EDWIN L. SAWYER

SAWYER, WOODARD, HOYT, GRAVES, POTTER, TAFT

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 9/9/2006 at 11:23:39

Through a half century's residence in Mitchell county Edwin L. Sawyer, now of Osage, has been closely identified with the progress and improvement of this section of the state. He has opened up five different farms in the county and thus contributed in marked measure to its agricultural development. He is now extensively and successfully engaged in the real estate business and has negotiated many important realty transfers in Osage and the surrounding country.

Mr. Sawyer has now passed the seventy-fourth milestone on life's journey, his birth having occurred in Vernon, Oneida county, New York, August 20, 1843, his parents being Amariah and Eunice (Taft) Sawyer, both of whom were natives of Wendell, Massachusetts, and in that state they were married. The father was born in 1802 and became a chair, maker by trade. After mastering the business he conducted a shop of his own for some time and continued his residence in Massachusetts until about 1840, when he removed with his family to Vernon, New York, where he also established a chair shop. There he continued until 1849, when he became a resident of York, Dane county, Wisconsin. He purchased a farm in that state and remained there for nine years, moving at the end of that period to Columbus, Wisconsin, and there he lived retired until called to his final rest in 1864. His wife died in 1869. In their family were nine children: Lucius; Horatio and Harriet, twins; Nelson; Lewis; Myron; Edwin L. and Ellen L., who are also twins; and Seymour A., who was a Civil war veteran, serving with Company B of the Forty-first Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. The first six named were born in Massachusetts and all of the children have now passed away with the exception of Edwin L. and Lewis.

Edwin L. Sawyer pursued his education in the schools of Columbus, Wisconsin, and after leaving the high school took up the profession of teaching, which he followed for ten years in the district school of Dane county. In 1868 he removed to the village of Mitchell in Mitchell county, Iowa, and for seven years was engaged in teaching in the schools of Mitchell and of St. Ansgar, being principal at both places. In 1874 he was called to public office, being elected county recorder, in which position he continued for two terms. On the expiration of that period he entered the real estate business, in which he has since been engaged, and he has negotiated many important realty transfers in the intervening period. For two years after leaving the recorder's office he was upon a farm and then established his home in Osage, where he opened a real estate office with his brother-in-law, O. P. Woodard. However, he continued his connection with farming interests and has opened up five different farms in Mitchell county, developing each farm from the wild state. For thirty years he has engaged in the real estate and insurance business, in which connection he has enjoyed a large clientele. He is still active in this field of labor, carrying on his interests in connection with Albert Chapman, Robert Sinotte and S. F. McGillivray at different periods, but at the present time he is doing business alone. He also engaged in commercial pursuits for a number of years, conducting a store in which he sold music and musical instruments and sewing machines.

In 1870 Mr. Sawyer was united in marriage to Miss Julia A. Hoyt, who was born in Rock county, Wisconsin, but came to Mitchell prior to her marriage. She passed away in 1878. There were three children of that marriage, but two have passed away. The surviving son, George H., was born December 7, 1870, and is superintendent of the city schools of Osage, having been engaged in teaching here for twenty-two years. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Sawyer married Alice C. Graves, of Osage, and they had one son, who died in infancy. After losing his second wife he wedded Sophia M. Potter, a teacher of Mitchell county.

In his political views Edwin L. Sawyer has long been a stalwart advocate of republican principles. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons, holding membership in the lodge and chapter of Osage, and his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Baptist church. Those who know him esteem him highly as a man of genuine worth who has been loyal to every manly principle, faithful in citizenship and progressive in business life. He has many friends and chief among those are the ones who have known him throughout the entire period of his fifty years' residence in Mitchell county and who know that his record throughout all this period has been an unblemished one.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, Pages 106-108.