Simon Snyder
Governor of Pennsylvania
Died when: 60 years 4 days (720 months)Star Sign: Scorpio
Simon Snyder (November 5, 1759 – November 9, 1819) was the third Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, serving three terms from 1808 to 1817.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.
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.
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