, as he said ladies were present. Walker apologized, Thompson grew angry and told him not to, then he began to swear. Millsap told Thompson to either stop or to leave, and Thompson refused both demands, “and said there was nobody there that could put him out,” according to the newspaper report.
Millsap grabbed Thompson in an effort to remove him and did so with the help of Harvey Knauer, 23, of Lower Lake who was eating at the restaurant.
“After reaching the sidewalk, Thompson threatened to get them both for throwing him out,” the newspaper account explained.
Not long afterward, at about 9:40 p.m., Knauer was playing pool in the Big Oak pool room with friends, with Roy Adams standing at the front bar.
Journalist and longtime county resident Roberta Lyons said the Big Oak was located where county offices are now located on Main Street in the 16100 block of Main Street, also on the north side. Adamson added that it was directly oppose the former Bank of America building.
When Thompson came in the Big Oak with his rifle, throwing a shell into the barrel, Adams asked what he was going to do with the gun, and Thompson reportedly replied, “Nothing.”
He then walked into the area where Knauer was playing pool, told him, “I’ve got you now,” and when Knauer – who was about to make a shot in a pool game – looked up, Thompson shot him between the eyes, with the bullet shattering the bridge of Knauer’s nose.
As Knauer collapsed, another young man in the pool room – Clearlake Highlands resident James Cassidy, a cook in the cafe – tried to leave out the back door when Thompson pointed the gun at him and called him back. Cassidy would escape a short time later.
Others escaped from the cafe while Thompson ordered Adams and Knauer – who had managed to get to his feet despite being shot in the face – to march. “I sure did march,” Adams said later of the experience.
Adams would escape into the night while Thompson forced Knauer to walk across the street and sit on the curb in front of Millsap’s place.
“I am going to stay and watch you die, and if you don’t die, I’ll put another bullet in you,” Thompson is reported to have told Knauer.
Knauer is reported to have replied, “There is nothing I can do about it, go ahead and kill me.”
Thompson’s attention would be diverted as Roy Garner and Alta Crawford started to drive away from the front of the Big Oak Cafe in Garner’s car to get the constable.
As the car started, Thompson was reported to have shot five times at the vehicle, hitting it twice – once on the fender and once in the back of the car. Crawford ducked in her seat as the shooting started.
Thompson believed he had hit her, saying, “I got the woman, anyway.”
While Thompson was busy shooting at the car, Knauer escaped to seek help. Cassidy found him and took him to a doctor.
After Knauer fled, Thompson went to the Wheeler Cafe. Snowbelt was in the rear of the cafe and as Thompson came in, his friend, Walker, tried to convince him to put down the gun. “You shot one man tonight and that’s enough. Give me that gun.”
Thompson replied that he wouldn’t give the gun to anyone but Lake County Sheriff Taylor Day. “I will not give up the gun to you or anybody else. I will surrender to him.”
Snowbelt left from the rear of the building and went to borrow a gun from Millsap, who initially said he didn’t own one. But Snowbelt saw a deer gun, a .30-.30 rifle, in Millsap’s home, showed his badge and demanded it.
With the loaded rifle, Snowbelt returned to the cafe, entering through a side door and telling Thompson to throw up his hands. At that point, Thompson’s rifle was on a piano next to where he stood. He went to reach for it and Snowbelt told him to lay the gun down.
Thompson got the gun and fired one shot at point blank range at Snowbelt, striking him in the lower chest. At the same time, Snowbelt fired twice at Thompson, according to the account of the shooting.
“With the first shot from the heavy deer gun, Thompson was sent into the air off the floor for several feet. As he was falling the officer shot him again in the neck. Either bullet would have been fatal, it was later disclosed,” according to the newspaper account.
Walker, who was seated in a chair between Thompson and Snowbelt, fell to the floor when the shooting started.
Snowbelt was still on his feet after being shot. Walker asked him if he was hurt.
‘“I think I am shot,” exclaimed Snowbelt as he weakened and swayed and then slumped to the floor. Blood started streaming from his mouth. He died within a moment from a bullet through his lungs, when Walker ran outside the place to seek assistance and a physician,” the newspaper account stated.
Coroner H. M. Jones called the inquest into the shooting. The jury’s ultimate finding was that Snowbelt’s death was a homicide, and that he died of a fatal gunshot to the heart.
Thompson’s death, a gunshot to the heart fired by Snowbelt, was ruled a justifiable homicide, as it occurred as Snowbelt was performing his duties as a sheriff.
Following a local funeral, Snowbelt would be buried in the San Francisco National Cemetery.
Over the course of the following year, his family suffered more tragedy.
In May 1938, seven months after her father was killed, Anita Reed died after giving birth to twins, one of whom died.
Three months later, her husband, Lloyd Reed, died while working on a brother’s house in Santa Rosa. Van Wert said the cause of her father's death was ruled “inconclusive.”
The couple left behind five children. “We all went to live with different aunts and uncles,” said Van Wert, who lived with her aunt, Thelma, the mother of Carpenter.
Knauer survived his wound and lived to be 80 years old. Adamson said he knew Knauer, who went on to become a crane operator in the Bay Area.
Lyons said the building that housed the Big Oak Saloon burned down in the Lower Lake Main Street Fire of 1987. By that time, it had gone through a number of different names, including Lucy’s, Carol’s Disco, the VIP Lounge and Five Brothers, according to former Lake County resident, Fran Ransley.
Giving belated honors
In February 2018 Lake County News Editor and Publisher Elizabeth Larson presented Sheriff Brian Martin with information about Snowbelt.
Her publication had featured a story several years ago about the shootout as part of a series on Lake County history. A reader, Tom Quinn, later pointed out to her that Snowbelt wasn’t on the local safety officers’ memorial.
The information she presented to Martin included scans of newspaper microfilm about the shootout as well as a photo of the deputy in his younger days.
Martin turned the information over to Lt. Paulich, who also went to the library to look through the materials for himself. He then found where Snowbelt was buried and began going through public records to identify next of kin.
“That was the big thing, to let the family know,” that Snowbelt’s name will be honored forever, aulich said.
Carpenter said she had a message on her answering machine from Paulich – who only left his name and asked her to call him – and was apprehensive, wondering why the Lake County Sheriff’s Office would be calling her.
“Two days later I got up my nerve and called him,” she said.
She said it was hard to believe. Ultimately, however, having honors bestowed now on her grandfather – who she didn’t remember, as he died the year after her birth – is “marvelous.”
Van Wert laughed when recalling getting contacted by Paulich.
“We all thought he was nuts,” she said, explaining that her family hadn’t thought about Henry Snowbelt in many years.
“It is so amazing,” she said.
For Van Wert, the honors for her grandfather had opened up memories that she hadn’t thought about in years, noting that she had shut down many of her recollections from that period following the loss of both of her parents.
Paulich said it took about a year to complete the process to have Snowbelt’s name added to the state and federal memorials. He had just gone through the process the year before to have Deputy Rob Rumfelt’s name added.
The applications for the state and national memorials were submitted at the same time, and had to be completed by the end of 2018. Paulich submitted a package with newspaper articles and Snowbelt’s death certificate, showing that the shooting occurred and Snowbelt was acting in his capacity as a deputy sheriff.
The materials subsequently were reviewed by committees and Snowbelt was approved for addition to the memorials, Paulich said.
Carpenter and Van Wert, joined by Paulich and Undersheriff Chris Macedo, attended the state memorial last month.
Paulich said one of Snowbelt’s great-great-grandsons – who couldn’t make it to the event due to college finals – is considering a law enforcement career.
“We were so impressed,” Van Wert said of the ceremony.
At the state event, there was another officer who, like Snowbelt, was being honored after decades.
Deputy City Marshal Maurice William Halloran of the Vernon Police Department, who died in November 1913 at age 35, also was added to the memorial.
Van Wert said she chatted with members of Halloran’s family who, like her, were amazed that after so much time, their relative was being honored for his sacrifice.
“I felt quite honored,” Van Wert said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.