Like most businessmen, Jabez Bunting Snowball started his business in a small way. Snowball was born in Nova Scotia. He was the son of a Methodist minister. The Snowball family was sent to the Chatham Parish in 1852. At this time, J. B. Snowball was going to university at Mount Allison College in Sackville, New Brunswick. After he completed college, he came to this area to visit his parents. It was at this time that he met Margaret MacDougall. She was soon to become his wife. John MacDougall, father-in-law, owned a store. Snowball and MacDougall became partners in the store. When MacDougall died in 1866 Snowball became full owner. This was how the Snowballs first got started in business in the Chatham area.
Mr. Snowball soon became interested in other areas of business. Beginning in the 1870’s, he became active in fishing, sawmills, shipyards, and railways. Mr. Snowball helped build a railway line from Chatham to Newcastle. In time the railway reached as far as Fredericton. Later Snowball sold his share of the railway to Alexander Gibson. Mr. Snowball also owned many small mills at Red Bank, Tracadie, and Bay du Vin. These are small villages in the Miramichi area. He also owned a shipbuilding yard near Chatham. Shipyards were needed to build boats to carry wood to European markets. Snowball also owned fish plants downriver at Shippegan Island. But he made most of his money from the large sawmill he built at Chatham in 1872. The mill was built close to where the Chatham Sewage Treatment plant is today. It was the largest mill in New Brunswick at that time. As many as 900 people a season were employed in Snowball’s mills and shipyards.
Besides these businesses, Snowball started the first telephone company in Chatham in 1880. He set up the first public telephone service in New Brunswick. The lines ran from Chatham to Newcastle. He made Chatham the first town in New Brunswick to have an electric street and home lighting service. The family sold the electric company to the town in 1901.
J. B. Snowball was also interested in politics. In 1902, he became Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. Mr. Snowball died in 1907. He was laid to rest in Riverside Cemetery, Chatham. A large family monument marks the place of his grave. After J. B. Snowball’s death his business was run by his son, William B. Snowball. He died in 1925.
By this time, the Great Depression had badly damaged the Snowball business. The large Chatham mill closed in 1923 and was torn down in 1930. J. B. Snowball’s home, “Wellington Villa,” still stands today. It is now an apartment building at the corner of Wellington and King Streets. J. B. Snowball and his family had played a large part in the growth of the town of Chatham for almost fifty years.