Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
of that most murderous attack made upon the town in the winter of
1675-76. At this time his second son, Ephraim, who was at the Prescott
garrison, was killed by the Indians. Thirty-two years later, 1708, the
oldest son, Thomas, and his son Elias were captured by the Indians and
taken to Canada. When the party reached Montreal, the father offered to
put up a mill on the river Chambly, on condition that the French
governor would obtain the release of all the captives. Thus the first
mill in Canada was built by Thomas Sawyer. He was liberated, but his son
Elias was detained for a time to teach the Canadians "the art of sawing
and keeping the mill in order, and then was dismissed with rich
presents."
3. Caleb Sawyer, the sixth child of Thomas, was born in 1659, in
Lancaster, Mass. He married Sarah Houghton, thus effecting an alliance
between two of the most prominent families who organized the town of
Lancaster. Caleb Sawyer died in 1755, leaving two sons and two
daughters.
4. Seth Sawyer, the oldest son of Caleb, was born in 1705; married Miss
Hepsabeth Whitney; died in 1768.
5. Caleb Sawyer, the second son of Seth, was born in 1737, at Harvard,
Mass., a part of Lancaster which in 1732 had been incorporated as a town
by itself. He married Miss Sarah Patch in 1766. They had two sons,
Phineas and Jonathan. Jonathan remained on the home farm at Harvard,
which is still occupied by his descendants.
6. Phineas Sawyer was born at Harvard, Mass., in 1768. He went to
Marlborough, Mass., now Hudson, in 1800. He bought a mill property
there, consisting of a saw, grist, and wire-drawing mill. In 1806 he
built a cotton-mill, and operated it until the close of the war in 1815.
It required in those days immense enterprise and energy to project and
carry on such a work as a cotton-factory. The machinery was procured
from Rhode Island. The ginning-machine had not yet come into general
use. The cotton, when received, was distributed among the farmers, to
have the seeds picked out one by one by their families. It was carded
and spun by water power, at the mill. It was then sent out again among
the farmers to be woven into cloth. Phineas Sawyer was a man of great
independence of character, self-reliant, and full of courage. These
qualities, so conspicuous in his business affairs, shone out with
undiminished power in his religious life. He lived at a time in
Massachusetts when Methodism was regarded with special disfavor. But Mr.
Sawyer, believing that the Methodists were right, believed so with all
his heart, and the petty persecutions to which his faith was subjected
only intensified his zeal and loyalty. His house was the home for all
traveling Methodists, and the place where they gathered for religious
worship. He was well versed in the best Methodist literature of his
times. He stands forth in the annals of his church as one of the
foremost men, for sagacity, boldness, and piety, in the Needham circuit.
He had for his wife a worthy helpmeet, Hannah Whitney, of Harvard. She
was as ardently attached to Methodism as was her husband, and bore her
full share of service and sacrifice for it in its days of weakness and
persecution. The sudden death of her husband, which took place in 1820,
left Mrs. Sawyer to provide for the support of twelve children, the
youngest, Jonathan, being then two years old. This truly noble woman,
with but little means, faced the difficulties before her with an
unflinching spirit of faith and hopefulness. It required superlative
fortitude, finest sagacity, and sternest self-sacrifice to have enabled
this mother to successfully rear these twelve children, give to them a
good education, and establish all of them in respectable positions in
the world. She continued to live in Marlborough some nine years, leasing
the mill property. In 1829 she went to Lowell, where she lived twenty
years, dying there in 1849, greatly respected by all who knew her, and
held in honor and affection by her many children.
7. JONATHAN SAWYER, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest child
of Phineas. He was born at Marlborough, Mass., in 1817. He went with his
mother and other members of the family when he was twelve years old, to
Lowell, where for the next few years he attended school. He was a member
of the first class that entered the high school of that city, having
among his mates Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, Gov. E. A. Straw, and G. V.
Fox, assistant secretary of the navy during the civil war. Bishop Thomas
M. Clark was the principal of this school. On account of a severe
sickness, young Sawyer at sixteen years of age left school, and while
recruiting his health made a visit to his brother, Alfred Ira Sawyer,
who, after some experience as a dyer at Amesbury and Great Falls, had
come in 1824 to Dover, N. H., where he was operating a grist-mill, a
custom carding and cloth-dressing mill, converting this last into a
flannel-mill. Jonathan remained in Dover two years, going to school and
working for his brother. In the fall of 1835 he returned to Lowell. His
mother, for the purpose of conferring upon her son a more complete
education, sent him to the great Methodist school at Wilbraham, which at
that time was a most flourishing preparatory school for the Wesleyan
University at Middletown, Conn. Here he remained two terms, when, at
nineteen years of age, returning to Lowell, he went into a woolen
establishment as a dyer. Afterwards he went into this business on his
own account, and continued in it until 1839.
During the latter part of this time he was not so engrossed in his
business but that he found time to make frequent visits to New Ipswich,
where Miss Martha Perkins, of Barnard, Vt., was attending school. In
1839 they were married, and went to Watertown, N.Y., where Mr. Sawyer
became the superintendent of the Hamilton Woolen Company. After two and
a half years, Mr. Sawyer went into business for the manufacture of
satinets. In 1850, his brother Alfred having died at Dover, N. H., the
year before, and the children being too young to carry on the business,
Mr. Jonathan Sawyer assumed its control in connection with his brother
Zenas. Two years later Zenas retired, and Francis A. Sawyer, who had
been a prominent builder in Boston, became a partner with Jonathan, the
object being to continue the manufacture of woolen flannels. In 1858 the
property below known as the "Moses mill," another flannel manufactory,
was purchased. This mill was enlarged in 1860 to four sets of machinery,
again in 1863 to eight, and in 1880 and 1882 to sixteen sets. The old
machinery is now completely replaced by new. The old mill, started in
1832, was in 1872 replaced by the present substantial structure, which
contains fourteen sets of machinery, with preparing and finishing
machinery for thirty sets in both mills.
Since 1866 the attention of these noted manufacturers has been entirely
devoted to the manufacture of fine fancy cassimere cloths and suitings.
Already they have established for these goods a foremost place in their
class. At the Centennial Exhibition, at Philadelphia, a medal and
diploma were awarded the Sawyer goods, for their "high intrinsic merit."
The business has, since 1873, been carried on as a corporation, having a
capital of six hundred thousand dollars. The corporation consists of the
old firm of F. A.[7] and J. Sawyer, and Charles H. Sawyer, the present
agent of the establishment. In 1866 this company made a bold innovation
on the method that was so long in vogue among manufacturers, of
consigning their goods to commission houses. The undertaking upon which
this company entered, of selling their own goods, was met with great
opposition; but their boldness and foresight have already been justified
by the success which they have made, and the adoption of their methods
by other manufacturers. This establishment can now look back upon a
half-century of remarkable history. The unmarred reputation for
strictest integrity which these managers have won, their far-reaching
enterprise, and the unsurpassed excellences of their fabrics, have
enabled them to prosperously pass through all the financial depressions
and panics which so many times have swept over the country during this
long period.
Mr. Jonathan Sawyer, with his vigor of mind and body still unimpaired,
lives in his elegant mansion, which looks out upon a magnificent picture
of wood and vale and mountain range, and down upon the busy scene of his
many years of tireless industry. He loves his home, in the adornment of
which his fine taste finds full play. When free from business he is
always there. He loves his books, and his conversation shows an unusual
breadth of reading in science, history, and politics. He is possessed of
a strong, clear intellect, a calm, dispassionate judgment, and
sympathies which always bring him to the side of the wronged and the
suffering. At a time when anti-slavery sentiments were unpopular, Mr.
Sawyer was free in their utterance, and was among the first to form the
Free-soil party. Since the organization of the Republican party, Mr.
Sawyer has been among its strongest supporters. He has persistently
declined the many offices of honor and profit which those acquainted
with his large intelligence and sagacity and stainless honesty have
sought to confer upon him. He is abundantly content to exercise his
business powers in developing still more the great manufactory, and his
affections upon his large household and his chosen friends, and his
public spirit in helping every worthy cause and person in the community.
The children of Mr. Sawyer, all of whom have grown up to maturity, are
Charles Henry, Mary Elizabeth, Francis Asbury, Roswell Douglas, Martha
Frances, Alice May, Frederic Jonathan.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Francis A. Sawyer died June 16, 1881.
DR. ASA CROSBY AND SONS.
BY S. P. HADLEY.
In giving a notice of Judge Crosby of Lowell, Mass., as originally
contemplated, at his request and with the consent of the publisher, I am
desired to give it in the character of a family notice, or rather of the
father and sons, now all deceased except the judge.
DR. ASA CROSBY, the father, was born in Amherst (now Milford), N. H.,
July 15, 1765, and died at Hanover, N. H., April 12, 1836. He married
Betsey Hoit, daughter of Judge Nathan Hoit, an officer in the
Revolutionary war, and judge of the court of common pleas. He was in the
sixth generation from Simon of Cambridge, Mass., who arrived in the
"Susan and Ellyn" in 1635, the direct line being Simon, Simon, Josiah,
Josiah, and Josiah his father, born in Billerica, Mass., November 24,
1730. Sarah Fitch, his mother, was born in Bedford, Mass., March 25,
1732. The Crosby families mostly inhabited Billerica, Mass., where many
of the descendants still reside, although some lived in the ancient town
of Braintree, Mass., and others on Cape Cod. His father settled in
Amherst, N. H., where he died October 15, 1763. His mother lived until
September 16, 1825. The following notice of Dr. Crosby, written by Prof.
R. D. Mussey of Dartmouth College, is taken from the _Boston Medical and
Surgical Journal_, Vol. XIV.:--
"Dr. Asa Crosby was an uncommon man. At the age of twenty-one he
commenced practice in Strafford county, N. H., and continued in
full practice forty-six years. He was a distinguished member of
the profession, both in physic and surgery; and in the latter
branch he performed some very important and difficult
operations. Indeed, for many years he was the principal operator
for an extensive district of country. He was one of those
self-taught men, whose force of intellect breaks through the
most appalling obstacles, and rises unaided to skill and