father, who was a farmer and blacksmith, removed to Essex county, N. Y., where the son's youth was spent in manual labor and in attending" the common schools at intervals. At seventeen years of age, by an arrangement with his father, he became the master of his own time, and in 1847, when he had saved about $2,000. he removed to Wisconsin. After two years of farming he went to Algoma (now part of Oshkosh) and engaged in the lumber business, in which he was very successful and won a reputation for integrity. He was chosen to the legislature in 1857 and 1861, served as mayor of Oshkosh in 1863-'4, and was a delegate to the Loyalists' convention of 1866. He was chosen to congress as a Republican in 1864, and served by successive re-elections from 1865 till 1875, declining a renomination. In 1881 he was elected U. S. senator, and he was re-elected in 1887. He has been a delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1864, 1876, and 1880. In the lower house of congress .Air. Sawyer served for some time as chairman of the committee on the Pacific railroad, and as a member of the committees on commerce, manufactures, and invalid pensions. Both there and in the senate he has been known as a valuable working member, but he seldom takes the floor. He has given $12,000 toward a building for the Young men's Christian association in Oshkosh, and contributed liberally to other religious, benevolent, and educational enterprises.
SAWYER, Sylvanus, inventor, b. in Templeton,
Mass., 15 April, 1822; d. there, 25 Oct., 1895.
His father was a mill-owner and lumberman, and
from childhood the son showed great mechanical
ingenuity. While he was a lad he invented a
reed-organ that embodied many of the features of those
that are now in use. From about his twelfth till
his twenty-first year feeble health unfitted him for
farm labor, and he occupied himself largely with
carpenter's and smith's tools. In 1839 he went to
Augusta, Me., with a view of working with his
brother-in-law, a gunsmith, and, though his health
soon forced him to return, he gained knowledge
that enabled him to repair fire-arms and do much
similar work, in which he engaged till his majority.
During this time he also made several inventions,
including a steam-engine, a screw-propeller, and a
car to be operated by foot-power. He went to
Boston about 1843, and, while working in a
machine-shop there, invented a machine for preparing
chair-cane from rattan. Thousands of dollars had
been spent in vain attempts to construct such a
machine, but Mr. Sawyer's was successful, and
after it was patented, in June, 1851, he and his
brother Joseph established a shop at East Templeton,
where they manufactured chair-cane by its
means. In the following December the American
rattan company was formed to use their machine,
and erected a large shop in Fitchburg, Mass. Mr.
Sawyer devised several auxiliary machines, and,
besides serving as director, was manager of the
company's shop. His inventions have entirely
revolutionized the chair-cane business, transferring it
from southern India, China, and Holland to this
country. In the summer of 1853 he invented
improvements in rifled cannon projectiles, which
were patented in 1855. These embrace the placing
of a coating of lead or other soft metal on the rear
and sides of the shell, which is expanded laterally
by the discharge and prevents the “windage” or
passage of gas by the projectile, also filling the
grooves of the rifling and obviating the use of helical
projections; and the arrangement of a
percussion-cap so as to insure the explosion of the shell
on impact. In 1857-'8, with his brother Addison,
Mr. Sawyer conducted experiments on his invention,
at his own expense, for the benefit of the
U. S. ordnance bureau, and after thorough tests it
was approved, and the secretary of war announced
that the practicability of rifled cannon and
projectiles had at last been demonstrated. It was recommended
that four field-guns be issued for practice,
but before the order was carried into effect the
civil war had begun. The 42-pounders (rifle)
columbiads were mounted at Newport News and upon
the Rip Raps (Fort Wool), the latter being the only
guns there that could reach Sewell's Point battery,
a distance of three and one-half miles, which they
did with great accuracy, and made fearful havoc
with the railroad-iron-clad batteries. An 18-pounder
Sawyer rifle also did great execution on board
the steamer “Fancy.” Mr. Sawyer claimed that
he was treated unjustly by the ordnance officers
during the civil war. Notwithstanding the report
in his favor, his guns were not extensively adopted,
but his improvements were incorporated in others
that, he said, were infringements on his patents.
He was advised by government officials to wait till
the war had ended and then prosecute the chiefs
of ordnance of the army and navy; but they both
died shortly after its close, and nothing had been
done in the matter. But he received several orders
for guns directly from department commanders, to
whom he furnished the first batteries of cast-steel
rifled guns made in this country. He made other
improvements in projectiles in 1861-'2, and in
1864-'5 built a shop for the manufacture of
ordnance; but the close of the wars in this country and
South America caused it to be turned to other uses.
He took out patents on dividers and calipers in 1867,
a steam-generator in 1868, a sole sewing-machine
in 1876, and a centring watchmaker's lathe in 1882.
He subsequently engaged in the manufacture of
watchmakers' tools, but soon retired from business,
and took much interest in agriculture. He had
served as an alderman in Fitchburg.
SAWYER, Thomas Jefferson, clergyman, b. in Reading, Vt., 9 Jan., 1804 : d. in Medford. Mass., 24 July, 1899. He was graduated at Middlebury, was pastor of a Universalist church in New York city, where he also edited the "Christian Messenger." In the year 1845 he became principal of Clinton liberal institute. Oneida county, where he also taught theology. In 1852 he returned to his charge in New York, but in 1861 he retired to a farm at Clinton, where he lived in retirement, declining the presidencies of St. Lawrence university, Canton, N. Y., Lombard university, 111., and Tufts college, Mass., which he had been instrumental in founding in 1852. He was also active in establishing the theological school of St. Lawrence university in 1856. In 1863-'6 he edited the " Christian Ambassador," and he then resided on a farm in New Jersey till 1869, when he became proles T ,,f theology in Tufts. Prof. Sawyer had defended i he doctrines of Universalism in the press, and in public discussions with clergymen of other denominations. Harvard gave him the degree of D. D. in 1850, and he is a member of the Theological historical society of Leipsic. Besides contributions to dennminal i' 'mil literal nre. lie ha- publi bed in 1 k- form " Letters to Rev. Stephen Remington in Review of his ' Lectures on Universalism ' " (New York, 1839); " Review of Rev. E. F. HalfieM'- Universalism as it Is'" (1843); "Endless Punishment," and other discourses (1845) ; "Memoirs of Rev. Stephen R. Smith" (Boston, 1852); discussions with Rev. Isaac Westcott on "The Doctrine of Endless Misery" (New York, 1853) and "The Doctrine of Universal Salvation" (1854); "Who is Our God, the
