Prominent Lawyer and Financier Passes Away.

Had Lived Almost A Century and Witnessed Many Historical Changes.

Ezra M. Sayers, Esq., died at his home on College street, Wednesday, evening, March 3, 1909, at nine o'clock, in his ninety-seventh year.

During the past four or five years Mr. Sayers had been almost constantly confined to his home by reason of infirmities resulting from his advanced age. His mental faculties were retained to a remarkable degree. He continued to be interested in current events, local, state and national, having the newspapers read to him daily.

Mr. Sayers was born in Waynesburg May 30, 1812, in a log house which stood until recent years near the corner of Main and Richhill streets. He was a descendant of an old family which traces its lineage back through several centuries. Thomas Sayre emigrated from England to Massachusetts, in 1638, locating at Lynn, and from there removed to Southampton, L. I., where in 1648, he erected a residence which is still standing, and is the oldest house in New York state, built by an Englishman. David Sayre, his grandson, located in Cohansey county, New Jersey, and was the grandfather of William Sayre, (now called Sayers), born there in 1729, and who removed to near the present site of Waynesburg, where he bought a farm Nov. 1, 1794, this being a portion of Washington county at that time. This farm lies two miles east of Waynesburg and has remained in possession of the Sayers family for 113 years. The name of William Sayers appears as one of the first jurors drawn in our county and his will was the first testament of a male person recorded in this county. He was a lieutenant in the patriot army during the Revolution. Ephraim Sayers, his son, who became the father of E. M. Sayers, was born Nov. 6, 1773, and came to this county when he was 21 years of age. He was married to Miss Mary Wood and died in 1857.

Ezra M. Sayers was the seventh of a family of eight children. Upon arriving at manhood he became a student at Washington College and later entered upon the study of law in the office of Hon. Samuel Cleavenger, in Waynesburg. He was admitted to the bar, here, Sept. 5, 1835, and remained in the active practice of his profession for almost seventy years, a longer period probably than any other attorney in the state. His practice was extensive in all of the courts and frequently involved intricate questions of law. He was a man of strong character and throughout his long life was ever found upon the right side of public questions. He adhered firmly to the principles of temperance and constantly opposed the liquor traffic. Every movement in our town, county and state for the driving out of this evil received both his moral and financial support. In the days when the slavery question was the serious problem of this nation he was a strong advocate of its abolition. His two oldest sons, Henry C. and James E. Sayers, the former being twenty-two and the latter but seventeen, enlisted in the Union army, at the outbreak of the civil war, and served until its close, James E. Sayers being present at Gen. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Their great-grandfather, William Sayers, had been a soldier in the Revolution, serving with Philadelphia troops, and was present at the surrender of Gen. Cornwallis at Yorktown. Thus the family was represented in the two important wars of the nation and at the two historic surrenders on Virginia soil.

Mr. Sayers, by industry, strict economy and keen foresight in making investments accumulated a large fortune and was regarded as the wealthiest man in Greene county. Notwithstanding his great wealth his tastes were plain and his life was lived without the slightest display of ostentation. He had many times expressed the wish to his family that when he died his remains should be laid away in a plain walnut casket, and that there be no display of flowers, which he had, however, loved so dearly in his lifetime, and his wishes were carried out. Several years ago, Mr. Sayers united with the Cumberland Presbyterian church and at his death was a member of the Presbyterian denomination, as a result of the church union.

He was united in marriage, in 1839, to Miss Jane Adams, daughter of Robert Adams, a well known pioneer resident of Greene county. The two children of this union are Henry C. and James E. Sayers, Esq. Mrs. Sayers died in 1847. In 1852, Mr. Sayers was again united in marriage to Miss Harriet W. Tanner, of Lenox, Mass., and their union lasted for a period of forty years, when the latter's death occurred. The surviving children of this marriage are: Norman W. Sayers, of Waynesburg; Mrs. Florence A. Martin, of Greencastle, Ind.; Miss Mary Sayers, who was the constant companion and devoted attendant of her father during his later years, and D. L. Sayers, of Waynesburg.

The funeral services were held on Saturday, March 6, at 2 p. m., from the Alumni Hall of the college. Mr. Sayers was for many years president of the board of trustees of the college and had made several liberal donations to the institution, including a portion of the ground on which the new building stands. A memorial window to the memory of his wife and an equipment in the department of sciences were among his benefactions. The services were conducted in an impressive manner by Rev. Dr. J. C. Mead, Rev. J. M. Howard, D.D., and President W. M. Hudson. The remains were then borne to Green Mount cemetery, where they were laid to rest.

EXTRACTS FROM THE FUNERAL ADDRESSES.

Dr. J. C. Mead spoke as follows:

There is something grandly solemn in this funeral occasion; it seems not death, but sunset-soft and mellow, with the after-glow of a long and fruitful day of life. Seldom will we stand beside the form of one whose life has spanned such a great and marvelous space in human history. The spirit that for nearly a century tenanted this body has thrilled and throbbed with the greatest passions and experiences of modern annals.

When Mr. Sayers was born in Waynesburg, of parentage already honored in America's pioneer history, the Republic was but 36 years old, and had but 16 states. Washington, the "father of our country," had been dead only a dozen years, and Abraham Lincoln, the centenary of whose birth we have just celebrated, was three years of age; the war of 1812 was in progress.

Born during the administration of the fourth president of the United States he died on the eye of the inauguration of the twenty-seventh president. He had known, personally, many of the greatest statesmen of the past century, and had been identified with every great national interest during twenty presidential administrations; by suggestive coincidence his natal day was made the national memorial day of the G. A. R.

In the year in which he was born Napoleon was making his historic invasion of Russia; he was three years old when Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. He was but three years younger than Gladstone, and the Prince of Wales, afterwards known as George IV, had just been created regent on account of the king's indisposition. Victoria was not yet born; the embers of the French revolution were yet hot. Nineteen such lives as his, placed end to end, would reach back to Calvary.

My personal acquaintance with Mr. Sayers covers only the last twenty months of his life. The body was enfeebled by the natural changes always wrought by age, but the mind was clear, and constantly giving out from its rich resources reminiscences of great interest. His sense of humor was keen; his sympathies broad and tender; his interest in passing events alert, even to the last.

Death came calmly; he met him as a friend, and went. We gather here to give our sympathy to this large family circle; also to do honor to one whose death is of public concern and interest.

Address of Dr. J. M. Howard:

It is the poet, Wordsworth, who says:

"We die, my friend,
Nor we alone, but that which each man loved
And prized, in his peculiar nook of earth,
Dies with him or is changed."

Waynesburg was Mr. Sayers' "peculiar nook of earth." Here he was born; here he lived his 97 years. The treasured memories, of which he had such a store, have died with him. The Waynesburg which he knew is rapidly being changed. He was almost or quite the last of his generation, and we can never gather up more than a few fragments of the interesting things he remembered.

But we can recall some things about his life and his words and work. I first saw Mr. Sayers when I was a college student. He was then a leading lawyer and business man, in the prime of his life. Later I was an occasional guest in his hospitable home. He was a delightful man to meet at table or fireside. His ready humor and store of anecdotes and quotations made it a pleasure to be in his company. When I was pastor at Brownsville, in the seventies, we, more than once, had the pleasure of entertaining him in our own home, and I was associated with him on the board of trustees of Waynesburg college. He was a man of correct practical judgement, of right instincts and high ideals. He seemed to be intuitively on the right side of great public questions. He was an anti-slavery man when it meant something to take that side; he was a lifetime advocate of temperance; he was a believer in civic righteousness and moral reform.

I cannot say that I knew Mr. Sayers well until I came to Waynesburg, in 1896, to become minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. A union meeting, led by Major Whittle, of Chicago, had closed a few weeks before and Mr. Sayers, then nearly eighty-four years old, was one of the converts. He was one of the first to unite with the church, after I took charge. Of his life, since then, I can speak with some confidence. I believe he deeply regretted that he had not enlisted in the Christian life when a younger man. I have no doubt of his sincerity or of the earnestness of his desire and effort to be faithful and true. As long as he had the strength he was constant in his attendance at the services. He showed his sincerity also by his liberal giving to the church, not only to the local work but to the benevolent causes outside. With one exception, I believe, he gave in the last years of his life more dollars to the cause of missions and temperance and like enterprises than any other man in Greene county. True, he gave out of his abundance, but for one who began his training in Christian giving at 84, he did well. It is not meant that he gave nothing in the years before. A part of the ground on which the college stands, was his gift. And before and since he was a contributor to this institution. He was many years president of its board of trustees and in his last days he found great joy in remembering this.

I am sure Mr. Sayers was a praying man. I have heard his voice more than once, asking for forgiveness, for help, for strength. Did you ever think about how much it means to pray? Only man can commune with God, and it is man's highest act. The greatest thing said about Saul of Tarsus, one of the greatest men that ever lived, was, "Behold, he prayeth." Mr. Sayers learned to pray. It is a great thing to be an able lawyer, such as he was, or a successful business man, but as we stand by his casket today, do we not feel that it was greater still to pray? The last time I visited him he prayed a beautiful prayer. His voice was very weak and he spoke slowly and with evident pain. This was his prayer:

"My faith looks up to thee,
Thou Lamb of Cavalry, Savior divine.
Now hear me while I pray,
Take all my guilt away,
O let me from this day
Be wholly thine."

He had a strong hold on life and felt and said, "life is sweet." But as the end approached he longed for the coming change. Two weeks before he died, as we were talking about the hereafter, he said, "I want to go today." And now his feet have slipped o'er the brink; he has crossed the bar. We cannot look through the veil, but we can trust him in the hands of our loving God, who pitieth them that fear him "like as a father pitieth his children."

Dr. Hudson spoke of Mr. Sayers' connection with the college and of his aid to students. As he had no manuscript of his address we are unable to give it."