Francis Granger

Francis Granger (December 1, 1792 – August 31, 1868) was an American politician who represented Ontario County, New York, in the United States House of Representatives for three non-consecutive terms. He was a leading figure in the state and national Whig Party, particularly in its moderate-conservative faction. He served as a Whig vice presidential nominee on the party's multi-candidate 1836 ticket and, in that role, became the only person to ever lose a contingent election for the vice presidency in the U.S. Senate. He also served briefly in 1841 as United States Postmaster General in the cabinet of William Henry Harrison. In 1856, he became the final Whig Party chairman before the party's collapse, after which he joined the Constitutional Union Party.

Early life Granger was born in Suffield, Connecticut, on December 1, 1792. Granger was born into a prominent political family, with his father, Gideon Granger, serving in the Connecticut House of Representatives before being appointed by Thomas Jefferson as the longest serving Postmaster General in United States history. His mother was Mindwell (née Pease) Granger (1770–1860) and his first cousin, Amos Phelps Granger, also served two terms in the United States House of Representatives. who was a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 and later a member of the New York State Assembly in the 1st, 2nd and 4th New York State Legislatures. (Robert Van Rensselaer was the son of Johannes Van Rensselaer, the proprietor and lord of the lower manor of Rensselaerwyck known as Fort Crailo.) Robert was also the younger brother of both Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, the 3rd Lieutenant Governor of New York and Catherine Van Rensselaer, who married General Philip Schuyler. Together, they had a daughter, son, and an unnamed second daughter who died with her mother in childbirth in 1823.

Adele Granger (1819–1892), who married John Eliot Thayer (1803–1857), the son of Nathaniel Thayer. After his death, she remarried in 1865 to Robert Charles Winthrop (1809–1894), a U.S. Senator and Representative who served as Speaker of the House. Gideon Granger II (1821–1868), who married Isaphine Pierson (1826–1905), the daughter of U.S. Representative Isaac Pierson.

Granger died in Canandaigua on August 31, 1868. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.