Snyder, Adam W.

Born: 1799-10-06 Pennsylvania

Died: 1842-05-14 Belleville, Illinois

Flourished: Saint Clair County, Illinois

Alternate name: Snider

Snyder moved to Ohio in 1815, where he worked as a clerk in a county store. In 1817, Jesse B. Thomas brought Snyder to Cahokia, Illinois, to operate a wool-carding machine. In 1820, he married Alzine Perrey, and had three sons. He was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1820 and began practicing law. In December 1830, Snyder won a special election for Illinois Senate to fill the seat of Risdon Moore, Jr., who died before the session commenced. During the Black Hawk War, Snyder served as a private in John Winstanley's company of mounted volunteers, and later was captain of his own company. In August 1832, St. Clair County voters elected Snyder as a Jacksonian to the Illinois Senate, where he served until 1836. In 1833, he moved his family to Belleville, Illinois. In August 1836, Snyder won election as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives, where he represented the First District from 1837 to 1839. Upon returning to Illinois, Snyder returned to the Illinois Senate, representing St. Clair from 1840 to 1842. Snyder ran for Illinois governor as a Democrat in 1842, but he passed away at his home while the campaign was in progress. He died from an infection of the lungs that he developed while serving his term in Congress.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, St. Clair County, 2 October 1820, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 100, 202, 203, 208; Gravestone, Green Mount Protestant Cemetery, St. Clair, IL; History of St. Clair County, Illinois (Philadelphia: Brink, McDonough, 1881), 93; John Reynolds, Pioneer History of Illinois (Chicago: Fergus, 1887), 288-289; Isaac H. Elliott, Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846-8 (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1882), 117, 184; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 101, 244, 252, 331.