This particular Snopes is identified only as the "old maid daughter" of the man (either Flem's father Ab or Flem's unnamed uncle) who moves into a house just close enough to see Jefferson's clock (136). Also in the household are two of I.O. Snopes' children, but her relationship to them is not defined at all. She may be Flem's sister, but more likely is another of Flem's many cousins.
This particular Snopes is identified in The Town only as the "old maid daughter" of the man (either Flem's father Ab or Flem's unnamed uncle) who lives in a house just close enough to Jefferson to see the town clock (136). Also in the household are two of I.O. Snopes' children, but her relationship to them is not defined at all. She may be Flem's sister, but more likely is another of Flem's many cousins.
The novel calls this Snopes "the last Snopes" (in the sequence of Snopeses who move from Frenchman's Bend to Jefferson) and "the old one" (136). He is extremely choleric: "fierce eyes under a tangle of eyebrows and a neck that would begin to swell and turn red" as soon as he felt challenged (136). He doesn't actually move into town, but reaches a point "in sight of the town clock" and then refuses to go further (136), moving into a place where he can wage war against the boys who try to raid his "water-melon patch" (137). Some people think he is "Mr Flem's father" (i.e.
The Mansion calls this Snopes "the last" in the sequence of Snopeses who move from Frenchman's Bend to Jefferson, and also "the old one" (136). He is extremely choleric: "fierce eyes under a tangle of eyebrows and a neck that would begin to swell and turn red" as soon as he felt challenged (136). He doesn't actually move into town, but reaches a point "in sight of the town clock" and then refuses to go further (136), settling into a place where he can wage war against the boys who try to raid his "water-melon patch" (137). Some people think he is "Mr Flem's father" (i.e.
According to The Town, "Dewitt Binford had married another of the Snopes girls. They lived near Varner's store" (383). Binford and his wife contract to provide room and board for the four children of Bryon Snopes.
Chick Mallison says in The Town that Dink "had married one of Mr Snopes's sisters or nieces or something out at Frenchman's Bend and when Mr Snopes sent I.O. Snopes back to the country the Quistenberrys came into buy or rent or anyway run the Snopes Hotel"; he adds that "Dink was old enough to be Mr Snopes's brother-in-law or whatever it was but he was the kind of man it just didn't occur to you to say Mister to" (378). The "Mr Snopes" in these phrases is of course Flem, but that doesn't help clarify how Flem and Quistenberry are related.
Neither of Eck's parents appear directly in The Town, but two of the novel's narrators - Ratliff and Gavin - do discuss his parentage. Based on their contempt for 'Snopeses,' they both feel strongly that since Eck is so good a person, genetically he is "not a Snopes" (32). Thus they invent this "titular father" for him: the imaginary man with whom Eck's mother had an affair (33).
This is one of the two Snopeses in The Town whose place in the family is impossible to determine. He is mentioned in connection with Ab Snopes' moving into Frenchman's Bend: "another Snopes had appeared from somewhere to take over the rented farm" that Ab had been working (6). Most of the Snopeses start out as tenant farmers, but there's no indication that this particular "Snopes" is one of the male Snopeses to whom the narrative gives a first name, though that is possible.
Mink Snopes tells the prison warden that Montgomery Ward Snopes is "my brother's grandson" (99). This is the only reference to Mink's brother in the fictions, and chronologically the possibility that a brother of Mink would have a grandchild Montgomery Ward's age is unlikely. Ratliff asks Montgomery Ward if Mink is his "cousin or uncle" (71); Montgomery refuses to answer, but in his own narrative chapter he refers to Mink as "Uncle Mink" (103).
In The Mansion Mink Snopes tells the prison warden that Montgomery Ward Snopes is "my brother's grandson" (99). This is the only reference to Mink's brother in the fictions, and chronologically the possibility that a brother of Mink would have a grandchild Montgomery Ward's age is unlikely. Ratliff asks Montgomery Ward if Mink is his "cousin or uncle" (71); Montgomery refuses to answer, but in his own narrative chapter he refers to Mink as "Uncle Mink" (103).
