Background
He was born in Waterloo, Canada West in 1842, the son of a farmer, and, after leaving school at 12, worked on the family farm and then at the family"s gristmills in German Mills (later Kitchener), becoming mill manager in 1862.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Elias Snider
Edit ProfileCareer
He represented Waterloo North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal member from 1881 to 1894. In 1864, Snider married Nancy Weber. In 1871, he purchased a mill at Saint Jacobs, replacing the millstones with rollers, which produced a better quality of flour.
In 1884, he purchased a foundry at Waterloo, which produced agricultural implements and machinery.
He also owned a lumber company. Snider lobbied for the establishment of forest reserves while in office, seeing the disappearing forests in Waterloo County.
A generator at his mill in Saint Jacobs supplied electricity to the town. In 1900, with others, he formed the Michipicoten Falls Power Company Limited to provide hydroelectric power to mines north of Lake Superior.
Snider lobbied the provincial government to build power transmission lines to make power generated at Niagara Falls available to the rest of the province.
In 1903, he became the chair of the Ontario Power Commission, which laid the groundwork for the establishment of a provincial electric power utility. He died in Kitchener in 1921.
-
Born
-
Died
October 15, 1921 (aged 79) -
Nationality
Canada