Elias Weber Bingeman Snider

E.W.B. Snider, a native of Waterloo, was one of the “Fathers of Ontario Hydro.” Recognition of his pioneering, with its great benefits to Waterloo County, is perpetuated in a 20-foot monument erected in St. Jacobs in 1956, which was unveiled by the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, Louis O. Breithaupt, and on which a light burns continuously.

After working at his father’s flour mill at German Mills he purchased a mill at St. Jacobs. He established the Snider Lumber Co. in Gravenhurst to provide lumber for barrels.

He promoted the Berlin and Elmira Railway Co., and then bought a Waterloo foundry that led to the incorporation of the Waterloo Manufacturing Co., producing modern machinery to harvest more western wheat.

He was elected to the Ontario legislature for North Waterloo in 1881 and served for thirteen years. It was said of him: “He was a combination of idealist and practical man of affairs. When one dream was achieved, he went on to the next.”