Samuel Osgood

Samuel Osgood was born in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1748. He served as a Continental Army officer during the American Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of colonel, and later served in the Continental Congress and the Massachusetts legislature. President George Washington appointed him the first U.S. Postmaster General in 1789, a position he held until 1791. After retiring from federal service, Osgood became active in New York commercial and civic affairs.

Samuel Osgood became the first president of City Bank of New York upon its charter in 1812, though his connection to the institution was primarily one of civic credibility and merchant network access rather than long-term operational stewardship. Osgood's background as a Revolutionary War officer, Continental Congressman, and the nation's first Postmaster General gave the newly chartered bank the institutional legitimacy it needed to establish credibility with New York's merchant class at a time when the United States banking system was still nascent and public trust in new financial institutions was fragile. He served in the role until his death in August 1813, barely a year after the bank's founding, and his tenure was more symbolic than operational in shaping the institution's long-term direction. The bank he helped establish would nonetheless go on to become one of the most consequential financial institutions in American and global history.