JOHN JACOB SAWYERS AND ELIZABETH SAWYERS Great-Grandparents of Frank Monroe Stephens Great-Great-Grandparents of Mary Margaret Stephens (m. Cyrus S. Eaton, Jr.) 3 times Grandparents of Cyrus, John, Cathy, Elizabeth Eaton 4 times great Grandparents of Colin Eaton Murphy and Devon Eaton Murphy
BIRTH, TYRONE IRELAND, NEW BRUNSWICK, NOVA SCOTIA Frank Monroe Stephen’s grandfather on his mother’s side, John Jacob Sawyers, was born in Tyrone County, Ireland on December 25, 1798. At the time of his birth the Irish Rebellion of 1798 involved an uprising against British Rule. It was influenced by the ideology of the revolutions in America and France. The Presbyterians led and were joined by the majority Catholics. The Protestants sided with the British, “resulting in the conflict taking on the appearance of a sectariancivil war in many areas, with atrocities on both sides.”[1] It resulted in martial law and many bloody battles. Guerilla warfare kept the rebellion going.
In the 1820s, John was living in St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada. His first wife born in Tyrone Country, Northern Ireland, died in St. John, New Brunswick, after their son Andrew was born. Her name may have been Mary or Margaret McDowell. She died in 1826 in St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada.
John married again, this time John married Elizabeth (Eliza) Anderson on January 5, 1832 in Philadelphia. Elizabeth Anderson was born December 25, 1804 in Pennsylvania.
WAR OF 1812, PRISONER OF WAR, TWO MARRIAGES, EMIGRATION TO OREGON Founder of the Sawyers Clan[2] The Sawyers clan in the Lower valley contributed much to the development of the economy of Old Umpqua Valley. The founder of the clan was John Jacob Sawyers, who was born in Tyrone County, Ireland, December 25, 1798. His father may have been named James. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the British Army as a fifer under Major-General Pakenham, and came to America as a British soldier in The War of 1812. When taken prisoner at The Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815, he was returned to Ireland in an exchange of prisoners. Sawyers returned to America in 1815 and settled in St. John, New Brunswick. Nova Scotia. His first wife died in 1822, shortly after their son, Andrew, was born. Pennsylvania.[3] He then married Elizabeth Anderson [Eliza on January 5, 1832 in Philadelphia} and moved to Ohio in 1824. Here their four children were born: Margaret (1833-1890), Mary (1835-1915), James Earl (1845-1878), and Jacob Anderson (1847-1925).
[On the 1850 Census in Jefferson, Steubenville, Ohio, were listed John Sawyers (50), Eliza (46), Mary (14), Margaret (7), James (5), and Jacob (3).]
In the spring of 1854, Sawyers, with his family, came to Oregon over the Oregon Trail as far as The Dallas, where they took the Barlow route over the Cascades to Oregon City. [Twenty-two years after marrying Elizabeth, in 1854 John Jacob Sawyers journeyed with his family: daughter Mary, her husband and one child, daughter Margaret (later married to Cyrus Hedden), son Jacob A. and son James Earl, traveling by covered wagon to Oregon City.
In 1855, Andrew Sawyers reconnected with his father and some of his siblings in Oregon City, who had just arrived from their arduous journey by wagon train across the plains. Wagon trains typically travelled 10 to 20 miles a day. Some decided to seek a better life after the economic depression of the 1830s. It took four to six months to travel 2000 miles. Five percent of the migrants died on route. “The first overland immigrants to Oregon, intending primarily to farm, came in 1841 when a small band of 70 pioneers left Independence, Missouri. They followed a route blazed by fur traders, which took them west along the Platte River through the Rocky Mountains via the easy South Pass in Wyoming and then northwest to the Columbia River. In the years to come, pioneers came to call the route the Oregon Trail.”[4] “Although many neophyte pioneers believed Indians were their greatest threat, they quickly learned that they were more likely to be injured or killed by a host of more mundane causes. Obstacles included accidental discharge of firearms, falling off mules or horses, drowning in river crossings, and disease. After entering the mountains, the trail also became much more difficult, with steep ascents and descents over rocky terrain. The pioneers risked injury from overturned and runaway wagons.”[5]
John Jacob Sawyers arrived in Oregon on October 15, 1854, and he was one of the early settlers there.] They were met here by the oldest son, Andrew, who had come to Scottsburg in 1850; he piloted the family from Oregon City to Scottsburg. Sawyers located on a donation lands claim five miles above that of his son and fourteen miles above Scottsburg. The military road ran diagonally through his land from west to east. In 1864, Sawyers turned the home place over to his son, Jacob A. who, at seventeen, was given the full responsibility of running the farm. Later, Jacob bought 320 acres northwest and adjoining the home place. After his brother James E was discharged from the Union Army in 1865, the brothers formed a partnership and together purchased the Abe and John Fryer places; this gave them control over nearly 900 acres. When, in 1872, their father moved to Scottsburg, the boys divided the property. The "Fighting Irish" sobriquet easily applies to John Jacob Sawyers. He fought as a British soldier in the War if 1812; as an American with Mexico during the years 1846-1848; and, at the age of fifty-seven, he enlisted with his son Andrew in The Oregon Volunteer Regiment of Mounted Riflemen during the Rogue River Indian uprising in 1855. … John Jacob Sawyers deserves a memorial erected to his memory for the loyalty and patriotism his gave his adopted country.[6]
FARMER AND DEATH John moved to Scottsboro on August 13, 1855. He contributed to cultivating farming land, assisted in the quelling an Indian rebellion, and witnessed the wilderness and numerous settlements grow into flourishing cities in Oregon and a “prosperous commonwealth.”[7] Sue Morley believed that financial difficulties caused John to urge his son Andrew to join him. “In 1855 the Indians of the Rogue river were in a hostile state and the military ferry being upon Mr. Sawyers' place, a fort was built upon his land and all the settlers congregated within its walls and remained for some time until the danger was over.”[8] John spent his final years on a farm and died on September 25, 1876 in Douglas Country, Oregon. Elizabeth (Eliza) survived him by fifteen years.
SARAH MCDOWELL & TRAVELING AROUND CAPE HORN Frank Stephen’s great-grandmother on his mother’s side, Sarah McDowell of the Orangeman and Protestant faith migrated from Ireland. Frank’s great-grandmother Sarah McDowell gave birth on July 5, 1822 on the voyage to their daughter Fannie McDowell, on a schooner named Fannie, which inspired the child’s name. Sarah and Andrew McDowell (born about 1800), both of Ireland, settled in Philadelphia. Andrew lived there for more than fifteen years from 1872 to 1887. She traveled from Louisiana via Cape Horn, the Southernmost tip of South America in 1850 to reach Oregon. In the 1860 census Andrew McDowell (60), a weaver is listed as living in Pennsylvania with Jane McDowell 49). Both having been born in Ireland. In 1868, an Andrew McDowell was listed as a carpenter living on 2 Fife’s Pi.In 1872, an Andrew McDowell is listed as a printer living on 628 South while another Andrew McDowell is listed as being a locksmith who lives on In 1877 a Andrew McDowell is listed in the US City Directories as a laborer who lives on Westminster Ave North 53rd. In 1887 an Andrew McDowell is listed as living on 4919 Lancaster Ave in Philadelphia with the occupation of Boxmaker. Perhaps one of these man might be Fannie’s father.“The gold rush drew wealth-seekers from around the world. More than a third came by sea.” For Easterners, sailing to the gold fields was a dangerous and stormy voyage that lasted five to seven months. Vessels sailed around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, some 14,000 miles in all. It was a very fatiguing journey...confined for near 7 months on board of a small vessel, with little chance for exercise, and no manual labor to harden us... —Alexander Van Valen, January 18, 1850. “Glittering rumors of gold for the taking spread from California around the globe beginning in 1848. Tens of thousands of people left homes and families to chase the dream of quick riches. For most of the world, the ocean was the only way to reach California. For Americans, it was the fastest way. In 1849 alone, 42,000 Americans headed west over land; 25,000 took to the waves.” (On the Water) ANDREW SAWYERS Frank Stephens’ great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Andrew Sawyers, was born on April 18, 1822 [9]to John Jacob Sawyers and his wife “on disputed territory between Maine and Canada,” possibly in what is now St. John’s, New Brunswick. His mother died a few years later,[10] Andrew was only four when his father uprooted him and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his father remarried.
According to Susan Stephens Morley, his family did not raise Andrew under their roof and parceled him out to work. By the time, he was nine, he was “obliged to earn his own livelihood.”[11] Seven years later at sixteen, Andrew apprenticed for five years to a carpenter named Reuben Oliver. In May 1843, Andrew traveled to New York and within four months to New Orleans, where his skills improved and he was designated a master carpenter. A year later, Andrew married Fannie McDowell on December 25, 1844. Her parents Sarah and Andrew McDowell lived in Philadelphia. Andrew lived in New Orleans for more than six years. On April 19, 1822, his occupation was listed as farmer. His ancestry was listed as Irish-Scotch. Catherine Sawyers (Frank Stephen’s mother) was born in Louisiana on August 2, 1848.
In September, 1849, Andrew, looking for work and better opportunities, headed to California aboard the barq Mary Waterman, captained by Mr. Higgins. He traveled from Louisiana via Cape Horn.
“The party stopped at Rio de Janeiro for one week and were becalmed in a fog in a cove two miles off Valparaiso. Some flat boat men who were aboard constructed an improvised raft from spars and planks and with this they towed the vessel out to sea, where it encountered a good breeze and sailed into Valparaiso. Here Mr. Sawyers remained for one week. Early in May, 1850, the vessel again put out to sea, sailing later through the Golden Gate to San Francisco. There Mr. Sawyers found plenty of work to do at carpentering, receiving for his services from twelve to sixteen dollars a day. In June he purchased three shares, at one hundred dollars each, in an exploring stock company known as Winchester Paine & Company. The operators of this enterprise went first to the Rogue River Valley but stayed only one week in that vicinity, later coming to the vicinity of Scottsburg and exploring the Umpqua river as far as the big canyon. They went back to San Francisco, taking along a good report of the regions of Oregon which they had investigated. They called a meeting, levying an assessment of twenty-five per cent of what had been paid them for stock. This gave Andrew Sawyers an interest in the foundation and promotion of the towns of Umpqua, Scottsburg and Elkton. In October, 1850, Andrew and his family took passage on the steamer Kate Heath and arrived at Scottsburg in the same year. As they entered the harbor they saw the wreck of the Bostonian with its scattered timbers piled upon the beach.”[12]
Fur trade in Oregon began in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The fur-bearing animal population was sorely depleted. Chapter 7 “1859 Douglas Country” in Oregon 1859: A Snapshot in Time by Janice Marschner describes the four distinct groups of Indians who had peopled Douglas Country for thousands of years: The Yoncalla band of the Kalapuya Indians. There was abundant fish, game, roots, nuts and berries to sustain them. The southern Molalla lived near the South Fork of the Umpqua River. The Cow Creek Indians’ territory included the Umpqua River’s tributary Cow Creed, and the Takelma’s land was in the Upper Rogue Valley in Jackson County. Early pioneers included the Hudson’s Bay Company expedition of 1828, cattle drivers, settlers arriving on wagon trains, miners, and settlers arriving by water. Early relationships with the Native Americans was friendly, and the tribes assisted the settlers. In 1854, many Indians were taken to the Coast Reservation and the Grand Ronde Reservation. An epidemic triggered by the gold miners and settlers in 1852-53 and the Rogue River Indian War depleted their population drastically. The Cow Creek Umpqua Treaty was signed to ease the “growing animosity between the Indians and settlers. They ceded their homeland (over 800 square miles) to the United States.” The US later canceled their treaty obligations and many Cow Creek Indians were hunted down by bounty hunters and killed or forced to go to the reservations. Some Indian villages were wiped out. Some Indian families escaped and hid out in remote areas.
Andrew Sawyers “served through one of the most important Indian wars, enlisting in an Oregon regiment on November 8, 1855, and being discharged at Roseburg on January 18, of the next year. His services were under the command of R. L. Williams as colonel of the regiment.”[13]
Major conflicts occurred between Indians and white settlers around the time that Andrew Sawyers and his family arrived. Donation Land Claim laws and Homestead Acts lured settlers, granting married couples 640 acres of land. Whites “encroached on Indian hunting and fishing grounds while searching for gold.”[14] By 1859, Roseburg hosted pioneer businesses, two doctors, two dentists, a shoemaker, a barber shop, and a hardware shop.[15] Andrew Sawyers was part of the group of businessmen from the San Francisco trading company of Winchester, Payne & Co that commissioned Addison R. Flint to survey the land and lay out the town. Some families raised cattle, sheep, and grain on “donation land claims they took in 1853 and 1854 east of Winchester.” The first settlers arrived around 1851. It is clear the Sawyers were early pioneer settlers in the area. The timber industry became important in the 1870s. Roseburg first had a stagecoach line and then by 1872 a terminal for the Oregon and California Railroad line.[16]
CHILDREN OF ANDREW SAWYERS AND FANNIE MCDOWELL SAWYERS Andrew and Fanny Sawyer had ten children, three of whom died in infancy (Mary Jane (born September 9 and died 25, 1845 in New Orleans), Catherine (born 1848 in New Orleans and died in 1928), who married Josiah Quincey Stephens and moved to Prescott, Arizona, then Los Angeles, California; Elizabeth (September 10, 1846 to Sept 20, 1880). Their daughter Anna Augusta was the first white child born on the Umpqua River. Anna was given a silver cup to acknowledge this, according to descendant Sue Morley. The others children were Elizabeth (b. 1844) , wife of H. C. Slocum, by whom she had one son, Harry C, of Roseburg; John Jacob (Sept 18, 1859 to September 25, 1876)., who died at the age of seventeen years; Anna Augusta (December 28, 1850 to April 1935), the wife of Joseph Reed of Emmett, Idaho; Margaret (April 24, 1853 to Febuary 23, 1930), the wife of Peter Nelson, of Gardiner, Oregon; William Spencer (April 9, 1855 to February 10, 1935) who married Belle Andres; Martha who only lived two days (July 14, 1858 to July 16, 1858), and Fannie Isabelle (March 31, 1862 to 1951), the wife of Louis C. Haines, of Elkton, Oregon, and Hattie B. (May 1868).
“Soon afterward Mr. (Andrew) Sawyers took up a donation claim nine miles east of Scottsburg and began its cultivation. He was active as a farmer and was a force in agricultural development for many years. When he first came to Oregon he built a house for Mr. Garnier, of the Hudson's Bay Company, and worked at his trade for a number of years. During the first days of his settlement the carpentering business was extremely dull and he did not earn even a moderate compensation by it for some time. However, when the pack trains from various parts of the United States began to come in and the population increased there was work for him to do in building houses for the pioneers.”[17]
In 1855, Andrew Sawyers reconnected with his father and some of his siblings in Oregon City, who had just arrived from their arduous journey by wagon train across the plains.
[According to the 1860 Census, his occupation was listed as farmer; his personal real estate value was $5500, and his personal estate was valued at $1132. That year their post office was Locust Grove and they lived at number 44 in District 5, Umpqua, Oregon. Andrew was 38, his wife Frances 37, Eliza 14, Catherine 12, Margaret 8, William 5, and John Jacob was 8 months.]
Three or four years later, Andrew’s family moved again, this time to Roseburg “in order to give his children the advantage of a better education” at the local schools. He tried his hand at several different occupation until 1862. At this time, he headed for the mines at the Cascades where he did carpentry work on the steamers. A year later in February 1863, he returned to his family, only to leave five months later for Bannock City, Idaho, again working as a master carpenter. In 1865, eighteen months later, he returned to Roseburg, “and established himself on a farm where he improved and cultivated the land” and where he abided for the next 43 years.
[According to 1870 census, Andrew Sawyers was 48 and his occupation was listed as carpenter. His real estate was valued at $5000. Living with him were Fanny (48), Anna (18), William (15), John (11), and Fanny Sawyer (7).]
His father John Sawyers died May 18, 1878 and lived the final years of his life on a farm. John’s wife Elizabeth died on September 5, 1884 at 80. In the 1880 Census in Scottsburg, Oregon, Andrew (58) was listed as farmer and Fannie (57) was listed as keeping house. Son William (25) worked on the farm and daughter Fannie (18) was living at home. Son William lived with his parents and worked on their farm. [According to 1900 Census, although his occupation was listed as farmer, Andrew had not been employed for twelve months. At 78, Andrew lived in Scottsburg, Oregon with his wife Fannie (77). The Census noted he was literate and owned his home with no mortgage. William (45), Hattie B (32), Willie R, (13), Ralph (8), Bell (2), and Oscar (1) lived there – undoubtedly his son, his son’s wife, and four grandchildren.]
Andrew remained on the farm until his death on December 20, 1906 in Douglas County, Oregon.[18] In 1906[19] Andrew Sawyer’s farm was considered one of the model farms in Douglas County. Fannie McDowell Sawyers died on January 2, 1902, age 78. Andrew’s brother died on June 28, 1925. William Sawyers, son of Andrew, inherited 250 acres of his father’s farm and bought adjacent land from his sister. Many family members are buried in a pristine graveyard in Scottsburg, Oregon.
His will was probated on February 15, 1908. He bequeathed to his grandson Harry Slocum five dollars. He bequeathed to his daughters Catherine Stephens and Maggie Nelson five dollars each. He bequeathed the rest of his property and estate to his daughter Fannie I Sawyers. He appointed Fannie Sawyers as his executor. It was dated July 4, 1902, four years before he died. The probate files, were Vol 56-58, 10-18, 1852-1930. Out of the estate of Andrew Sawyers were purchased 1 suit for $15, 1 shirt for $1.25, 1 collar for 15 cents, 1 tie for 25 cents, and 1 casket & box for $35, paid for on September 14, 1907 to the Gardiner Mill Company of Gardiner, Oregon purchased on December 1, 1906. From his estate $75 was paid for a granite company for his tomb. $75 was paid to W. S. Sawyers for back taxes. He had five cows worth $80 and four yearlings worth $32. . He had 40 acres bottom land word $1200, 22 acres mountain land, worth $1220. His land was appraised for $3732 on June 14, 1907.
Descendants Sue Morley, John Eaton, and Farley Tobin have all visited the cemetery and gathered historical material in Oregon. Sue Morley and some of her siblings talked to some family members still living in the area during the 1980s.