Santa Clara County
Biographies
WESLEY
CALEB SAWYER, Ph. D.
WESLEY CALEB SAWYER,
Ph. D. A noted linguist and a distinguished scholar, Wesley Caleb Sawyer,
Ph. D., is ably filling the chair of German and French at the University
of the Pacific, where he is also lecturer on Teutonic mythology. The descendant
of a New England family of exceptional worth, several of whose members were
actively associated with many of the leading events in the early history of our
country, he inherited the patriotic ardor characteristic of his ancestors and
won for himself a noteworthy record for courage and bravery in our Civil war.
He was born August 26, 1839, in Harvard, Mass., which was likewise
the birthplace of his father, Luke Sawyer, and of his grandfather,
Jonathan Sawyer. His great-grandfather, Seth Sawyer, served in the
Revolutionary war and was wounded in battle. One of Professor Sawyer’s direct
ancestors, Thomas Sawyer, a son of Caleb Sawyer, who was of English
descent, was carried by the Indians, during the old French and Indian war, from
Lancaster, Mass., to Vermont, where he was kept a prisoner for some time. Being
a good mechanic he was compelled by his captors to build a mill and to teach
them how to operate it. On being liberated he returned to his Massachusetts
home.
A farmer by
occupation, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Luke Sawyer spent
his entire life in Harvard, Mass., dying in 1870. He married
Mercy Blood Whitcomb, who was born in Maine, and died in
Massachusetts. She bore her husband seven children, two of whom grew to
maturity, namely: Wilbur Fisk and Wesley Caleb, the subject of this
sketch. Wilbur Fisk Sawyer served in an Illinois regiment during the
Civil war, and subsequently died in Harvard, Mass.
After leaving the
public schools of his native town Wesley C. Sawyer continued his studies
at Wilbraham Academy. Entering Harvard College in 1857 he was graduated from
there in June, 1861, with the degree of A. B. Receiving a commission from
Gov. John A. Andrew, he immediately began work as a recruiting
officer, and raised Company H for the Twenty-third Massachusetts Volunteer
Infantry. Being made captain of the company he was sent to North Carolina with
Burnside’s expedition, and assisted in the capture of the rebel works on
Roanoke Island. He then went with the fleet up the Neuse river, and after
landing marched with his troops to Newbern, where he took an active part in the
first battle fought in that vicinity. During the engagement Captain Sawyer
received a shot in the left knee that took the leg almost entirely off, leaving
just enough skin to hold it on. He himself supposed it was off until he saw it
dragging as he was being borne from the field of battle. While being carried
along he was met by the surgeon, who made a complete amputation of the limb,
which was then and there buried. His men noted the spot where he was shot, and
as the shell had not exploded they dug it out of the side of the hill and
presented it to their captain, and it is now in his possession. As soon as he
was able to leave the hospital the captain was taken on a stretcher to the
steamer and sailed for New York, General Burnside coming to see him off. Going
then by train to Boston, he was met by friends who conveyed him to his home.
Recovering from his wound Captain Sawyer visited different towns and
cities in Massachusetts, making speeches and promoting enlistments, until sent for
by Governor Andrew, who desired him to take command of a regiment of heavy
artillery. This offer he declined, but accepted a position with the infantry.
Raising the Fifty-third Massachusetts Infantry, he was appointed commandant of
Camp Stevens, at Ayer Junction, Mass., and after training the regiment there,
sent it to the front. On account of an artificial leg that he was then wearing,
the captain again had trouble with his wounded limb, and on
November 17, 1853, resigned his position, and received his honorable
discharge from service.
Taking a post-graduate
course at Harvard, Mr. Sawyer studied Hebrew, and then went to Concord,
N. H., where he took a full course at the Theological Seminary, from which
he was graduated in 1865. The same year he was honored with the degree of
A. M. from Harvard College. The ensuing five years he continued his
studies in Europe, attending first the University of Berlin, then the Sorbonne,
in Paris, and afterward the University of Göttingen,
where, in 1870, he was graduated with the degree of Ph. D. Returning to
Massachusetts, Dr. Sawyer taught Greek in Lasell
Seminary, in Auburndale, for a year, and then went to Minneapolis, Minn., where
he was teacher of German and history in the University of Minnesota from 1871
until 1874. Accepting then the position of professor of philosophy and German
in the Lawrence University of Wisconsin, he remained there until 1882, and was
afterward institute director and professor of social science in the Normal
School at Oshkosh, Wis., until 1885. Going then with his family to Europe, the
doctor remained abroad three years, taking graduate work in Dresden, and while
there writing and publishing a complete German manual.
Returning to this
country in 1888, Dr. Sawyer came directly to California, and the following
seven years was connected with the University of the Pacific, at San Jose,
first as professor of political economy, then as dean and later as
vice-president of the College of Liberal Arts, later acting as president. From
1895 until 1898 the doctor was master in French and German in the Belmont
school, and the three years following lived with his family in Berkeley. In
1901 he accepted his present position as lecturer on Teutonic mythology at the
University of the Pacific, and in 1903 was made professor of German and French
in this institution. Professor Sawyer is greatly interested in the old
Germanic literature, and has recently published a volume of about four hundred
pages on Teutonic Legends, as found in the Nibelungen
Lied, and in the Nibelungen Ring.
In Wisconsin, July 1,
1877, Professor Sawyer married Minnie Birge, who
was born in Horicon, Wis., was graduated from the Lawrence University of
Wisconsin, and is now assisting the professor as a teacher in German. Professor
and Mrs. Sawyer are the parents of four children, Wilbur A., who was
graduated from Harvard University in 1902, is now attending the Harvard Medical
College, being a member of the class of 1906; John B., now employed in the
custom house in San Francisco, was captain and commander of an artillery
company while a student in the University of California, from which he was
graduated in 1902; Edna Mercy is a student in the Boston Art Museum; and
George Howard is a member of the academical
department of the University of the Pacific. Politically Professor Sawyer
is a stanch supporter of the principles of the
Republican party. He is a Master Mason; a member of John A. Dix Post,
G. A. R., of San Jose, and of the California Commandery, Loyal
Legion. He also belongs to the National Educational Association and to the
Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is prominently identified with the
Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has been an ordained minister.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
07 May 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 575-576. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie
Hassard.