Osgood, Samuel, 1747-1813

Samuel Osgood (February 3, 1747 – August 12, 1813) was an American merchant and statesman. 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 from 1789 to 1791.

Born in Andover in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay (now North Andover, Massachusetts), Osgood attended Dummer Academy (now The Governor's Academy) and Harvard College. 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. Osgood led a local company of minutemen into the Battle of Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775, later being named Major of a brigade, serving as an aide to General Artemas Ward, and being promoted to Colonel before leaving the Continental Army in 1776.

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 Massachusetts State Senate in 1780 and served two terms. The new government named Osgood as one of their delegates to the Continental Congress and he served there from 1782 until 1784. 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 United States Treasury later that year. He moved to New York City to take up this office, serving in that role from 1785 to 1789.

When a new American government was installed in 1789, President Washington appointed Osgood the first Postmaster General under the new U.S. Constitution; Osgood served in this role until the Federal Government moved to Philadelphia in 1791. Remaining in New York City, he served as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1800-01 and 1802, and was Speaker in 1800-01. In 1803, he was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson as Naval Officer of the Port of New York, a position he held until his death. For the last year of his life he was President of the new City Bank of New York. Osgood died in New York City. Originally interred in New York's Brick Presbyterian Church, his remains were reinterred in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery in 1856.