This memorial stone was originally the base of the Josiah Sawyer statue.
I received a very astute question about my last Rachel Writes piece, « Josiah Sawyer’s Head. »
Henry Musty noted, « The speech referred to ‘the union of the flags and anticipated the time when the two great countries would in reality be one.’ Did you time this article just before Trump takes over? » he asked.
In fact, I penned that column in December, not so long after Trudeau visited Trump (November 30), sparking an avalanche of Trump’s « jokes » about annexing Canada. While reading the 1901 newspaper report about the unveiling of the Josiah Sawyer statue, I noted the litany of appeals by Josiah Sawyer’s American descendants for Canada and the United States to join forces. Yes, it reminded me of the current kerfuffle.
What goes around, comes around. Not just in 1901, but other times too. When I was a high school senior in Virginia, I heard Canada mentioned exactly once. One of the students asked, « When do you think Canada will join the United States? »
The teacher wisely countered, « What could possibly motivate them to do that? »
Not much. Worlddata.info offers dozens of reasons why Canadians would want to remain « friends with benefits, » rather than moving in with the U.S. Those are the words of Mark Carney on a recent appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
I received another intriguing response from Sawyerville history connoisseur Daniel Bousquet, about the statue of Josiah Sawyer. On some points, he agrees with Sharon Moore and Jack Garneau: The statue is not a likeness of Josiah himself, and it was vandalized twice. But he has more to say.
« Actually, the statue was moved twice before it was vandalized, » he wrote. « When the William Sawyer house was sold, the new owners did not want the statue on their property, so it was moved to the Sawyer Brook Cemetery. » He sent me photos to prove it.
As early as 1935, a newspaper clipping says that Sawyerville Women’s Institute members petitioned the town council to move the monument « now in the Sawyer Brook Cemetery » to a « more prominent place on the Town Hall lot. »
Alas, in 1940 the statue was still in the Sawyer Brook Cemetery, now quite neglected. Bousquet sent me a clipping of a 1940 letter to the editor of the Record, about « an eerie but commanding and spectacular lifesize monument high up on a wooded slope, » amidst a « terrific growth of bushes, briars, thistles and undergrowth » and among several gravestones.
Eventually, he told me, it was indeed moved to « the vacant lot where the Sawyerville post office now stands. There it was first vandalized by partyers from the Sawyerville Hotel. »
The stone that supported the statue still stands beside the Post Office, a monument in its own right, bearing the original inscription to Capt. Josiah Sawyer, « who settled on the present site. » Photos clearly show this inscription at the statue’s unveiling, across the river at the residence of William Sawyer, to the left of the United Church.
So … where exactly is the site where Josiah Sawyer settled? Likely not beside the post office.
And where is the statue’s body? Bousquet suggests it could be lying hidden in the bushes, snowbound. Come spring, I’ll be on the lookout for it!
Rachel Garber is editor of the Townships Sun magazine and writes from her home in the old hamlet of Maple Leaf, in Newport.
