Samuel Prather Snider

Samuel Prather Snider (October 9, 1845 – September 24, 1928) was a United States Representative from Minnesota and a businessman active in railroads, agriculture, and mining. He was born in Mount Gilead, Morrow County, Ohio, where he attended the public schools and the local high school. He pursued further education at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, reflecting an early commitment to formal study before entering military and commercial life.

During the American Civil War, Snider enlisted as a private in the Sixty-fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His service as an enlisted soldier placed him among the large number of Ohio volunteers who fought for the Union cause. Following the war, he did not immediately enter politics but instead turned to business, engaging in commercial pursuits in New York. This postwar period in New York provided him with experience in commerce and enterprise that would later inform his activities in the developing economy of the Upper Midwest.

In 1876, Snider moved west to Minnesota and settled in Minneapolis, which was then emerging as a major regional center. There he became involved in significant infrastructure and resource-development projects. He organized and built the Midland Railway in southern Minnesota, contributing to the expansion of the state’s rail network and the broader economic growth of the region. In addition to his railroad interests, he engaged in agricultural pursuits and the mining of iron ore, activities that tied him to two of Minnesota’s most important economic sectors in the late nineteenth century.

Snider’s prominence in business and local affairs led to his entry into state politics. He served as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1884 to 1888, participating in the legislative work of a state that was still relatively young and rapidly developing. His tenure in the state legislature helped establish his reputation within the Republican Party and provided a platform for his subsequent bid for national office.

Building on his state legislative experience, Snider was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-first United States Congress, serving from March 4, 1889, to March 3, 1891, as a Representative from Minnesota. During this single term in Congress, he represented the interests of a state undergoing swift economic and demographic change, shaped in part by the very rail and resource enterprises in which he had been involved. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress, reflecting the competitive and shifting political climate of the period.

Snider remained active in national party affairs even after leaving Congress. In 1892 he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, participating in the selection of the party’s presidential ticket and contributing to the broader direction of Republican politics at the national level. His role as a convention delegate underscored his continued standing within the party and his ongoing engagement with public life beyond elective office.

In his later years, Snider retired from active business and political pursuits and continued to reside in Minneapolis. He lived there until his death on September 24, 1928. He was interred in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, a resting place for many of the city’s notable figures, marking the close of a life that spanned the Civil War era, the expansion of the American railroad system, and the political development of Minnesota from a frontier state to a more mature member of the Union.