.
(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.
