1. Simon Snyder was the third governor of Pennsylvania, serving three terms from 1808 to 1817.
20 Facts About Simon Snyder
1. 2.
Simon Snyder led the state through the War of 1812.
3.
Simon Snyder was elected as a justice of the peace and served as a delegate to the 1790 Pennsylvania constitutional convention.
4.
Simon Snyder served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1797 to 1807, and won election as Speaker of the House.
5.
Simon Snyder won election as governor in 1808 and won re-election in 1811 and 1814.
6.
Simon Snyder was the first governor elected in Pennsylvania who was of German descent, and was the first governor of Pennsylvania to issue a Thanksgiving Proclamation.
7.
Simon Snyder presided over the establishment of Harrisburg as the state capital.
8.
Simon Snyder strongly supported the War of 1812 and was a candidate for the Democratic-Republican vice presidential nomination in the 1816 presidential election.
9.
Simon Snyder's 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.
10.
In 1784, Simon Snyder moved to Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, where he opened a gristmill.
11.
Simon Snyder was elected as justice of the peace, serving for twelve years.
12.
Catherine Antes Simon Snyder died on March 15,1810, in Selinsgrove and is buried at the First Reformed Church Memorial Garden in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
13.
Simon Snyder began his political career as a justice of the peace.
14.
Simon Snyder sponsored the "Hundred-dollar Act," which embodied the arbitration principle.
15.
Simon 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.
16.
In 1812, Simon Snyder suggested relocating the capital city of the commonwealth from Lancaster to its present, more central location in Harrisburg.
17.
Simon Snyder supported the War of 1812 wholeheartedly despite Federalist cries of dissent.
18.
Simon Snyder was elected by the people of Union County, Pennsylvania, to the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1818.
19.
Simon Snyder died from typhoid fever in Selinsgrove on November 9,1819, before taking office.
20.
Simon Snyder is buried at the Old Lutheran Cemetery in Selinsgrove.