Let him who desires peace prepare for war.
Flavius Vegetius Renatus
(~375 AD), De Rei  Militari  

This is the history of Capt. Jesse Sawyer born 1750 in Lyme or Canaan CT. Jesse’s father was Jesse Sr. born 1721, a soldier in the French and Indian War, and his mother was Sarah Barden. Capt. Jesse married Catharine White from Salisbury, CT in about 1769 and they moved to Vermont where their children were born. He was a Revolutionary War officer and a member of the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont about whom many stories were written and handed down through the generations. Jesse was a scout, Indian fighter and an expert tracker. He was also a farmer, a father of two boys and four girls as well as a land speculator in Vermont. It is said he was there when Fort Ticonderoga NY was taken from the British in 1775. The company he commanded is placed with Col. 'Herrick's Rangers' at the battle of Bennington in 1777. This battle is considered to be a 'turning point' in the Revolutionary War. In 1779 he was involved with several Vermont land charters designed to produce a speculative profit. These charters named Jesse and many of his associates in the Green Mountain Boys including Ethan Allen and Ethan’s relatives.  In 1780 he was a company commander of Army Rangers in the Vermont militia serving under Ethan Allen’s cousin, Major Ebenezer Allen. During the spring and summer of 1780, Jesse’s company saw several months of continuous action repulsing a British invasion from Canada. In the spring of 1781 he was involved in planning a major incursion into Canada to be under the command of General La Fayette. Throughout the War,  Jesse’s company of Rangers was involved in guarding the borders against attack from Canada and also searching out Tory sympathizers with the British. Toward the end of the war, he along with Ethan Allen, sent a letter to the Governor of New York offering help in the fight against the British. At the end of the war in 1783, he went back to farming near Bennington, VT. His younger son Elisha moved to Walton, New York before 1795.  Then in 1795, Jesse and eldest son Harmon came to the settlement of Walton building their own log cabins near the East Brook. In 1800 he apparently engaged in one more speculative land venture in northern PA at the Athens development now in Bradford County. After this he returned to Walton and died there May 17, 1825. His obituary read “Another Revolutionary Patriot Gone.” Jesse’s oldest son Harmon became a company commander in the War of 1812. This Sawyer family provided three continuous generations of military service to the country.

Those who would like to read a more detailed history of Capt. Jesse's life are invited to click on the URL below.  This will take you to a fully referenced report that supports the summary given above. Some dial up Internet connections will require about a minute for opening.

  JESSE SAWYER HISTORY.

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