For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 612
STEPHEN P. SAWYER....Among the elder business men of Muscatine who are honored by the community for what they have accomplished may be named Stephen P. Sawyer, now retired. He was born in West Amesbury, Massachusetts, January 13, 1832, ands is a son of Stephen and Sallie B, ( McQuesten ) Sawyer. The father was a native of Massachusetts and the mother of New Hampshire. Stephen Sawyer Sr., was a farmer and lived near West Amesbury but died at Concord, New Hampshire. His wife departed this life in 1858. They were the parents of four children : Luther D.; Mary E., who married Horatio Laws ; Samuel P.; and Stephen P. The maternal grandfather was David McQuesten, who was born September 27, 1758, and was called away July 29, 1828. He married Margaret Fisher, of Londonderry, New Hampshire, who was born in 1760 and departed tihs life in 1833. Eight children were in their family : William, Samuel, Sallie B., David, Margaret N., Eliza, Calvin and Mary P. Margaret N. McQuesten was never married. She lived to the advanced age of ninety-three years and four months and died in the room where she was born.The McQuesten family in this country dates back to William McQuesten, the immigrant ancester, who came to America about 1735 and settled at Litchfield, New Hampshire. The ancestry originated in Argyllshire, Scorland, and removed to Coleraine in the north of Ireland near the close of the sixteenth century. Deacon Samuel McQuesten, one of the noted American members of the family, was a son of David and Margaret ( Fisher ) McQuesten and was born in Litchfield, New Hampshire, in 1789. He removed with his parents in 1795 to Bedford, now Manchester, where members of the family have ever since resided. The house in which the family lived until the autumn of 1895 was one of the historic buildings of the state and was erected in 1760, before the Revolutionary war. Deacon McQuesten was an uncle of William Wirt McQuesten, a cousin of our subject and a partner with him in the hardware business in Muscatine for a number of years.
Stephen P. Sawyer made his home in Massachusetts and New Hampshire until 1849 and was educated in the public schools of those states. At the age of seventeen he went to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where he continued for twenty-three years engaging in the manufacture of agricultural implements. He came to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1871, and has ever since resided in this city with the exception of two years, which he spent in California. Here he was for eighteen years junior member of the firm of McQuesten & Sawyer, the partners retiring in 1894 in the interests of their sons, who then took charge. The business which they developed grew to large proportions and the name of McQuesten & Sawyer became familiar over a wide region in the valley of the Mississippi.
On the 21st of June, 1853, Mr. Sawyer was united in marriage to Miss Frances P. Gillitt, a daughter of David Paul and Lucinda ( Hall ) Gillitt. She was a native of Newport, New Hampshire, born September 1, 1832. She was called from earthly scenes March 18, 1897, after a long life of usefulness and unselfishness. Seven children came to brighten the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer : Ida M., who married Colonel Fred Welker of Muscatine ; Frank P., who married Johanna Wells and has three children, Henry P., Aura M. and Maude W.; Aura A., at home ; Clara S., who married Dr. S. G. Stein, of Muscatine, a record of whom appears elsewhere in thie work ; Samuel F., who married Nellie Stephens, at Springfield, Missouri, and died April 13, 1901, after some years devoted to the hardware business in Muscatine ; Jennie H., who married Lyle C. Day, October 18, 1905, and is the mother of one child, Donald Day ; and Armina Rosaline, who died at three years of age, December 19, 1861.
Mr. Sawyer holds membership in the Presbyterian church, as did also his wife. Politically he is in sympathy with the republican party. He is known as a good business man and a patriotic citizen, who has always assisted to the extent of his ability in advancing the public interests. Through years of earnest endeavor he won success and easily ranks as one of the substantial men of Muscatine, belonging to that class which leaves a permanent impress for all that is most desirable in American life.
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