Biography: Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Philetus Sawyer

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Submitted by Kathy Grace, <gendiva@charter.net> December 2004

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History of northern Wisconsin: containing an account of its settlement,
growth, development, and resources, an extensive sketch of its counties,
cities, towns and villages, their improvements, industries, manufactories,
biographical sketches, portraits of prominent men and early settlers, views
of county seats, etc.
Chicago: Western Historical Co., 1881 p. 1162-1163

Hon. Philetus Sawyer, United States Senator; was born in Vermont Sept. 22,
1816, and is, therefore, now sixty-four years of age.  He was not born
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 subsistence.  He has not had greatness thrust upon him by
adventitious circumstances, for there has been nothing accidental in the
career which has now reached a place in the highest representative body in
the world.  Whatever of wealth and of 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.  When he was a year old his father removed to
Essex Co., N.Y., where his childhood and youth were passed among the
mountains and forest of the Adirondacks.  His early life, like that of most
of the dwellers in 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
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, and, in December 1849, Mr. Sawyer removed to the
village of Algoma, now in the city of Oshkosh.  Here, the following season,
he took a contract to run, and 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 for sound judgment in business enterprises 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 in 1861, he was a member of the
State Legislature.  He served as Mayor two years.  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, Mr. Sawyer
consented to be a candidate, and was elected by a majority of about three
thousand.  From 1865 to 1875 he was continued in the House of
Representatives and retired, after a continuous service of ten years, only
because he refused to be a candidate for re-election.  His record as a
member of Congress is part of the history of that time.  He was one term
Chairman of the Committee on Government Expenditures.  In the Forty-third
Congress he was Chairman of the Pacific Railroad Committee.  Eight years he
was on the Committee on Commerce.  Six years he was 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.  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 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
conclusion from superficial examinations and brings strict integrity, as
well as sound judgment to the work of legislation, is a valuable and
respected member.  Such a member Mr. Sawyer has always been heretofore, and
doubtless will be in his new position.  He is President of the Sawyer-
Goodman Co., of Chicago, a corporation owning a saw-mill at Marinette,
Wis., 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; Vice President of the First National Bank, of
Oshkosh, and is largely interested in the lumber interests of Wisconsin,
having been prominently identified with them since his settlement here.  He
was married at Schroon, Essex Co., N.Y., in June, 1841, to Melvina M.
Hadley, a native of Vermont; they have three children- Edgar P., Emma M.
(now the wife of Howard G. White, of Syracuse, N.Y.), and Erna M. (now W.O.
Goodman, of Chicago)