Gideon Putnam

Gideon Putnam (April 17, 1763 – December 1, 1812) was an entrepreneur and a founder of Saratoga Springs, New York. He also worked as a miller and built the city's Grand Union and Congress Hotels. The Gideon Putnam Hotel in the Saratoga Spa State Park is named after Putnam.

Putnam was a nephew of revolutionary war generals Rufus Putnam and Israel Putnam.

Putnam was born to Mary (née Gibbs) and Stephen Putnam in 1763 in Sutton, Massachusetts. He was one of twelve children. In 1787, when Putnam was 19 years old, Putnam married 16-year-old Doanda Risley of Hartford, Connecticut. They went on to have five sons and four daughters. Their son Lewis was the "first white child born in Saratoga". The couple traveled to Middlebury, Vermont, where Putnam attempted to make a living as a miller. The settlement is now within the grounds of Middlebury College. Since the nearest gristmill was 40 miles (64 km) away with thick woods in between, he devised a method to grind grain on his own, "[cutting] out the top of [a] stump, and with a wooden pestle fitted to the excavation [grinding] their grain". Finding these circumstances undesirable, the Putnams moved to Rutland, Vermont, where their first son Benjamin was born.

In 1788 the Putnams traveled to Bemis Heights, New York, with Doanda's sister and brother-in-law, Anne (née Risley) and Dr. Clement Blakesley, respectively. Putnam found the land and wood in Bemis Heights to be especially agreeable, so he resolved to stay, constructing a loghouse for shelter. However, in spring of that year, torrential rains swept into the area, and the families were marooned by floods. A neighbor, Zophar Scidmore, came to their rescue in a sailboat. After staying in Scidmore's home for several days, the families departed, following an Indian trail to Saratoga Springs.

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