“The History of Jefferson County, Wisconsin”, published: Chicago:  
Western Historical Company.   1879.


M. SAWYER,  proprietor of the Sawyer House, Jefferson; was born in 
Templeton, Mass., and came to Ohio in his youth, and was general 
contractor on the Portsmouth & Cleveland Canal; completed the first 
canal tunnel in the United States, on a canal between Pittsburg and 
Blairsville; he built several sections of the railroad, the lock, canal and 
aqueduct at Hollidaysburg; also the railroad from here to the summit of 
the Alleghany Mountains; then came to Ohio and built a section of the 
Sandy & Beaver Canal; then two or three sections on Cross-Cut Canal; 
also widened and deepened Cuyahoga River for one mile; built seven 
locks between Cuyahoga Falls and Akron; came West in the winter of 
1841, and settled about three miles south of Jefferson; moved into his 
present house in 1844, and opened it as a hotel in 1858, in which he still 
continues.  Mr. S. built a saw-mill in Jefferson about 1846.  In 1852, 
went to California, returning in September, 1862; has been Under Sheriff 
in Jefferson Co.  Opened a general merchandise store in 1844, which he 
carried on for two or three years; then sold out and ran a saw-mill on the 
present site of the Woolen Mills till 1852.  Married Miss Caroline 
Boyden Dec. 10, 1834; have had two children – William M. and Mattie, 
now Mrs. Pearsons, of Washington, D.C.


Submitted by:  Linda Pingel  (LPingel@worldnet.att.net)