Elias Weber Bingeman Snider (June 19, 1842 – October 15, 1921) was an

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

businessman and political figure. He represented

Waterloo North Waterloo North was a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1968. It was located in the provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It was created by the ...

in the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

as a Liberal member from 1881 to 1894. He was born in

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, 1815 battle where Napoleon's French army was defeated by Anglo-allied and Prussian forces * Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Australia * Waterloo, New South Wale ...

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

in 1842, the son of a farmer and

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

minister, and, after leaving school at 12, worked on the family farm and then at the family's

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

s in German Mills (later Kitchener), becoming mill manager in 1862. In 1864, Snider married Nancy Weber. In 1871, he purchased a mill at St. Jacobs, replacing the millstones with rollers, which produced a better quality of flour. In 1884, he purchased a

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

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 Waterloo County was a county in Canada West in the United Province of Canada from 1853 until 1867, then in the Canadian province of Ontario from 1867 until 1973. It was the direct predecessor of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Situated on ...

. A generator at his mill in St. Jacobs supplied electricity to the town. In 1900, with others, he formed the Michipicoten Falls Power Company Limited to provide

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

power to mines north of

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

. Snider lobbied the provincial government to build power transmission lines to make power generated at

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...

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 married Helen Shoemaker in 1915 after the death of his first wife. He died in

Kitchener, Ontario Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about west of Toronto. It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional Administrative centre, seat. Kitchener was known as Berlin until a ...

in 1921.

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''Member's parliamentary history for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snider, Elias Weber 1842 births 1921 deaths Ontario Liberal Party MPPs Businesspeople from Waterloo, Ontario Politicians from Waterloo, Ontario Canadian Mennonites 19th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario