JAMES HENRY SAWYER
Submitted by Jo Sawyer

James Henry Sawyer moved to Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, with his wife, Jessie Estelle, and three of their ten children around 1912, living in the Steedman community for about ten years, where James Henry was Postmaster, before moving into Ada, where they lived until their deaths. They resided at 1023 (now 1011) N. Hickory and are buried in the Old Ada Cemetery on North Hickory Street, the land for which was donated by R. E. Hodges, father of the wife of their son Roy Sawyer. James Henry died on December 15, 1930, and Jessie, on March 13, 1927.

James was born in 1842 at Montgomery, Alabama, and moved with his parents to Berlin (Ashley County), Arkansas, where he married Jessie Estelle Capers on October 14, 1866. According to the book, History of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, page 85, he was a Civil War veteran, serving in Co. B, 3rd Arkansas Infantry. After their first three children died of "summer complaint" within a ten-day period in 1873, they moved to northeast Texas and resided at Garretts Bluff, Lamar County, Texas, from 1876 to 1885. The years, 1887 to 1895, found them in Yell County, Arkansas, near Danville, but they moved back to Texas (probably Red River County, where Jessie's mother, who lived with them, died at Manchester) and then to Oklahoma (Byars, Steedman, and Ada).

The children of James and Jessie Sawyer in order of birth were as follows: Nina E., Ameola E., Roland L., Janette, James Edwin, Deceima H., June Boardman, Effie R., Bertha, and Roy Early, all of whom are now deceased.

Parents of James Henry were Reason Berry and Olivia (Reid) Sawyer; grandparents were William Early and Sarah (Woolley) Sawyer of Edgefield County, South Carolina, and James and Elizabeth (Goodwin) Reid from Maplesville, Alabama; great-grandparents were George and Elizabeth (Bird) Sawyer of South Carolina (George was a patriot in the Revolutionary War, DAR #548527), Reason and Elizabeth (Bates) Woolley, and Young and Martha (Patsey?) (Andrews) Goodwin, with the Reid great-grandparents unknown at this time. Martha Andrews' father was Gray Andrews, American Revolutionary patriot.

Parents of Jessie Estelle were James Henry and Susan (Wingate) Capers of southern Arkansas; grandparents were William H. and Elizabeth Lenore Capers and William W. and Maryann (Ewing) Wingate of North Carolina.