Keziah Sawyer

Portland Observer, 26 May 1880

Died In Portland, Michigan, May 20, 1880, Mrs. Keziah Sawyer, in the 71st year of her age.

Mrs. Sawyer was the daughter of Jonathan and Abigail Ingalls, and was born in Bristol, New Hampshire, Aug. 12th, 1809. On the 8th day of June, 1832, she was married to Milton Sawyer by the Rev. Walter Sleeper, a minister of the M. E. church, the ceremony being performed in her father's house, near the scenes of her childhood. On the 17th of November, 1842, Mrs. Sawyer with her husband moved into the village of Portland, Michigan, which at that time consisted of a few scattered houses. They at once entered into the hardships belonging to frontier life, enduring the privations and inconveniences of a land so near the out posts of civilization, accepting cheerfully all the trials and dangers of the far West, for it will be remembered that our now beautiful State had at that time only been a State five years. From that time to the present, her house has been the home of the weary and homeless of many of the oldest inhabitants call up today from memory the evidence of her constant and untiring hospitality. And the younger people, including some of our most active business men who have grown from childhood in the presence of her sunny face, had become so accustomed to her kind words and gentle manner that they speak of her today with the reverence that belongs to the sainted dead. In the Methodist Episcopal church,which consisted of a few scattered members when she came to it, 38 years ago,and which has now grown till its communicants are numbered by hundreds, her presence was a constant source of encouragement, the very mention of her name, meant faith and courage, and her name on its rolls meant uncompromising integrity and unswerving righteousness, and her absence from her place in its pews or at its communions meant either sickness or some other unavoidable hindrance. Her last illness was protracted and painful, but though a great sufferer, she never was heard to offer a word of complaint, and as the end drew nigh, like David of old, she was able to say My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed. Her confidence in the goodness of God failed not, and at the last she stood in the presence of death saying Oh Death, where is thy sting? I am now ready for I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith. Thus has passed from our midst one of our oldest, most widely known and most respected citizens. Our old citizens, the standard bearers in the march of civilization, the defenders and supporters of Christianity, are passing away. May their mantle fall on our younger shoulders, that when the day of our departure shall come, like this one, having possessed our soul in patience, we may lay down our burdens and take up the crown of rejoicing, and join with her to swell the glad anthems of the sky. Peace to the memory of our departed sister.

http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/s/sawyer9833nob.txt

• Updated from Find A Grave Memorial via sister Martha Drown (born Ingalls) by SmartCopy: May 8 2015, 22:04:41 UTC
• Marriage to Milton Sawyer: (8 Jul 1832 — Age: 21) Bristol, Grafton, New Hampshire, USA
• Residence: (1850 — Age: 40) Portland, Ionia, Michigan, USA
• Residence: (1860 — Age: 50) Portland, Ionia, Michigan, USA
• Residence: (1870 — Age: 60) Portland, Ionia, Michigan, USA
• Civil: (1880 — Age: 70) Portland, Ionia, Michigan, USA
• Burial: Portland, Ionia, Michigan, USA
• Residence: Michigan, USA
  • Updated from Ancestry Genealogy via father Jonathan Ingalls II by SmartCopy: May 12 2015, 13:12:12 UTC

    ---

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Mar 26 2017, 8:16:46 UTC