Sawyer, William

Born: 1803-08-05 Montgomery County, Ohio

Died: 1877-09-19 Ohio

Flourished: Ohio

William Sawyer was an Ohio politician and U.S. congressman. In 1818, his parents apprenticed Sawyer to a blacksmith, and he practiced this trade in Dayton and near Grand Rapids, Michigan. He moved to Miamisburg, Ohio, in 1829, and entered local politics. From 1832 to 1835, he was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, serving as speaker in 1835. In 1840 and 1842, he ran unsuccessful campaigns for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1844, he won election as a Democrat to the U.S. House, serving from March 1845 to March 1849. He was not a candidate for re-election in 1848. After leaving the House, he was a delegate to the Ohio constitutional convention in 1850-51. He again served in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1856. From 1857 to 1861, Sawyer was the receiver of the land office at Otter Tail, Minnesota, where he was living in 1860, and owned $30,000 in real property, with a personal estate of $500.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1783; Gravestone, Elm Grove Cemetery, Saint Marys, OH; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1857 (Washington, DC: A. O. P. Nicholson, 1857), 85; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1859 (Washington, DC: William A. Harris , 1859), 86; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1861 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1862); U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Otter Tail, MN, 1.