Reverend John Sawyer sat for this daguerreotype in 1854 when he was 99 years old. Born in Orford, New Hampshire in 1755, Sawyer joined the Continental Army in 1777 and participated in the Battles of Saratoga. He was present at General John Burgoyne’s surrender on October 7, 1777. After the Revolution, John Sawyer entered Dartmouth College, and graduated in 1786.

Ordained in 1787, he preached in his native Orford for the next nine years. From 1796 to 1806 he served as the pastor for a church in Boothbay, Maine. He then moved to Newcastle and pursued a new career as a traveling missionary. His journeys took him to Bangor, where he preached and taught school from 1812 to 1818. That year he settled in Garland, where he devoted most of the balance of his life to ministering and teaching.

Reverend Sawyer lived five days beyond his 103rd birthday, and died on October 14, 1858. His funeral, which was held at the First Congregational Church in Bangor, “was attended by a great concourse of people, who thereby testified their love and respect for the aged veteran of the Cross, who had for so many years lived and labored in their section of the State.”