Samuel Osgood
Samuel Osgood | |
---|---|
4th United States Postmaster General | |
In office September 26, 1789 – August 12, 1791 | |
President | George Washington |
Preceded by | Ebenezer Hazard |
Succeeded by | Timothy Pickering |
Personal details | |
Born | Andover, Massachusetts, British America (now North Andover) | February 3, 1747
Died | August 12, 1813 New York City, U.S. | (aged 66)
Political party | Federalist |
Spouse(s) | Martha Brandon (1775–1778) Maria Bowne Franklin (1786–1813) |
Children | 6 |
Relatives | Vanderbilt family |
Education | Harvard University (BA) |
Samuel Osgood (February 3, 1747 – August 12, 1813) was an American merchant and statesman born in
In 1812, he was elected the first president of the newly formed City Bank of New York, which later became Citibank, predecessor of today's Citigroup.[1][2]
Early life
John Osgood came to Massachusetts from Andover in England in 1638. In 1646 he started a new settlement there and named it Andover for his home town. Four generations later, Captain Peter Osgood lived there and in 1747 he had a third son whom he named Samuel.[3]
Samuel attended Dummer Academy (now The Governor's Academy), and then Harvard College,[1] where he studied theology and graduated in 1770. Later, he returned to Andover to follow a mercantile career. He joined the local militia, was elected to represent the town in the colonial assembly, and in 1775 to the provincial congress that functioned as a revolutionary government.[4]
The Revolution
Osgood led a local company of minutemen into the
The Provincial Congress named Osgood to the Massachusetts Board of War and he served there until 1780 when the government was reorganized. He was a delegate to the state's constitutional convention in 1779-1780. Under the new Constitution he was elected to the
After a brief term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1784, the governor appointed Osgood a judge in 1785 but he soon resigned when the National Congress made him a commissioner of the Treasury later that year. He moved to New York City to take up this office, which he held until the Congressional Government ended.
Postmaster General and New York career
When a new U.S. government was installed in 1789,
The seat of the Federal Government at that time was in New York City and the official residence of the President was located at the Samuel Osgood House at 1 Cherry Street, which was the home of Samuel Osgood and his family. Osgood offered the mansion to Washington so that the President and his wife would have what was then considered the finest house in the city as their home. The residence thus became America's first executive mansion.[2]
When the Federal Government moved to
.He was a member of the
Osgood was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in his later years devoted time to writing and study. He had an extensive correspondence with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson among others.
Personal life
On January 4, 1775, Osgood married Martha Brandon, who died in 1778. On May 24, 1786, Osgood married Maria Bowne (1754-1813), widow of Walter Franklin and mother of Maria Franklin Clinton, first wife of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. They had a daughter named Martha Brandon Osgood, who married diplomat Edmond-Charles Genêt. Osgood's brother, Isaac, married Sarah Pickman (1772-1791) on October 12, 1790; following her death, he married her sister, Rebecca Taylor Pickman (1775-1801), on December 8, 1794. They had a son, Isaac Osgood Jr., whose daughter Charlotte married Moses T. Stevens, and a daughter, Sally Pickman Osgood, who married Bailey Loring and had a son, George B. Loring. Thirdly, Isaac married Mary Pickman in 1802, the cousin of his first two wives. His first two wives were cousins of, and his third wife a sister of, Benjamin Pickman.
Death
Osgood died in New York City in 1813.
References
- ^ a b University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs Archived 2010-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e "SAMUEL OSGOOD". Osgoode Family Association. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
- Gayton Pickman Osgood[H.U.Class of 1815] was his nephew.
- ^ "A list of Civil Officers of the Revolutionary Period
second quarter of the Town's Second Century
Representatives to the General Court". Andover, Massachusetts / Andover Historical Society. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2010. - ^ "OSGOOD BIOGRAPHIES". Osgood Family History Site. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ American Philosophical Society: Ebenezer Hazard papers, 1766-1813
- ^ "Neither Snow nor Rain..." HistoryNet, Weider History Group. 19 August 1997. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
- ^ Miller Center
- ^ "Women in the U.S. Postal System". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
Further reading
- Samuel Osgood (April 1889). Mrs. William C. Eddy (granddaughter) (ed.). "Sketch of the Life of Samuel Osgood". The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries. 21 (4): 324–8.
External links
- United States Congress. "Samuel Osgood (id: O000116)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Samuel Osgood at Find a Grave