Simon Snyder (November 5, 1759–November 9, 1819) was the third governor of Pennsylvania, serving three terms from 1808 to 1817.[2] He led the state through the War of 1812.
He won election as governor in 1808 and won re-election in 1811 and 1814. He was the first governor elected in Pennsylvania who was of German descent, and was also the first governor of Pennsylvania to issue a Thanksgiving Proclamation.[3]
Snyder presided over the establishment of Harrisburg as the state capital. He strongly supported the War of 1812 and was a candidate for the Democratic-Republican vice presidential nomination in the 1816 presidential election. Following the conclusion of his third term, he was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 9th Senatorial District but died of typhoid fever in 1819 before he began to serve.
Early life
Snyder was born on November 5, 1759, in Lancaster in the Province of Pennsylvania. His parents were ethnic Germans. Anton Schneider and Agnesa Krämer (née Knippenberg) Schneider reared him in the Lutheran church. His father was a mechanic, and had immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1744 from Germany, part of a large wave of immigrants from there in the 18th century. The family was for many years associated with the Moravian Church in Lancaster, consistently listed in membership catalogs of the congregation during the 1760s and 1770s.[4] After his father's death in 1774, when Snyder was 15, the youth became apprenticed to a tanner in York, Pennsylvania, in order to learn a trade. He used his limited leisure time for study.
In 1790, Snyder married Elizabeth Michael. They had two children. Elizabeth died in 1794 and her widowed husband was left to raise their young children.
Snyder quickly remarried, as was common in those days, to Catherine Antes on July 12, 1796. He and his second wife had another five children together. Catherine Antes Snyder died on March 15, 1810, in Selinsgrove and is buried at the First Reformed Church Memorial Garden in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
In 1814, Snyder married Mary Slough Scott, a widow. They remained together until his death in 1819.
Early political career
Snyder began his political career as a justice of the peace. In 1789 he was elected as a delegate to revise Pennsylvania's state constitution in 1790. Following this, he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, serving from 1797 to 1807. During this time, he was elected three times as the speaker of the House: in 1804, in 1805, and in 1807.
While in the House, Snyder sought the governorship as a Jeffersonian Democrat in 1805, but he was defeated by the incumbent governor Thomas McKean, also a Jeffersonian Democrat. A lack of public recognition in comparison to the incumbent contributed to Snyder's losing the election.
Snyder sponsored the "Hundred-dollar Act," which embodied the arbitration principle. It provided for the trial of civil cases only when the amount in question was more than one hundred dollars.[5]
Governorship
In 1808, the Jeffersonians united behind Snyder, and he won the election for governor. Snyder ran again in the succeeding elections of 1811 and 1814, easily winning reelection against the Federalist candidates William Tilghman, Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and Isaac Wayne, respectively. In 1812, Snyder suggested relocating the capital city of the commonwealth from Lancaster to its present, more central location in Harrisburg. The General Assembly approved this proposal.
War of 1812
Snyder supported the War of 1812 wholeheartedly despite Federalist cries of dissent. With the United States emerging undefeated at the end of the war, this criticism subsided. After the war, John Binns supported elevating Snyder to consideration for the vice-presidential slot on President James Madison's ticket, but later the governor was disregarded as a possible candidate.
Penns Creek is a census-designated place (CDP) in Snyder County, Pennsylvania.
Selinsgrove is the largest borough in Snyder County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population is estimated to be 5,761 for the 2020 Census.
This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from 1790 to 1819.
David Stone was the 15th governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1808 to 1810. Both before and after his term as governor, he served as a U.S. senator, between 1801 and 1807 and between 1813 and 1814.
William Pinkney was an American statesman and diplomat, and was appointed the seventh U.S. Attorney General by President James Madison.
Amos Ellmaker was a U.S. politician, attorney, and judge from Pennsylvania. He served as the Pennsylvania Attorney General and was the Anti-Masonic vice presidential candidate in the 1832 presidential election.
Henry Augustus Philip Muhlenberg was an American political leader and diplomat. He was a member of the Muhlenberg family political dynasty.
The tertium quids were various factions of the Jeffersonian Republican Party in the United States from 1804 to 1812.
David Sherman Boardman was an American lawyer, judge, and state assemblyman in the early United States.
David Hazzard was an American merchant and politician from Milton, in Sussex County, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, then the National Republican Party, and finally the Whig Party. He served in the Delaware General Assembly, as Governor of Delaware, and as an associate justice of the Delaware Superior Court.
Michael Leib was an American physician and politician from Philadelphia. He served as a surgeon in the Philadelphia Militia during the American Revolutionary War. He served as a Democratic-Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives three times; from 1795 to 1798, 1806 to 1808 and 1817 to 1818. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Pennsylvania's 2nd congressional district from 1799 to 1803 and for Pennsylvania's 1st congressional district from 1803 to 1806. He served as a member of the United States Senate for Pennsylvania from 1809 to 1814. He also served as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 1st district from 1818 to 1821.
John Smilie was an Irish-American politician from Newtownards, County Down, Ireland. He served in both houses of the state legislature and represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House from 1793 until 1795 and from 1799 to 1812.
Ezra Butler was an American clergyman, politician, lawyer, judge, the 11th governor of Vermont, and a United States representative from Vermont.
John Snyder was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Thomas Wilson was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Isaac Van Horne was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Isaac Wilbour was an American politician from Rhode Island holding several offices, including the sixth Governor of the state.
James Gettys was the founder of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Samuel Futhey Dale was an American surveyor, militia member, judge, and legislator from Pennsylvania.
James Kelton Jr. was an American politician from Pennsylvania. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1804 to 1809 and from 1819 to 1820. He also served as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate from 1821 to 1826.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
