History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its cities, towns, resources, people

              BIOGRAPHY. 1125
Avas endoAved AAdth a vigorous intellect and a strong self-reliant nature.
Says the Avriter of the sketch of Air, SaAA^yer's life, previously alluded to: "It was a wild, and with exceptional small areas of land here and there, a barren and sterile region, in AAdiich he grcAV up to manhood.
But nature, AA^hich yielded subsistence only to persistent toil, Avas in another respect more beautiful. The salubrious atmos¬ phere of a mountainous region was conducive to health. The character of men is effected by the natural aspects of the coun¬ try in which they are reared. The mention of his native, land will bring light to the eyes of the hardy Switzer, or Scotch Highlander, which it will not bring to that of the immigrant from the fertile plains of Pomerania or the dyke-protected fields of Holland."
So the region in Avhich Mr. SaAA^^yer's youth Avas spent pro¬ duced robust men and women—robust both physically and men¬ tally. AVhen he reached the age of seventeen, he was a strong, vigorous youth, eager to commence the work of making his oavu AA^ay in the world. The legal proposition that the father is en¬ titled to the services of his minor children, Avas one of constant practical application in those days, and so Avlieii he sought to become master of his own time, it Avas necessary to make a bar¬ gain Avith his father. Borrowing $100 from an elder brother, he paid it to his father for freedom from the obligation to serve him for the next four years, and thus began life on his oavu account.
In the pine Avoods of the Adirondack region, the business of cutting lumber Avas at that time carried on after a primitiA^e fashion, and Mr. Sa-wyer had acquired some knoAvleclge of the business which brought him a fortune in later years. Beginning work in one of the old-fashioned sawmills, Avliich had a capacity for cutting 2,000 or 3,000 feet of lumber per day, he made good use of his brains as aa^cII as his muscle, and Avas soon operating the mill under contract, saAving lumber "by the thousand" as a lumber¬ man Avould say. His ambition in those days Avas that of every right-minded, able-bodied young man to acquire a competency which Avould enable him to properly educate and provide for his family, and to spend the later years of his life surrounded by the comforts and some of the luxuries AA^hich contribute to an enjoyable existence. For some years, hoAVCAT^er, his progress toAvards  a realization  of  this  modest, ambition  Avas  not  rapid.