WI BIO - Winnebago Co - SAWYER, Edgar P. & Philetus Biography of Edgar P. SAWYER [son of Philetus] History of Northern Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical, 1881, v II, p 1163 Edgar P. SAWYER, of the firm of P. Sawyer & Son, lumbermen, was born 04 December 1842 at Crown Point, Essex County, New York. He came to [the Territory of] Wisconsin with his parents, Philetus and Melvina M. (HADLEY) SAWYER, in 1847. [Wisconsin became a State 29 May 1848.] Since he became of age he has been identified with his father's extensive business enterprises, having a third interest in all their operations. He [Edgar P. SAWYER] is Vice President of the Sawyer-Goodman Company of Chicago, a lumber company with a paid up capital of $500,000. On 18 October 1864 at Oshkosh [Winnebago County, Wisconsin] Mr. [Edgar P.] SAWYER was married to [Miss?] Mary E. [Mary Eleanor] JEWELL, a native of the State of New York. They [Edgar Philetus Mary Eleanor SAWYER] have two children: Maria M. and Philetus H. [DAR records, vol 18, p 365, gives # 17335, Mrs. Nia (SAWYER) CHASE, born in Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, wife of Charles Curry CHASE, as a descendant of Edgar Philetus and Mary Eleanor (JEWELL) SAWYER. Mary Eleanor JEWELL was probably related to the JEWELL brothers, H. C. and G. A., who came West in 1848. H. C. JEWELL was the first Register of Deeds of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, the second Postmaster, Alderman of the Fifth Ward of Oshkosh for seven years, a member of the State Legislature in 1867, and a member of the Winnebago County Board eight terms, its chairman for two. H. C. JEWELL ran a general store and was a member of the firm of Jewell, Lawrence & Company that built and operated a shingle mill in the village of Algoma, now Oshkosh, that burned in 1866. There may also be a connection to A. JEWELL, since Seymour W. HOLLISTER II, A. JEWELL, and Philetus SAWYER formed the firm of Hollister, Jewell & Company at Sault de Sainte Marie, Chippewa County, Michigan, and manufactured lumber there for five years until the mill burned.] 1st Biography of Philetus SAWYER [father of Edgar P.] History of Northern Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical, 1881, v II, pp 1162-1163 Hon. Philetus SAWYER, United States Senator [from Wisconsin, 1881-93] now sixty-four years of age, was born 22 September 1816 [in Whiting, Rutland County] Vermont. He was born neither great nor wealthy, for his father was a farmer and blacksmith at a time when and in a region where those employments promised little but hard work and a subsistence. He has not had greatness thrust upon him by adventitious circumstances, for there has been nothing accidental in his career. Whatever wealth and honor in station and reputation he has attained has been achieved by an honest and industrious use of the faculties with which nature endowed him, and of the opportunities which were open to all competitors. [In 1817 he moved with his parents to Crown Point, County, New York.] his father removed to Essex County, New York, where his childhood and youth were passed among the mountains and forests of the Adirondacks. His early life, like that of most of the dwellers of that region, was one of manual labor, with only such opportunities for education as the common schools of that time and place furnished for the children of those whose life work was to toil for bread and raiment. In every step and in every phase of his life, Mr. SAWYER has been constantly acquiring that knowledge of men and affairs which is a condition of leadership and success in a generation eminently practical and looking mainly to material results. At seventeen, by an arrangement with his father, he became the master of his own time and labor. These he employed so successfully that in 1847, at the age of thirty-one, he was enabled to seek a more profitable field for his future efforts in [Fond du Lac County] Wisconsin, with a capital of about $2,000. Two seasons of not very successful farming in his new home turned his thoughts to his former occupation of logging and lumbering. The great Wolf River pinery was then scarcely touched. To the practical lumbermen it offered a prospect for accumulating wealth. In December 1849 Mr. SAWYER removed to the village of Algoma, now in the city of Oshkosh. [The village of Algoma was started in the summer of 1846, the same year that Oshkosh was incorporated as a village. In April 1853 Oshkosh became a city, and in 1856 Algoma became the Fifth Ward of Oshkosh, Algoma also being the name of the township containing the city of Oshkosh. The town in Kewaunee County first known as Ahnapee and renamed Algoma is entirely different.] Here [the village of Algoma], the following season, he took a contract to run, subsequently rented, and finally purchased, a saw mill which had nearly ruined its owners, and from that to the present time his career as a business man has been a constant success. Where others have failed he has succeeded. When others have stood still he has advanced. His industry and sagacity have been so rewarded that his financial standing is now in the front rank among the solid men of Wisconsin. His reputation for integrity, open-handed generosity in his dealings, and sound judgment in business has been uniform, and doubtless has contributed to his success. It is inevitable that such a man should be called into the public service in a new and thriving country. Mr. SAWYER served several years in the Common Council of the young city of his residence. In 1857 and 1861 he was a member of the State Legislature. He served as Mayor [of Oshkosh] two years [1863-1864]. In 1864 he was clothed with full power and discretion to compromise and settle the bonded debt of the city, which he accomplished on exceedingly favorable terms. In 1862, though strongly solicited, he declined on account of his private business to become a candidate for Congress. He was a Republican of Free Soil Democratic antecedents. In 1862 the district elected the Democratic candidate by a majority of over one thousand. Two years later [1864] Mr. SAWYER consented to be a candidate, and was [p 1163] elected by a majority of about three thousand. From 1865 to 1875 he was continued in the House of Representatives [5th District 1865-73; 6th District 1873-75], and retired after a continuous service of then years only because he refused [in 1864] to be a candidate for re-election. [Philetus SAWYER was elected as a Republican to the 39th and the four succeeding Congresses, serving from 04 March 1865 to 03 March 1875.] His record as a member of Congress is part of the history of that time. He was for one term Chairman of the Committee on Government [Public] Expenditures [42nd Congress]; in the 43rd Congress Chairman of the Pacific Railroad Committee; for eight years on the Committee on Commerce, for six years the second member on that committee, and during a large portion of that time the acting Chairman. Therefore it became his duty several times to report and take charge of the bills making appropriations for rivers and harbors, and a fair illustration of the confidence of his fellow members is found in the fact that such bills appropriating millions were sometimes passed under suspension of the rules when reported and vouched for by him. [Philetus SAWYER was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1881, re-elected in 1887, and served from 04 March 1881 to 03 March 1893. He was chairman of the Committee on Railroads in the 48th and 49th Congresses, and on the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads in the 50th through 52nd Congresses.] Mr. SAWYER is not fitted by nature, training or inclination for speech-making in Congress, but his acknowledged influence and sound judgment on matters of practical legislation have been of more influence in obtaining and retaining the public confidence of the people of Wisconsin than would any number of speeches reported in the Congressional Record, and if the future may be judged by the past, he will be a useful and influential Senator. In any legislative body, a clear-headed man of affairs who does not form conclusions from superficial examinations and brings strict integrity, as well as sound judgment to the work of legislation, he is a valuable and respected member. Such a member Mr. SAWYER has always been heretofore, and doubtless will be in his new position. Philetus SAWYER is President of the Sawyer-Goodman Company, of Chicago, a corporation owning a saw mill at Marinette [Marinette County], Wisconsin, and lumber yards in Chicago and various other places. He is Vice President of the Chicago, St. Paul & Omaha Railway Company, and has charge of the lands of that company, and he is Vice President of the First National Bank of Oshkosh [Winnebago County, Wisconsin]. Mr. SAWYER is largely interested in lumber interests of Wisconsin, having been prominently identified with them since his settlement here. In June 1841 at Schroon, Essex County, New York, he [Philetus SAWYER] was married to [Miss?] Melvina M. HADLEY, who was born in Vermont. They [Philetus and Melvina M. (HADLEY) SAWYER] have three children: (1) Edgar P. [whose biography is above]; (2) Emma M., now the wife of Howard G. WHITE, of Syracuse [Onondaga County], New York [Emma (SAWYER) WHITE died in October 1896]; and (3) Erna M., now the wife of W. O. GOODMAN, of Chicago. [Philetus SAWYER was a 32nd degree Mason and a member of the Odd Fellows.] [The wife of Philetus SAWYER, Melvina M. SAWYER (formerly HADLEY), died 21 May 1883. Philetus SAWYER died 29 March 1900 at the home of his son, Edgar P. SAWYER. He was survived by a half sister in Iowa; by two children: Edgar P. SAWYER, and Mrs. W. O. GOODMAN; by three grandchildren: Mrs. C. C. CHASE and Phil H. SAWYER (both children of Edgar P.) and Kenneth Sawyer GOODMAN (son of Mr. W. O. & Erna M. GOODMAN, nee SAWYER); and also by two great grandchildren: Jewell CHASE (daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Curry CHASE) and Kathryn SAWYER (daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Phil H. SAWYER). DAR, vol 18, p 365, gives Mrs. Nia (SAWYER) CHASE, born in Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, wife of Charles Curry CHASE, as a descendant of Edgar Philetus and Mary Eleanor (JEWELL) SAWYER. Philetus and Melvina M. SAWYER (formerly HADLEY) are entombed at Riverside Cemetery, Oshkosh, Winnebago County, Wisconsin. When Philetus SAWYER died his estate was estimated at two million dollars. N. G. STURTEVANT was a brother-in-law of Philetus SAWYER. Mrs. STURTEVANT's given name was not sought by submitter.] 2nd Biography of Philetus SAWYER [father of Edgar P.] Men of progress, Wisconsin ... Biographical Sketches & Portraits of the Leaders in Business, Professional and Official Life... Aikens, A. & Proctor, L., eds. Milwaukee: Evening Wisconsin, 1897, pp 65-66 Philetus SAWYER was born 22 September 1816 in Rutland County, Vermont. When about a year old his father removed with his family from Vermont to Essex County, New York, locating at Crown Point. The elder SAWYER was a farmer and blacksmith of very scanty means, who had become impoverished by endorsing the notes of men of small resources and less honesty. This man, however, had no inconsiderable resources in the form of five muscular boys, who became a source of revenue to their father rather than a burden. One of these, Philetus, was a vigorous, ambitious young fellow, who early made himself useful about the farm. He made the most of his meager educational opportunities, consisting of three months at a primitive school in winter, but it laid the foundation for solid work in after years, work which lifted its possessor to seats beside the ablest and wisest in the councils of the nation. When a mere youth Philetus SAWYER worked in summer for six dollars per month. In the Adirondack woods near his home he worked at lumbering, and in the rude saw mills of the region he got his first ideas of the business from which he afterward won his great fortune. At the age of seventeen young SAWYER was a strong and vigorous youth, ambitious and self-reliant, and anxious to begin the making of his own way in life. So he bought his time of his father for the remaining four years of his minority, borrowing the money therefor, $100, from an older brother. Before the time had expired he had paid the borrowed money and given himself two more terms of the district school from his savings as a mill hand. His business tact was soon apparent in his operating the mill under contract. Ten years of industry and careful management sufficed to give him a capital of some $2000, no inconsiderable sum for those times. In 1841, when twenty-five years old, he [Philetus SAWYER] was married to [Miss?] Melvina M. HADLEY, a young lady of the vicinity who all through his stirring and remarkable career, was a true helpmeet to him. In 1847, with his family of wife and two sons, he came west, purchased a farm in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, and settled upon it with the purpose of becoming a farmer. But he was not destined for a farmer; two years of short crops changed his course. He saw the promise of the great pine forests on the Wolf River, and his mind was made up for the other work. The farm was sold and Mr. SAWYER, in 1849, took up his residence in [the village of] Algoma, now in [part of] the city of Oshkosh [Winnebago County, Wisconsin]. Mr. SAWYER plunged at once into the lumbering business, first running a mill on a contract, then purchased it, formed a partnership with Messrs. BRAND and OLCOTT, lumbermen of Fond du Lac [Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin], and so on until he was the chief man in the business. His operations in lumber extended over all the northern part of the [p 66] state, and he probably owned more pine lands than any one man in the country. [Land purchases by Philetus SAWYER between 13 August 1883 and 09 August 1884 included over 2240 acres in what was then Ashland County, Wisconsin.] His business sagacity never failed him, and his energy and enterprise were unexcelled. [Text omitted] He never made a serious mistake in all his operations. [The lumber firm Philetus Sawyer & Son was formerly Brand & Sawyer.] His [Philetus SAWYER's] political career may be said to have begun in 1856, when he was elected to the legislature on the Republican ticket, although prior to that he had been nominally a Democrat. In the business of legislation he at once showed the same comprehensive grasp that had characterized his business career. As a legislator he was influential and popular from the start, so much so that this constituents wished to re-elect him; but he declined the service on account of the pressure of his business. In 1860, however, he was again elected, and showed that he was possessed of first-class legislative ability and was a man for the troublous times then approaching. In 1863-1864 he was mayor of Oshkosh, and was instrumental in compromising the railroad indebtedness of the city on very favorable terms, and in other ways rendered the public great service. Meanwhile he [Philetus SAWYER] had been repeatedly talked of for representative in congress, but he refused the position until 1864, when he accepted the Republican nomination, was elected, and took his seat in December 1865. He was four times re-elected. During this long service in one of the most exciting times in the history of the country he was one of the wisest and most influential representatives in congress. James G. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years of Congress" speaks of Philetus SAWYER in the highest terms, and so did every one who knew of his labors and their value. At the end of his fifth term Mr. SAWYER voluntarily retired from the position which he had so long honored by close and self-sacrificing labors. In 1880 he [Philetus SAWYER] had designed going to Europe with his family, but it became evident that he was wanted in the United States Senate, and he gave up the trip, and was elected with comparatively little opposition, and re-elected in 1887 with no opposition whatever. In the Senate he soon assumed the same influential position that he held in the House. Not a speaker in any sense, he came to be known as one of the best-posted men in that body on legislation, and one whose influence was unquestioned. When he made a positive statement as to the character of a bill and its effect if passed, it was conclusive, both for the men of his own party and for his political opponents. Many anecdotes are told of his kindness to those who were long in his employ, of his generous and unselfish devotion to his friends, his readiness to yield what were his rights to congressional associates and friends, and of the great service rendered worthy applicants for legislative recognition in those channels where wearisome work is done and of which the public knows little, and for which there is no reward save an approving conscience. Mrs. SAWYER [formerly Melvina M. HADLEY], a true partner of her distinguished husband for forty-seven years, died after a lingering illness in 1888. Kind and benevolent, she was her husband's [Philetus SAWYER's] wise and ready almoner of many of his bounties, and his counselor through all his marvelous career. Of friends she had many in all the walks of life, for she was not ostentatious in any of her relations to them. A son, Edgar P. SAWYER, long associated with his father in business, and a daughter, Mrs. W. O. GOODMAN [Erna M. nee SAWYER] of Chicago [Cook County, Illinois], are Mr. [Philetus] SAWYER's only surviving children. A son and daughter died in infancy, and a married daughter, Mrs. Howard G. WHITE [Emma M . nee SAWYER], of Syracuse [Onondaga County], New York, died a few months ago [text published 1897]. Mr. SAWYER has in all his relations to his fellow-men been a most useful citizen. His benevolences have been almost numberless, embracing religious, educational, social industrial objects, to say nothing of those of a merely personal character. He is one of the rare men whose life work has been most useful to his fellow-men, and whose deeds will live to bless long after he has passed away. Submitted by Cathy Kubly