I am Perley Clair Sawyer. I was born February 6, 1885 in North Gray. My father was Horatio Macomber Sawyer and my mother was Addie Staples Sawyer from Carthage, Maine. She had come to Gray to work in the woolen mill.
I grew up on the farm in North Gray with a younger brother, Ralph White Sawyer, next to the store that our father owned. Ralph was named after one of our Mayflower ancestors.
I went to school and graduated from Pennell Institute in 1904 and married Jennie Bohnson in 1906. Our son Kenneth was born in North Gray in 1908; Elbert was born there in 1911.
We bought the house on 18 Main Street in Gray Village in 1917. Our daughter Margaret was born July 29, 1919 in that house in the village and lived most of her life there.
I was a businessman as well as a gentleman farmer, owning a dairy farm on top of Weeks Hill in Gray, and eventually acquired acreage along Pennell Lane to grow blueberries. I was one of the first commercial milk haulers outside of Portland to collect milk in cans from dairy farms and deliver them to Oakhurst Dairy in Portland. This venture later became Sawyers Inc., using a tank truck to collect and deliver the milk.
I purchased an auto repair garage and set up my two sons in business. This later became Gray Garage, Inc., a Chevrolet dealership.
I served on many committees in Gray and even donated a piece of land for the building of the Newbegin Gymnasium which was built in 1937.
Written by Robert K. Sawyer, Gray Maine