Jedediah Sanger (February 28, 1751 – June 6, 1829) was the founder of the town of New Hartford, New York, United States.

He was a native of Sherborn, Massachusetts, and the ninth child of Richard and Deborah Sanger, a prominent colonial New England family.

To facilitate travel between the settlements, Sanger was an investor in the Seneca and Chenango Turnpikes (now New York State Route 12).

[3][a] Sanger III was also a successful businessman who inherited a sizable fortune from his father in 1731, which he enlarged through a lucrative trading business in Boston, real estate speculation in Maine, and the operation of a store and tavern in Sherborn.

The family, one of the most prominent in Sherborn's history, lived in the Richard Sanger III House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In his first five days service, in April 1775, he rose from the rank of private in Captain Benjamin Bullard's Company of Minutemen to 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Massachusetts Regiment.

[11]: 683 [f] The resulting financial issues Sanger suffered were a contributory factor in his deciding to leave the area and start over in the frontier of central New York.

He resold a large tract east of the creek, a year after purchasing it, to Joseph Higbee, the second settler in New Hartford.

[2]: 280  Sanger owned a paper mill on Sauquoit Creek, purchasing it around 1810-12 and selling it to Samuel Lyon before 1820.

[15]: 464 [17]: 174 There is legend that Sanger bought 1,000 acres, some of which became the town of New Hartford, and then sold half to Higbee for the same price.

[1]: 58  The earliest recorded account, published by Jones in the Annals and Recollections of Oneida County in 1851, states that Sanger bought 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land for $500 (fifty cents/acre).

Sanger sold the portion east of Sauquoit Creek, thought to be 500 acres (200 ha), to Joseph Higbee (or Higby), within a year, for $500 (one dollar/acre), a shrewd deal netting him the land where the majority of New Hartford's commercial development occurred for no cost.

[2]: 272 [h][i] In 1889, it was reported, based upon analysis of property deed records, that Higbee purchased a 492-acre lot in December 1791 for about $1.06 per acre from Sanger, who reserved the rights to the water power of the creek.

[1]: 58 In 1810, Sanger was one of many claimants that sought relief from the legislature to settle a dispute over the title to 1,284 acres (520 ha) arising after the land was omitted from a 1793 deed transferring the property to Philip Schuyler from the heirs of William Cosby.

[23] Sanger sold land in New Hartford to Richard Wills, an African American who established a farm and built a house there.

[28] Two years later, Sanger and two others, Michael Myers and John J. Morgan, contracted to buy the portion of this land known as "township 20" from the state in 1790-91 as an investment for "three shillings and three pence per acre".

[2]: 421 In 1795, the town of Sangerfield was created by the state legislature and named to honor Sanger,[30] who in turn agreed to donate 50 acres (20 ha) "to the church of any religious denomination which should build the first house for public worship."

[31] In 1812, Sanger and Judge Youngs, also of New Hartford, purchased 100 acres (40 ha) of land in Chittenango in Madison County from the bankrupt owner.

[33] On April 7, 1789, the first town meeting of Whitestown was held in the barn of the area's namesake, Hugh White.

[1]: 68  The first Oneida County Court session was held in May 1798 at the schoolhouse near Fort Stanwix (present-day Rome), with Sanger presiding as First Judge.

[2]: 273 [22]: 480  This made the village prosper as it benefited from both the commerce brought by the road and the industry supported by the water power of the Saquoit.

[52] Sanger, with Elijah Risley and Samuel Wells,[1]: 108  founded the first newspaper printed in the state west of Albany, New York.

[53] Sanger was one of the principal proprietors of the Paris Furnace Company, the first manufacturing operation in the Sauquoit Valley.

The forge and foundry, which went into operation in 1801, made iron products such as axes, hoes, scythes, plows, kettles commonly used at the time for making soap or potash, and hollow ware.

[54]: 278 The site of the company and surrounding settlement, 7 miles (11 km) up the Sauquoit from New Hartford, was known as Paris Furnace, and renamed Clayville in 1848 in honor of Henry Clay.

Desiring a church, on November 3, 1791, Sanger and others wrote to George Washington requesting a donation of 25 acres for a minister.

The petition stated that the influence of a minister would "encourage sobriety, industry, morality, and religion among the people, and to render them good citizens."

[17]: 736 [63] In 1793, Samuel Kirkland established Hamilton Oneida Academy in Clinton to educate and civilize the Iroquois (Five Nations) Indians in the region.

His charities are widely extended, And his munificence has reared And supported several edifices Devoted to the service of his Maker.

[17]: 174 [76] Sanger's family bible is in the possession of the Oneida County Historical Society and is still used for ceremonial purposes, such as when the new town supervisor took the oath of office in 2010.