Simon Snyder (5 November 1759-9 November 1819) was the Democratic-Republican Governor of Pennsylvania from 20 December 1808 to 16 December 1817, succeeding Thomas McKean and preceding William Findlay.
Biography[]
Simon Snyder was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1759, the son of German Lutheran parents. He was apprenticed to a tanner in York before moving to Selinsgrove in 1784, and he opened a gristmill before serving as a justice of the peace for twelve years. He served in the State House from 1797 to 1807 and as Governor from 1808 to 1817, relocating the capital from Lancaster to Harrisburg in 1812. He supported the War of 1812 wholeheartedly, and he was briefly considered to be a vice-presidential running mate for James Madison. Snyder was elected to the State Senate in 1818, and he died of typhoid fever in 1819.