JONATHAN SAWYER.
BY REV. GEO. B. SPALDING, D. D.
1. John Sawyer, a farmer in Lincolnshire, England, had three sons, William, Edward, and Thomas, who emigrated to this country in 1636, being passengers in a ship commanded by Capt. Parker. They probably settled in Rowley, Mass.
2. Thomas Sawyer went to Lancaster, Mass., as early as 1647, when he was twenty-four years of age. This section of the Nashaway valley, comprising eighty square miles in extent, had been purchased in 1643 by Thomas King, of Watertown, Mass., of Scholan, sachem of the Nashaway Indians. Thomas Sawyer was one of the first six settlers. His name appears in the petition made to the general court in 1653 for the incorporation of the town of Lancaster. In 1647, the year of his arrival, he married Mary Prescott. She was the daughter of John Prescott, to whom belongs the honor of being the first permanent inhabitant of Lancaster. The eminent historian, William H. Prescott, traces his ancestral line to this John Prescott. There were born to Thomas Sawyer and Mary Prescott eleven children. This family figures largely in that most tragic page of the history of Lancaster which tells of the massacres and captivities of its inhabitants, and the entire destruction of the town itself by the Indians. On the land of Thomas Sawyer stood the Sawyer garrison, into which were gathered the survivors 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.
P. Sawyer