Delorma F. Sawyer
Delorma F. and Helen (Russell) Sawyer
The name of Sawyer has been well known and highly honored in
Franklin township since pioneer times and its present
representative, Delorma F. Sawyer, owns and operates the
homestead which his father took up as a government claim in 1852.
He is one of the most progressive and prosperous farmers in this
part of Allamakee county and has also for the past twenty-five
years controlled important sawmilling interests here, his success
coming as a natural result of his ability, energy and sound
business judgment. He was born in Rock county, Wisconsin, on the
29th of August, 1852, and is a son of Cuyler Cornelius and
Elizabeth (Wartenbe) Sawyer, natives of Ohio, the former born in
1822 and the latter about 1832. Cuyler C. Sawyer emigrated to
Ohio when he was about twelve years of age and learned the
blacksmith’s trade under his father, working for him for
several years and finally turning his attention to general
farming. He married in Williams county, Ohio, and on October 15,
1850, went with his wife to Wisconsin, coming from there in the
fall of 1852 to Hardin, Clayton county, Iowa. He subsequently
took up the tract of government land, whereon his son now
resides, the old government deed signed by the president being
still a highly valued family possession. The father moved on to
his holdings in 1853 and began the improvement of his land,
building a crude log cabin, sixteen by twenty feet in dimensions.
Throughout the years which followed he steadily carried on the
work of development, making his farm productive, profitable and
well equipped and becoming widely known as a progressive and
substantial agriculturist. He died upon the homestead November 4,
1883, and in his passing Allamakee county lost one of her pioneer
settlers and a valued and representative citizen. His wife has
also passed away, her death occurring April 2, 1896. In their
family were five children, the subject of this review being the
eldest. Two of these children died in infancy.
Delorma F. Sawyer attended district school No. 4, Franklin
township, and also studied in the public schools of Hardin. Later
he spent four and a half months in a school at Estherville, Emmet
county, and was for two terms at Cherry Valley. After laying
aside his books he continued to assist his father with the work
of the homestead, becoming before he had attained his majority a
practical and able agriculturist. At twenty-one he went to the
western part of Iowa and entered government land, adding to his
holdings one hundred and twenty acres which he purchased and
remaining in that part of the state for four and a half years,
during which period he clerked in a hotel for some time and also
had charge of a mail and stage route. In addition to this he
served as bookkeeper in a grist and sawmill and when not thus
employed operated the mill in the interest of his employers.
After four and a half years he returned to Franklin township and
eventually traded the land which he had acquired in the west for
property in this part of the county. After his return he engaged
in general farming, assuming the management of the family
homestead, and in connection with this he operated a threshing
machine. In 1887 he formed a partnership with George Clark and
they engaged in sawmilling on Yellow river for two years, Mr.
Sawyer afterward continuing at this line of business in Franklin
township. For the past quarter of a century he has operated a
sawmill and a silo filler and in connection with this carries on
the work of improving the cultivating his farm, the neat and
attractive appearance of which indicates his ability along
agricultural lines. He is a member of the Farmers Shipping
Association of Luana and is connected with the Cooperative
Creamery Company, besides being a stockholder in the Northeastern
Iowa Farmers Cooperative Telephone Company, and is widely
recognized as a discriminating, able and resourceful business
man, who carried forward to successful completion whatever he
undertakes.
On the 14th of April, 1887, Mr. Sawyer was united in marriage to
Miss Helen Russell, born in St. Lawrence county, New York, August
31, 1866. She is a daughter of Wallace and Dora (Hutchins)
Russell, natives of Vermont. They resided in New York for a
number of years, the father conducting a large starch factory
there, but in 1871 moved to Iowa, where Wallace Russell turned
his attention farming. He also worked at the carpenter’s and
painter’s trades, continuing in these lines of work until
his death, which occurred in 1888. His wife survived him many
years, dying in 1910. The father had been prominent and active in
public affairs for many years, serving as justice of the peace
and in various other local offices of trust and responsibility.
Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer became the parents of seven children: Hazel
Annetta, who was born February 10, 1889, and who is now a nurse
in the Finley Hospital at Dubuque; Dora E., was born February 18,
1891, and who is attending school at Epworth, Iowa; Homer D.,
whose birth occurred October 16, 1892; Charles Cornelius, born
March 18,1895; Lyle Russell, born July 8, 1897; Paul Millard,
born August 12, 1901; and Donald Watson, born March 21, 1905.
Mr. Sawyer gives his political allegiance to the republican party
and has done able and effective work as school director. He takes
an intelligent interest in the development and growth of the
section where he has resided since pioneer times and has made
substantial contributions to its agricultural ad business
progress, his name standing as a synonym for integrity and
honesty and his record being a credit to a name that has long
been an honored one in this community.
-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by
Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Diana Diedrich
Return to 1913 biographies index