Gideon Granger
7thUnited States Postmaster General
In office November 28, 1801 – March 17, 1814
President	Thomas Jefferson James Madison
Preceded by	Joseph Habersham
Succeeded by	Return J. Meigs, Jr.
Personal details
Born	(1767-07-19)July 19, 1767 Suffield, Connecticut,British America
Died	December 31, 1822(1822-12-31) (aged 55) Canandaigua, New York,U.S.
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Spouse	Mindwell Pease ​ (m. 1790)​
Children	3, includingFrancis
Education	Yale University (BA)
Signature

Gideon Granger (July 19, 1767 – December 31, 1822) was an earlyAmerican politician and lawyer. He was the father of fellow Postmaster General andU.S. RepresentativeFrancis Granger.^[1]

Granger was born inSuffield, Connecticut on July 19, 1767. He was the son of Gideon Granger (1735–1800) and Tryphosia (née Kent) Granger (1738–1796).^[2][3]

He attended and graduated fromYale University and became a lawyer.^[4]

Granger was considered a brilliant political essayist. Using the pseudonymsAlgernon Sydney andEpaminondas many of his writings, defendingJeffersonian principles, were published in many pamphlets.

He was a member of theConnecticut House of Representatives and ran unsuccessfully for theUnited States Congress in the1797 special election for one of Connecticut's at-large congressional seats.^[5] A staunch supporter ofThomas Jefferson, Granger was appointed asPostmaster General in the first year of his first term in November 1801. He served in this post until 1814 when Jefferson's successor,James Madison, replaced him.^[2] He is the longest serving Postmaster General as of 2025.

After leavingWashington, D.C., Granger settled inCanandaigua, New York, where he built ahomestead that would be "unrivaled in all the nation" from which he could administer the many land tracts he had acquired farther to the west. Today his home is a museum. He became a member of theNew York Senate and continued to be influential in politics and law including being a key figure in theErie Canal project.

On June 14, 1790, Granger was married to Mindwell Pease (1770–1860), the daughter of Joseph Pease.^[6] Together, they were the parents of three sons, including:^[3]

• Francis Granger (1792–1868), who married Cornelia Rutsen Van Rensselaer (1798–1823), the granddaughter of Brigadier GeneralRobert Van Rensselaer,^[7][8][9] who was a member of theNew York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 and later a member of the New York State Assembly in the1st,2nd and4th New York State Legislatures.^[10]
• John Albert Granger (1795–1870),^[4] who married Harriet Jackson (1804–1868), the daughter of Amasa Jackson, the first president of the Union Bank of New York, and Mary (née Phelps) Jackson, the only daughter and heiress ofOliver Phelps. Her paternal grandfather was GeneralMichael Jackson, who commanded a regiment ofminutemen in theBattle of Lexington.^[11]

Ill health forced him to retire early in 1821 and he died the next year on December 31, 1822. He was interred inWoodlawn Cemetery in Canandaigua. Granger is the namesake ofGranger Township, Ohio.^[12]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toGideon Granger.

• Granger Homestead and Carriage Museum
• Gideon Granger atFind a Grave

• 1767 births
• 1822 deaths
• Connecticut Land Company
• Members of the Connecticut House of Representatives
• New York (state) lawyers
• New York (state) state senators
• Politicians from Canandaigua, New York
• People from Suffield, Connecticut
• United States postmasters general
• Yale University alumni
• New York (state) Democratic-Republicans
• 18th-century Connecticut politicians
• 19th-century American lawyers
• 19th-century members of the New York State Legislature
• Candidates in the 1797 United States elections

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