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(Note - This work was compiled from a number of articles in the Oshkosh Independent & Milwaukee Sentinel between March 30th and April 1st, 1900, in response to the death of Mr. Philetus Sawyer, the man for whom Sawyer County is named)

Senator Sawyer in Business and Public Life

 

No man has filled a larger place in the public life of Wisconsin than Mr. Sawyer. No man had more loyal personal and political friends. In the management of political affairs he had a faculty of smoothing out difficulties, of refusing favors without leaving ill feelings, which many public men lack.  "His promise is as good as a bond" - these words were often spoken of him. He never promised an office unless he was sure he could fulfill that promise. He was careful not to hold out hopes in such a way that candidates would construe his words as a promise. He avoided the rocks of political patronage on which so many political lives are wrecked.

At his home for years he was regarded as the 'grand old man' of Oshkosh. To every public enterprise he gave generously of his wealth. His public gifts were numerous and generous, amounting annually to thousands of dollars. There was scarcely a public charitable movement in which he did not head the list of donors. It is expected that large bequest will be provided by his will for charitable, educational and philanthropic purposes.

In congress he had the influence, which men of good common sense, excellent judgment and strong convictions sometimes wield, although they are not orators and Mr. Sawyer never made any pretensions as a speaker. His advice was always sought and his influence was always potent in national and state councils. His congressional life covered a long and important period. He had been a member of the legislature and mayor of Oshkosh when he was first elected to Congress in 1864 and for ten years occupied a seat in the House.  Then he was elected to the Senate in 1881 and reelected in 1887 - a service of 22 years in Congress, which has not been equaled by any other man in the state.

I

Mr. Sawyer was born at Whitney, Rutland County, Vermont on September 22, 1816, and was therefore in the eighty-fourth year of life, but until recent illness he remained as vigorous, hearty and active in business and public affairs as when in early manhood. At the age of 31, he came to Wisconsin with a small capital, which he had earned by manual labor and saved by rigid economy, and with untiring industry and sturdy integrity took up the work of his life in the pine forests of northern Wisconsin. With untiring industry, sustained by almost marvelous powers of endurance and rare sagacity, he laid the foundation of a fortune, which ultimately, with the progress of civilization and improvement, yielded large wealth to it owner from his interests in the production, and manufacture of lumber.

In 1857, he was first entrusted with public interests by being elected to serve as a member of the state legislature from Winnebago County. In 1861 he was again elected. He also served two terms as mayor of Oshkosh. From the 39th to 43rd Congress he was a member of the House of Representatives. On January 26, 1881 he was elected United States Senator to succeed Angus Cameron, who died during the second term in that position, and was reelected January 26, 1887, serving until March 4, 1893. The history of his public and private life is a record of toil. Take, for illustration, one session of Congress, he was a member of five committees - Post Offices and Post Roads, Pensions, Agriculture, Census, Railroads, and chairman of the latter. The aggregate of bill favorably reported by him from these committees was 464. In each instance he had made careful examination and written report, and the statements he submitted were in every case accepted as conclusive. From the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, he reported favorably over 100 nominations. Over 450 of the bills he had reported at the session were passed, being about one-fourth of all the bills passed by that body that session.

Said Senator Beck on the floor of the Senate: "I do not call for the reading of the report when the Senator from Wisconsin advises me that he has examined the case and it is all right." It was the confidence and respect he won from men of all parties that gave him an influence second to that of on man in either branch of national councils.

While he was a member of the house the late Senator Howe said of him: "No district in the United States has sent to Washington a more honorable man or a more efficient representative. I do not know of an interest he has abused or neglected. At the same time I do not know a man more tolerant of or generous to his political opponents. His early education was limited, but he was born a gentleman and he has lived a gentleman in all his relations of life. He is today as widely and familiarly known to the picked men who represent this great republic in congress and is as universally respected as any man in either house."

Mr. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years - Review of Congress" says, "It is easy to supply superlatives in eulogy of popular favorites, but Mr. Sawyer, in modest phrase, deserves to be ranked among the best of men."

II

Mr. Sawyer was one of a family of five brothers and four sisters, of whom one sister is the only survivor. When the boy was about a year old his father moved with his family to Essex County, New York, locating at Crown Point. The elder Sawyer was a farmer and blacksmith who became impoverished and embarrassed by signing notes with others, a man of scanty means and humble ambition. Young Philetus, until he was 14, did chores and other work on the farm and in the blacksmith's shop. The summer that he was 14 he 'worked out' for $6 a month. On the west shore of Lake Champlain, where the rocks and ravines of the Adirondack Mountains leave but a narrow margins, and at some points none, of arable land, hard, continuous toils was a condition precedent to a supply of necessaries and most common comforts of existence. The educational advantages of the boys were limited to the annual three months winter terms of the common school during the brief period between early childhood and stalwart youth. Among the pines of the Adirondack region, at the time, the business of lumbering was carried on in a primitive fashion, and in the woods and at the neighboring sawmill. Mr. Sawyer at an early age became initiated in the business. In which, afterward, he laid the foundation and reared the superstructure of his fortune. The character of men is affected by the natural aspect of the country in which they are reared. So the region in which Mr. Sawyer's youth was spent produced robust men and women - robust both physically and intellectually.

The legal proposition that the father is entitled to services of his minor children was one of constant practical application in those days. When Mr. Sawyer reached the age of 17 he was a young vigorous youth: ambitious, self-reliant, and eager to beginning the work of making his own way in the world. His father wanted money. The son desired to be master of his own time and a bargain was arranged. He borrowed $100 from an elder brother and paid it to his father for his own services for the next four years. Before the time expired the debt to his brother was satisfied and he had given himself two more winter terms in the district school, from his earnings as a sawmill hand.

Before Mr. Sawyer was 25 years of age, in 1841, he was married to Melvina M. Hadley of an adjoining town, eminently qualified for the helpmate of such a man, in every situation and station of his career. On December 4, 1842, his son and present partner, Edgar P. Sawyer, was born. Fourteen years after he had purchased the remainder of his minority from his father, in the fall of 1847, Mr. Sawyer, then 31 years old, with his family, consisting of his wife and two sons, joined the tide of emigration then flowing from the East to the great West.

By industry, economy and good management he had succeeded in accumulating a capital of about $2,000 with which to try his fortune in a new country - the slow but steady accumulation of ten years of hard work they had been, but they were also years of training - by education, by observation and by experience - which fitted him to see and take advantage of the opportunities which the new country was to offer.

When he was starting westward his older brother asked how much money he had. He answered that he had $2,000 secured in his belt, but the amount in his pocket he did not know. Upon counting, it was found to be $199. His brother handed him $1 with the remark, 'Now, remember, that when you started for the West, you had just $2,200.'

Years afterward, when the brother had become an old man, and Mr. Sawyer had become wealthy and was a United States Senator, he was at one time visiting his old home and his brother. Seeing, or imagining that he saw some indication of depression or uneasiness in his brother's manner, Mr. Sawyer inquired if he was in debt. The brother rather reluctantly, admitted an indebtedness of $1,200, which from falling off in the profits of his farm and his increasing age, began to worry him. Mr. Sawyer ascertained the names of the creditors, and, on the next day, went out and bought up all his brother's outstanding paper, took it to his brother home and delivered them to him. "I am not giving you this," he said, "I am paying my debt to you." His brother looked somewhat mystified, "What debt?" He inquired.

"Do you remember giving me $1 when I started for the West? I have made about that amount with it."

"Ah!" said the brother, seeing the merry twinkle in the Senator's blue eyes, "I wish I had given you $10 or $15 more."

III

Mr. Sawyer first came to the west in 1840 stopping at Milwaukee a few days, meeting Solomon Juneau and other pioneers. He became impressed with the possibilities of the northern part of the territory at that time, but returned eastward, coming again in 1846. He reached Milwaukee about 3 hours after the stage had gone north, but nothing daunted he started on foot for Fond du Lac, making the distance in two days. He located a farm in the town of Rosendale, in Fond du Lac County, but it was disposed of and in December 1849, he removed to the village of Algoma, now a busy part of Oshkosh.

Referring to his early life and experiences on the farm, Mr. Sawyer in talking with a Sentinel reporter on his 80th birthday anniversary, said: "Before coming West I had no other ambition that to own a big farm, rent one half of it and conduct the other in my own way, but I soon found there was no money to be made doing that kind of work, so I turned my attention to the logging industries. I saw intuitively that the pine would some day be valuable, so I got a hold of all I could, bought claims cheap from men who had gotten tired of holding them and thereby got my start. I had $2,000 of hard earned money when I came West, and the getting of that $2,000 - laying the foundation of future wealth, was a time of hardest economy and self-sacrifice in my whole life. Money seemed to come easy after that. I went East when I saw the profitable fortunes to be made on the pineland and borrowed all the cash I could from my friends. It did not take long to pay it back.  I bought pine cheap and sold it at big profits. One tract for which I paid in 1857, $1,500 all told. I sold in 1878 or 79 for $63,000: a piece that cost me $7,000 I sold for $84,000, and another that cost me $16,000 I sold for $120,000. So you see it didn't take very long to get ahead at that rate."

Mr. Sawyer, while in Fond du Lac lived in a log house, 15 by 16, with his wife and small family. When he went to Oshkosh he lived first in a rented house on the south side, his wife doing her own work. Mr. Sawyer spent his first and only winter as a woodsman, the first year for small wages. The next year he cast about for an investment for himself. There was a sawmill in the village of Algoma, which had nearly or quite ruined its owners. This mill Mr. Sawyer operated successfully in the season of 1850 upon contract by the thousand feet. Then he rented and operated the mill on his own account, until 1853, with reasonable success.
  Fond du Lac was the most thriving town in Northern Wisconsin: to it centered the trade of a large area of fertile country, and as a point for the distribution of lumber by wagon and sleigh loads, it had great advantages. In 1853, Mr. Sawyer formed a partnership with Brand & Olcott, lumber manufacturers and dealers in Fond du Lac, and purchased the mill, which he had been operating. The mill was improved, and soon rebuilt, and the production increased and thereafter, until railroads opened an outlet to more distant markets, a large part of the production of the mill was shipped upon sailing vessels to Fond du Lac, where it sorted, piled and marketed. Mr. Olcott retired from the firm in 1856, and firm of Brand & Sawyer continued the business until 1862.

Marked success in the lumber business during that period was exceptional. The history of Oshkosh and Fond du Lac was dotted with the wrecks of lumbering enterprises. The best illustration of the sagacity and success with which the business of Brand & Sawyer had been continued, is the fact that in 1862 Mr. Sawyer purchased the interest of partner, Mr. Brand, at an advance of over $70,000 above his original capital in the business. The following year his only surviving son, Mr. Edgar P. Sawyer, was taken as a partner in his general business and since that time the firm has been P. Sawyer & Son, a firm whose word has always been as good as their bond, and their bond as good as gold.

Since that time his interests have spread and continued under his judicious care, though largely managed by his son and son-in-law.

IV

It was in 1856 that Mr. Sawyer began his political career. Prior to that time he had been an assessor, an alderman and was known as a Democrat of free-soil proclivities. He had voted for Fremont in 1848 and Pierce in 1852. The change of political faith was due to the slavery question, and he announced his intensions to become a Republican to some of the men in the mill, which soon got noticed abroad and led to his nomination for the assembly. It was after this that he served as mayor of Oshkosh. His subsequent public career comprised ten years in the House of Representatives and twelve in the Senate. His service in the House was during a period of exciting questions, involving moral as well as economic ideas. He held prominent committee places and was always an influential member. Mr. Sawyer's bills were prepared with great care and labor. The items were scrutinized closely by his committee before they were admitted, and when reported, he desired to see them through.  In 1871 he adopted an experiment that had never been tried with such a bill. He knew that he had the confidence of the House, not only in his integrity, but also in his industry and judgment. With his printed bill and report he made his explanations in advance to such members as he deemed it necessary, and upon a favorable opportunity he arose and moved that the rules be suspended and the River and Harbor bill be taken from the general file and passed.

"What does that gray-headed old fool think he can do? He can't get twenty five votes for his motion," said Mr. Beck of Kentucky to a Wisconsin Democratic member

Upon the call of the roll, however, the motion was carried by a vote of nearly three-fourths of the house.

A new departure like this upon a bill appropriating six or seven millions of dollars, and consisting of a great number of items, is conclusive evidence of his influence among his fellow members, and their confidence in him.

Faithful and attentive as he was to his duties as a legislator, he found or made time to look after the interests of the humblest of his constituents, who needed his aid. His district had furnished it full quota of men for the army, and the claims for back pay, bounty and pensions were numerous. When such a claim became tangled in red tape of some bureau or suspended for want of some required affidavit, impossible to obtain, it was only necessary to satisfy him that the claim was just to secure his energetic assistance. He became a familiar personage in the departments, where he inspired the same confidence as among his colleagues in the house. Thus he was enabled to assist many a disabled soldier, many a poor widow and many on orphan child successfully.

In 1881 Mr. Sawyer, after six years of private life, was elected to congress and he was reelected in 1887. His career in congress is too recent to need extended mention here, but his energy and activity in securing the passage of pension bills is one of its features, which many a soldier or soldier's widow will never forget. It was stated (from actual computations, it was said) that Mr. Sawyer reported from his committees a greater number of bills in the Forty Ninth Congress than were ever reported by any other senatorial career, however long, and the bill reported by him were not often questioned.

Matt. H. Carpenter was elected to the United States Senate in January 1869. When his term expired, in the winter of 1875, he had aroused a deal of opposition and his reelection was stubbornly contested. He received the nomination of the Republican Caucus in the Wisconsin Legislature, but more than twenty senators and assemblymen bolted and refused to vote for him. This prevented his election. The Democrats voted for General E.S. Bragg and tried to get the bolting Republicans to support their candidate. Finally, after a long deadlock, a fusion was elected. He entered the senate in March 1875, just as Philetus Sawyer retired from the house. Mr. Cameron had been a state senator and was a well-balanced, sensible man of good ability. Timothy O. Howe, of Green Bay, was the senior senator, a politician of the purest ideals, a statesman of the old school and an honest man. As soon as Mr. Sawyer retired from the lower house, his friends urged him to become a candidate for the Senate. Senator's Howe's term expired in 1879 and as he was succeeded by Mr. Carpenter who had sufficiently recovered his footing in the four years since his defeat. Mr. Cameron's term would expire in 1881 and it was to succeed him that Mr. Sawyer finally decided to become a candidate for the Senate. Mr. Cameron recognized that he had been elected as a compromise candidate and made no effort to secure a reelection. The legislature in January 1881, elected Mr. Sawyer by a vote of 98-29 for James C. Jenkins, 2 votes for C.C Washburn and 1 vote for CD Parker. He was reelected in 1887. He was one of President Harrison's most trusted friends and advisors and it was largely due to his influence that President Harrison selected Governor Rusk as a member of his cabinet. In 1892 Mr. Sawyer strongly supported Mr. Harrison for the nomination.

V

In the Wisconsin Assembly in 1857, he applied to the business of legislation, the same careful scrutiny of details, and the same sound judgment, which made his private business so successful.

Mr. Sawyer's private business was not yet in condition to dispense with his nearly constant personal supervision. His partner, at that time Mr. Brand, reside at Fond du Lac, and his son, his partner since 1863, was yet too young and inexperienced to take charge of affairs in his political absence. He therefore declined political honor until the fall of 1860, when he again accepted a nomination for legislature of 1861.

There was a special reason for his willingness to accept the position. The Republican Party of Wisconsin had got into a false and, under the impending circumstances, embarrassing position. To the people of the state generally the compromise and 1850 - and especially that part known as the Fugitive Slave Law - had been very distasteful. But the state was off the line of the escape of fugitive slaves, and their dislike took no practical form of expression.

In March 1854, the capture of Samuel Glover, a fugitive slave, in the city of Milwaukee, and his forcible rescue by a mod, created an excitement throughout the state. The leader in the rescue was arrested and committed for trial by a United States Court Commissioner and released upon habeas corpus by one of justices of the State Supreme Court. During the subsequent complications and attendant excitement, the Republican Party of the state was organized in a mass convention at Madison on July 4. In newspapers and conventions the party was committed to the most extreme doctrine in the nullification in the outcry against the Fugitive Slave Law. It was at this time that Timothy O. Howe, an able lawyer and fearless in the defense of his opinion, wrote and spoke against the political heresy. In 1857 Judge Howe had been the most prominent candidate for the United States Senate, but the extreme State Rights theorist controlled the Republican Party in the legislature, and he was defeated in caucus. In 1859 the legislature had adopted resolutions modeled largely upon the celebrated Kentucky resolutions of 1798 and 1799.

A senator was to be chosen in 1861. It was well understood that Judge Howe would again be a candidate. Mr. Sawyer was friendly to Judge Howe. His cleaver headed common sense did not need legal learning to show him that the party had got upon untenable ground from which it could get off better by the election of Judge Howe as senator that in any other way. He, at least, could stand up consistently in the senate against heresies of nullification and succession. Judge Howe was elected, and represented the state ably and faithfully eighteen years, being reelected twice without event he formality of a caucus nomination.

VI

The Sawyer homestead, in which Mr. Sawyer passed his declining years, has been considerably altered since he first occupied it. The improvements include a mansard roof, his large office or 'den' and changes to the interior. In this house his two daughters were married, Erna some 17 or 18 years ago and Emma a year or two later. In the drawing room are two life size paintings of the girls in their bridal robes, the work of the artist Hyde. The house is handsomely furnished and has been the center of many pleasant social gatherings. Across the street is the somewhat more modern and more substantial residence of E.P. Sawyer where the aged senator died. Both homes are surrounded by ample and well-kept grounds.

Senator Sawyer's punctiliousness in the matter of keeping his word of appointments, was one his most admirable traits. If he made a promise to meet you or to do anything he was true to his agreement every time. If he found that he had promised more than he could do he was just as honest about telling you. Mr. Sawyer he never united with a church, although he attended usually Sunday mornings at the Congregational. He contributed largely to all of them, as he had to many others in the state.

Mr. Sawyer's domestic life was singularly happy. His greatest sorrow was the loss of his devoted wife in 1888. Her remains lie in a marble mausoleum in the Oshkosh cemetery where his body will be buried. To Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer, five children were born - Edgar P. Sawyer, Emma, Erna, Earl, and Ella. Edgar for several years had the care of his father's large enterprises. Besides his fine residences in Oshkosh he owned until recently a house in Washington D.C.

VII

On March 29, 1900 at 9:15 a.m. former Senator Philetus Sawyer died suddenly at the home of his son, Edgar P. Sawyer.

Although it was known Mr. Sawyer was sinking, the end when it came was unexpected. The only person in the same room was Mrs. Phil H. Sawyer, wife of a grandson of Mr. Sawyer.

His last moments were peaceful and death came very like sleep. He had been ill but a short time. Tuesday he was confined to his bed, but it was thought he was merely indisposed. The members of the family became aware, however, yesterday that Mr. Sawyer was very ill. Still, even then, his condition was not regarded as critical.

During the night and this morning members of the family were in and out of the sick room. His son, E.P. Sawyer, had only just before left the room when the end came. Mr. Sawyer was apparently resting easily and there was no thought that death was so near. Mrs. Phil Sawyer remained with him and waited upon him. Just before he died the sick man raised his hand to his head languidly as if the pillow needed arranging. Mrs. Sawyer asked him if he wish the pillows changed, to which Mr. Sawyer replied he was comfortable.

A few moments afterwards he asked Mrs. Sawyer to remove his shoes and stocking. He did not have them on but evidently his circulation was becoming feeble and there was a sensation as if his feet were encased in his shoes and stockings. They were his last words.

The dying man raised his hand above his head, drew a long breath and seemed to fall asleep.

Mrs. Sawyer believed the senator was asleep but in a few moments the truth flashed upon her. She at once called the other members of the family and they hurried to his bedside. He was asleep, but it was the sleep of death.

VIII

Dr. T.P. Russell, ex-Senator Sawyer's attending physician, said later that death was due to a general breaking up of the system. Dr. Russell made the following statement:

"He was in his usual condition until Sunday, Saturday he felt a little indisposed, but he did not go to bed. He did not sleep well Saturday night and Sunday he passed a restless night and on Monday I made an examination of Mr. Sawyer's heart. I found that it was affected and was becoming irregular. The disease of the heart became much worse; on Monday and Tuesday I examined his kidneys and found them inactive. This caused him to turn yellow. He became sore and complained that he was uncomfortable while riding in his carriage. Tuesday morning he went down town and attended some duties at the bank. He complained of pain caused apparently from the jolting of the carriage."

"Tuesday afternoon he went down town again and called at my office. When he returned home at 1 o'clock he went to bed. Then he gradually grew worse and worse until the end came. It was a general breaking up of his system."

IX

The funeral will be held Sunday afternoon at 2:30. The body will be displaced in the Sawyer vault, which now holds the remains of Mrs. Sawyer and other members of the family who have passed away. The dead statesman was a thirty-second-degree Mason and a member of the Odd Fellows, these two organizations being the only ones he belonged to.