Samuel Osgood (February 3, 1747 – August 12, 1813) was an American merchant and statesman born in Andover, Massachusetts, currently a part of North Andover, Massachusetts. His family home still stands at 440 Osgood Street in North Andover and his home in New York City, the Samuel Osgood House, served as the country's first Presidential mansion. He served in the Massachusetts and New York State legislatures, represented Massachusetts in the Continental Congress and was the fourth Postmaster General of the United States (the first under the current Constitution), serving during George Washington's first term.
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.
Samuel attended Dummer Academy (now The Governor's Academy), and then Harvard College, 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.
The Revolution
During the American Revolution, Osgood led a local company of minutemen into the Battle of Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775.
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, President Washington appointed Osgood the first Postmaster General under the new U.S. Constitution, replacing Ebenezer Hazard who was commissioned postmaster of the city of New York by the Continental Congress. Osgood served as Postmaster from 1789 to 1791. One of the first things Osgood would do is make the Post Office in Baltimore the new regional headquarters, whose postmaster was Mary Katherine Goddard. Osgood ordered Goddard to resign from her post and was replaced by John White.
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.
In 1807, Osgood helped purchase the site of what became Spring Street Presbyterian Church.
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.
His birthplace in North Andover, Massachusetts, is located on a street named for his family, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as is his New York residence. Col. Osgood's portrait has been housed in the President's Room of the U.S. Capitol since Lincoln's presidency.