First U.S. Postmaster General
Was Andover war hero

The first Postmaster General of the United States was a Harvard graduate 
from Andover who later became president of a bank that is now Citicorp.
Pompous yet handsome, Samuel Osgood was a Revolutionary War hero and a 
descendent of Andover’s founder, John Osgood. He was appointed Postmaster 
General by President Washington in 1789 and served in that post for two years. 
Benjamin Franklin was named Postmaster General by the Continental Congress and 
before the United States became a nation.

The Postal Service had its beginnings when in 1775 the Continental Congress 
called for “a line of posts from Falmouth (Maine) to Savannah. Replacing the 
Royal Postal system was a monumental project for Osgood and the new republic, 
for many of the communities were located in the wilds west of Worcester. When 
the Federal Government moved to Philadelphia, Osgood chose to remain in New 
York and resigned his post in 1791. He was subsequently elected to the New 
York State Assembly where he became speaker and then appointed chief naval 
officer of the Port of New York, a position he held until his death in 1813.
In 1812, he was also named president of the newly formed City Bank of New 
York, which later became Citibank and then Citicorp.

He was graduated from Dummer Academy (now Governor’s Academy) and Harvard 
College in 1770, where he studied theology. He commanded a company of 
Minutemen to the Battle of Lexington and pursued the defeated and retreating 
British to Cambridge. Fearing British plunder, books from Harvard libraries 
were removed and shipped for safe harbor in several outlying towns, including 
the home of Col. Osgood in Andover. The house stills stands on Osgood Street, 
just north of the entrance of the present high school.

-- Leo Chabot