Biography

The founder of a farm machine manufacturing company which eventually became International Harvester, David M. Osborne, who died at age 63, was also active in 19th Century Republican politics, and became the first of three generations of Osbornes to serve as Mayor of Auburn, NY, an office he held in 1879-80. He was also the patriarch of a distinguished American family. Born in Rye, NY, to John Hall Osborne and the former Caroline Bulkley, in 1851 he married the celebrated Eliza Wright, an activist in the Women's Suffrage Movement. Four children were born to the couple, including the noted philanthropist and Boston civic leader Helen Osborne Storrow, and the celebrated Thomas Mott Osborne, who followed in his footsteps as a businessman and (Democratic) mayor of Auburn, NY, before achieving even greater reknown as a prison reformer. David Osborne died before the births of Thomas's sons Charles D. Osborne, a mayor of Auburn in the 1930's, and Lithgow Osborne, a distinguished American diplomat, both of whom have since joined their forebears in the Osborne Family plot. 

 Spouse:
 Eliza Wright Osborne (1830 - 1911)
 
 Children:
  Florence Osborne (____ - 1877)*
  Emily Osborne Harris (1853 - 1940)*
  Thomas Mott Osborne (1859 - 1926)*
  Helen Osborne Storrow (1864 - 1944)*

He and his wife travelled with WSJ, JWS, and the Knapps to San Francisco for two months in 1871.