Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Page 799 

J.K. SAWYER. Among the substantial and enterprising business men of Wichita, whose names are scattered through the pages of this volume none is more worthy of mention than the gentleman whose name heads this brief biographical notice. He was born in 1831 near the beautiful Moosehead Lake in the State of Maine. His parents were Ebenezer and Elizabeth Sawyer. His father was of English descent; he settled in Northern Maine about the year 1830, and was actively and profitably engaged in farming there for many years.

            Our subject was educated in the common schools of his native State, and at an early age learned the trade of carpenter as he had a natural aptitude for mechanics. He was a bold, spirited lad, energetic and enterprising, and at the age of nineteen years he left his old home in the Pine Tree State, and started for the Golden State, and for a number of years his lot was cast among the hardy, brave and adventurous pioneers and frontiersmen of that State, and of other portions of the West, and he has seen a good deal of life and traveled in many parts of the country. After a sojourn of five and one-half years in California Mr. Sawyer left that State and retraced his steps to his native State. After a short stay in his old home he went to Peru, Ill., where he managed a dry dock in the days when there was a good deal of navigation on the Illinois River. We next hear of him in Montana as engaged in the mining business, which he pursued until 1868, when he went to Laramie City, Wyo.

            In 1870 Mr. Sawyer again turned his face toward the East, but he progressed no farther than Kansas, and in the city of Lawrence established himself in business as a contractor and builder. On the 28th of December he came to Wichita, where he has since been engaged in bridge building and contracting, and has also engaged largely in real-estate speculations. He is classed among the pioneer business men of Wichita, and his business has grown with the growth of the city, which he has materially helped to build up.

            Mr. Sawyer was married, Dec. 5, 1858, to Miss Emma Herrick, daughter of Israel Herrick, of Brooklin, Me. They are the parents of two children: Fannie L., who married Edgar Schermerhorn, a hardware merchant of Kiowa, Kan., and Charles H., unmarried, who is in company with his father in the bridge building business.

            Mr. Sawyer is a prominent member of the Republican party. While a resident of Montana he took an active part in political and public affairs, and served as Justice of the Peace when there was but one copy of the Revised Statutes in the Territory. Socially, Mr. Sawyer is a Knight of Honor. Our subject has grown wealthy, prosperous, and an honored citizen by the exercise of integrity, industry and intelligence.

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