Benair C. Sawyer

Benair Clement Sawyer, sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Benjamin" Sawyer (October 18, 1822 – March 13, 1908), was the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1862 to 1864.^[1]

Life

His family was in the soap making business. While he was mayor the American Civil War's single worst civilian accident occurred when, on September 17, 1862, the Allegheny Arsenal exploded and claimed the lives of seventy-eight people. Most of the fatalities were young women. ^[2]

After his political career, the Panic of 1873 decimated Sawyer's assets, forcing him to move to Colorado. He would later prosper there from investments in mining. He died in California.

See also

• List of mayors of Pittsburgh

References

1. ↑ A Century and a Half of Pittsburg (sic) and her People, Vol.4, edited by John Newton Boucher. Lewis Publishing (1908)
2. ↑ Connors, Michael (September 12, 2010), "The Next Page: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion -- Pittsburgh's Civil War carnage", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved September 13, 2010 

Mayors of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since the 1816 City Charter Denny Darragh Snowden Murray M. Lowrie Murray Pettigrew McClintock Little Irwin Thomson Hay Howard Kerr Adams J. Herron Barker J. Guthrie Riddle Volz Bingham Weaver Wilson Sawyer J. Lowry McCarthy Blackmore Brush Blackmore McCarthy Liddell Lyon Fulton McCallin Gourley McKenna Ford Diehl A. Brown J. Brown Hays G. Guthrie Magee Armstrong Babcock Magee Kline J.S. Herron McNair Scully Lawrence Gallagher Barr Flaherty Caliguiri Masloff Murphy O'Connor Ravenstahl Peduto