Simon Snyder

For the business owner and politician in Ontario, Canada, see Simon Snyder (Canadian politician).

Simon Snyder
3rd Governor of Pennsylvania
In office
December 20, 1808 – December 16, 1817
Preceded byThomas McKean
Succeeded byWilliam Findlay
Personal details
Born(1759-11-05)November 5, 1759
Lancaster, Province of Pennsylvania, British America
DiedNovember 9, 1819(1819-11-09) (aged 60)
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, U.S.[1]
Political partyDemocratic-Republican
Spouses
Elizabeth Michael
​
​
(m. 1790; died 1794)​
Catherine Antes
​
​
(m. 1796; died 1810)​
Mary Slough Scott
​
(m. 1814)​
Signature

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.

Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Snyder established a gristmill in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. He was elected as a justice of the peace and served as a delegate to the 1790 Pennsylvania constitutional convention. He served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1797 to 1807, and won election as Speaker of the House. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he ran for governor in 1805 but was defeated by Thomas McKean.

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.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference phmc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "The Governors of Pennsylvania." Mount Union, Pennsylvania: The Mount Union Times, January 27, 1911, p. 1 (subscription required).
  3. ^ Swetnam, George. "Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania." Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: The Pittsburgh Press, November 23, 1969, p. 242 (subscription required).