John Sanford (1803)

John Sanford (June 3, 1803 - October 4, 1857) was a U.S. Representative from New York.

Born in Roxbury, Connecticut, he was the second son of Sarah Curtis (1771–1856) and her husband Stephen Sandford I (1769–1848). John Sanford was a brother to Nehemiah Curtis Sanford who was the father of Henry Shelton Sanford, the diplomat who founded the city of Sanford, Florida.

Having received a good education, John Sanford moved to Amsterdam, New York, in 1821 where he taught school. In 1822 he married Amsterdam native Mary Slack (1803–1888) with whom he had three daughters and three sons:

• 1) Sarah Caoline (1824–1871)
• 2) Stephen (1826–1913)
• 3) Nelson (1828–1848)
• 4) David (1830–1885)
• 5) Aledah (born 1833)
• 6) Harriette (born 1836)

Sanford later taught in Mayfield and also engaged in mercantile pursuits there. He was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1843). He returned to Amsterdam and founded a carpet mill but the factory was destroyed by fire in 1854, whereupon he retired from active business.

John Sanford died in Amsterdam in 1857 and was interred there in the Green Hill Cemetery.

Source

• John Sanford (1803) at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

References

• Schenectady Digital History Archive — a service of the Schenectady County Public Library