Biography
Early years Roland Douglas Sawyer was born January 8, 1874, in
Kensington, New Hampshire, the son of a father who was a shoemaker and a mother who taught school. Roland dropped out of school at age 16 to learn he craft of shoemaking from his father, but at the age of 20 he made the decision to change his career path and entered the now defunct
Revere Lay College in
Revere, Massachusetts, a Protestant evangelical seminary. Upon graduation from Revere in 1898, Sawyer took a position as a pastor at Hope Chapel in
Brockton, Massachusetts, the first of four
Congregational churches he would head. Coakley would be impeached by the House and found guilty and removed from office by the Senate the following year. Sawyer ran four more campaigns for higher political office as a Democrat, all without success: for
U.S. Congress in 1925 and in 1942, a second try for Governor of Massachusetts in 1928, and a race for
U.S. Senate in 1930.
Clerical career Sawyer was a
Congregationalist minister throughout his life, heading churches at Brockton (1898-1900),
Hanson (1900-1905),
Ward Hill (1905-1909), and
Ware (1909-1950s) in the state of
Massachusetts. Sawyer was also, particularly early in his clerical career, active in conservative social organizations, including the
Anti-Profanity League, the
Christian Endeavor Society, the
Anti-Saloon League, and other
temperance organizations. Ironically, as a Massachusetts legislator Sawyer came to believe that liquor
prohibition was a failed system with unintended negative consequences and was involved in campaigns for its abolition. Following his retirement in the 1950s, Sawyer spent his remaining years at his home in Kensington working on research projects in local history and
genealogy.
Death and legacy Sawyer died in October 1969 at the age of 95. Sawyer's papers reside in the Milne Special Collections department in the library at the
University of New Hampshire in
Manchester. The collection runs to 165 archival boxes, some of material. An additional 13 boxes of materials, chiefly his
dime novel collection, reside at the
Athenaeum of Philadelphia. ==See also==
Works
• ''America's Most Prevalent Vice: A Sermon.'' Hanson, MA: Anti-Profanity League, n.d. [after 1902]. • "Jesus, Woman and Divorce," The Arena, vol. 41, whole no. 231 (March–June 1909), pp. 304–306. • The Making of a Socialist. Westwood, MA: Ariel Press, n.d. [1911]. • What Move Shall We Make in the Interests of True Temperance? Ware, MA: Sawyer, 1911. • Walt Whitman, the Prophet-Poet. Boston, R.G. Badger, 1913. • The Glad Green Days: Leaves from a Summer Journal. Ware, MA: Sawyer, n.d. [c. 1914]. • My Early Years. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1915. • The Country Home with the English-Speaking Poets. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1915. • Under Swaying Pines. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1915. —''children's book.'' • My Youth and Early Manhood. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1916. • Tranquil Hours: My Tenth Season in Camp: Excerpts from Newspaper Articles. Ware, MA: Sawyer, 1916. • Sketches of Kensington History, Rockingham County, New Hampshire... Exeter, NH: Sawyer, 1918–19. • Epistles from an Unassuming Philosopher: Short Studies in What I Have Learned in My Forty-six Years of Life. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1920. • The Seven Golden Candle-Sticks and Simplification: My Personal Gospel: Two Preachments. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1922. • Cal Coolidge, President. Boston: Four Seas Co., 1924. • Outline History of Kensington. Ware, MA: Sawyer, 1926. • The Sawyer Family of Hill, New Hampshire: Betfield and Thomas Sawyer, Their Ancestry and Posterity. Ware, MA: Sawyer, n.d. [1928?]. • Two Decades in Ware: A Record of Public service, Pastoral Offices, Intellectual Pursuits, Personal Life. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1929. • ''Jesus, as Portrayed by his Earliest Followers: Seven Pen Pictures of the Christ, Selected from Apostolic Material in the Gospels: One Week's Daily Devotional Reading.'' Ware, MA: Sawyer, n.d. [1920s]. • ''Man's Love for Wild Nature.'' Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, n.d. [1920s]. • Charms of the Changing Year. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, n.d. [1920s]. • Chirps from the Woods. Ware, MA: Sawyer, n.d. [1920s?]. • A Personal Narrative. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1930. • A Quarter Century in Tent, Cabin and Cottage: Pen Pictures of the Delights of my Summer Seasons at Kensington, NH. Farmington, ME: Knowlton & McLeary, 1932. • My Mother, Her Family and Ancestry: An Account of the Life, Family and Ancestry of Phoebe Maria (Blake) Sawyer of Kensington, NH... Ware, MA: Sawyer, 1935. • An Epilogue to the Joys of my Summer Life at Kensington. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1939. • Material for a History of Kensington, NH: In Three Parts and an Appendix. Kensington, NH: Ware, 1940–42. • Kensington Vital Statistics, 1737-1907. Ware, MA: Sawyer, 1943. • The History of Kensington, New Hampshire: 1663 to 1945 (282 years) with a Family and Homestead Register of the Pioneer Families, Early Settlers and Permanent Citizens of the Town. Farmington, ME : D.H. Knowlton, 1946. • Homesteads of Kensington, Two Hundred and Seventy-Six Years, 1670-1946: Being a Reprint of Chapter 20 of the History of Kensington, NH. Ware, MA: Sawyer, n.d. [c. 1946]. • The Ilsley-Chase Account Books. Salem, MA : Essex Institute, 1950. • An Historical Sermon Preached in the First Church in Ware, Mass., on August 5, 1951. Ware, MA: Sawyer, 1951. undated • A Backward Glance at Summer Joys. Ware, MA: Sawyer, n.d. • Brentwood Graveyards and Cemeteries. Ware, MA: Sawyer, n.d. • ''The World's Great Teachers of Wisdom and Virtue.'' Ware, MA: Sawyer, n.d. • ''The World's Two Christians...'' Ware, MA: Sawyer, n.d. ==External links==