Reverend Thaddeus Osgood (24 October 1775 – 19 January 1852) was an American missionary who worked extensively in Canada and was a pioneer of the promotion of philanthropic causes. His endeavours raised social concern for a variety of causes within Canadian society.
Thaddeus was the youngest son of Josiah Osgood and Sarah Stevens Osgood. He was born in Methuen, MA[1] and never married.
His father, with whom he was very close, died when he was thirteen years old. At first he had decided to become a tanner. However, two events happened that changed the course of his life. First, either because of a serious illness that he later ascribed to the unhealthy atmosphere of the tannery, or because of the shock he sustained by the death of his fiance on the eve of their marriage[2], he gave up his work as a tanner became involved in the Evangelical movement that swept New England during the turn-of-the-century. He decided to devote his life to God.
Osgood attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH from 1799 to 1803, studying under Drs. Lathrop, Worcester, and Dwight, Congregational ministers, and received his license to preach in 1804. He acted as a supply pastor to many poorer congregations in Connecticut before setting out in October 1807 to spread the gospel to the many Indian tribes and destitute settlements in New York and Upper Canada. He was ordained by the Council of Congregational Ministers on June 15, 1808, in North Wilbraham, MA. And was appointed a missionary by The Society for Propagating the Gospel among Indians and others in North America, preaching in settlements through which he passed.
Initially, Thaddeus concentrated on the distribution of religious tracts, although his interest turned increasingly towards the issues of illiteracy. His annual journeys, started in October, 1807, and took him through Vermont into "The Canadas", crossing at Niagara before he came to Buffalo for the first time during his second annual journey in 1808, after his visit to Buffalo, he went on to Pennsylvania, returning by a more southern route to Hartford, CT. In the course of his tours he held religious services in most of the settlements through which he passed, organizing churches, establishing Sunday schools, and urging the establishment of elementary schools wherever it was desirable to do so. He rendering such service in distributing books, baptizing children, as the circumstances demanded and ministering to the settlers and Native Americans in many other ways, He first visited the village of Buffalo in 1808 as a traveling missionary preacher and it was during his fifth annual trip to Buffalo in 1812 that he founded and organized along with approximately ten members, what was then called the First Presbyterian and Congregational Church of Buffalo, NY. This original name was derived from the historical records that indicate that the Presbyterian and Congregational churches were looking at the prospects of joining together; this however was abandoned by 1815.
Following his 1812 visit to Buffalo, NY, he traveled to England where he organized support for mission work; he was remarkably successful in his efforts raising over $5000.00. He returned to Quebec City in 1814 where he established a school for promoting the education of the poor in Canada. Reverend Osgood, a tireless worker, traveled seven times overseas to England and Scotland, most notably in 1825-26, 1829, 1835 to raise funds for missionary work throughout the areas that are now Ontario and Quebec finally concentrating his efforts in Montreal, which in his later years, became the focus of his work. Although a lifetime Congregationalist, he always stressed non-denominational aspects of his work and was throughout his lifetime, described as being a quiet, inoffensive man of earnest piety, always self-denying about his accomplishments and very much devoted to the spiritual welfare of the young. He died in Glasgow, Scotland on January 19, 1852,[3] near the start of his seventh overseas trip to secure funding for missionary work.