E. Snapper Ingram - Biography

Biography

Ingram was born on December 8, 1884, to Samuel S. Ingram and Elizabeth E. James in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and came to Los Angeles in 1910. He had a brother, Russell Uhl Ingram. Ingram began his working career in 1910 in the office of the Los Angeles city engineer. He served in World War I as a member of Battery B, Second Anti-Aircraft Battalion, attached to the First Army Artillery Headquarters.

On reentering civilian life he became active in the local chapter of 40 & 8, La Société des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux, which in 1929 was described as "the fun-making organization of the American Legion." In October of that year at the convention in Louisville, Kentucky, he was elected Chef de Chemin de Fer, the president of the national organization. He was also a Mason and an American Legion member.

Ingram was a member of so many social organizations — 28 altogether — that he had a special pocketbook made to carry all his membership cards, a feature story in the Los Angeles Times reported in 1928.

Ingram took the name Snapper as his own when he became a member of the Shriners. He explained in 1927:

I was interested in athletics and became a member of the Shrine patrol drill team. Being the shortest man in the contingent, I was given the end position and among our maneuvers was a "crack-the whip" movement. Being on the end of the rank, I was on the "snapper" end of the whip and because of the many tumbles I incurred from the "cracking of the whip" I was called "Snapper."

He died on April 19, 1966, after a fall in his home at 407 South Fuller Avenue. He was survived by his wife, Anita, whom he had married in 1930.