Ancestor Spotlight: Harris Eastman Sawyer

 One of my favorite things about starting this blog is that my Nana has called me three different times in 2 weeks, my uncle called me to say how much he’s enjoying all the stories, and even my dad has texted about it. And he doesn’t do the texting so much. I’m so glad they’re enjoying the stories - which I admittedly get very geeky about. And hopefully you’re enjoying them, too. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here in the first place, putting eyes on this lil blog of mine.

I have another story for you today. On one of my phone calls from the Nana, she asked me about her great uncle. She couldn’t remember his name but told me who he was. I looked him up while I was on the phone with her, and said his name, which she said YES that’s him. She told me he’d gone to Harvard and had lived overseas in Sweden, she’d thought. So I went ahead and did some digging on the guy to see what we could find. I found him really interesting, so I’d like to introduce you to my 3x great uncle, Harris Eastman Sawyer.

Harris Sawyer was born in 1868 in Maine to William and Lucy Sawyer. He attended college at Harvard, receiving his bachelor’s, master’s and phd in chemistry. After he graduated in 1895 he began work in his field in Copenhagen, Denmark for the Bureau of Chemistry. That’s where he met and married his wife Ellen Margrethe in 1897. They had a daughter the following year, and it was to be their only child. In 1899 they moved back to the states to Boston where he began his work with fermentation of malt, yeast, beer, etc. This led him to his research for the rum industry, and he eventually opened his own lab, followed by working exclusively at a rum distillery in South Boston, Felton & Sons, for the remainder of his life. The article I found says he was instrumental in the New England rum industry because of his work and reputation, inspiring new generations to the work of making good rum.

According to the article I found from Boston Apothecary, he was the architect of the modern New England rum industry with the research he’d done on the fermentation of molasses. I’m no chemist, so most of the research goes WAY over my head. (You can read more about his contributions in the links provided below.) He wrote a few journals for the American Chemical Society and lectured at Harvard from 1897-1888. He wasn’t really a social person, as he wasn’t a very healthy person, either due to the research he was doing. He got an infection of the throat that stuck around and eventually took his life. He died very young, at 43, less than a year after his mother passed, which had been a particularly difficult blow for him. His death certificate lists he died of pulmonary tuberculosis from which he had suffered for 18 years. After his passing, his wife Ellen and daughter, nicknamed Grethe, moved to Denmark and eventually Sweden to be with Ellen's family there.

He said of his own life “Once in a while I publish a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. I belong to that society, as well as to others in England and France, and I am also a member of the Economic Club of Boston. Social clubs do not appeal to me.” Me either,  Uncle Dr. Sawyer. Me either. 

In researching this relative I’ve learned more about rum than I wanted to. But I’m so glad I found you Uncle. I’ll have a wee dram in your honor. 

On Mucophenoxychloric Acid

Model denatured alcohol distillery

Dr. Harris Eastman Sawyer, Architect of the Modern New England Rum style?