Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1887 — PHILETUS SAWYER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PHILETUS SAWYER.

Re-elected to the United States Senate from Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Legislature has for the second time elected Hon. Philetus Sawyer to represent his State in the Senate of the

United States. His new term begins on the 4th of March next, and ends on the 4th of March, 1893. r Philetus Sawyer was born in Whiting, Addison County, Vt., Sept. 22, 1816. His father was a farmer and blacksmith and lived at a time and in a region where those employments offered but little' return. When a mere child his father removed to Essex County, New York, where the coming Senator’s childhood and youth were spent among the mountains and forests of the Adirondacks. His early life, like that of most of the dwellers in that region’; was one of manual labor, with only the opportunities for education that the limited resources of the common schools at that time presented. At the age of 17 Philetus Sawyer bought his time for SIOO from his father and started out into the world alone. He was so successful in his efforts that at the age pf 31 he had saved $2,000, and with this he was enabled to seek a more profitable field in Wisconsin for his future efforts. He settled on a farm in Rosendale Township in Fond du Lac County. After two years of farming with indifferent success he turned his attention to his old calling, that of “logging,” and he removed to the then village of Algoma, now the city of Oshkosh. Herq he rented a sawmill, which he finally bought, and from that time to this his business career has been the most successful. His industry and sagacity have been so rewarded that he now stands in the front rank of Wisconsin’s wealthy men. In early life he was a Democrat, but uigted with the Republican party on its organization in 1854. His public life began with an election to the State Assembly in 1857, and a re-election in 1861. In 1863 and 1864 he was Mayor of Oshkosh. He was elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress in 1864, and by re-election remained a member of that body until March 4, 1875, when he declined another election. In January, 1881, he was elected United States Senator from Wisconsin, and on the 26th of January, 1887 was re-elected for a second term of six years..