Philetus Sawyer (September 22, 1816 – March 29, 1900) was an American businessman, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer.

Sawyer used his wealth and power to try and steal timber and property from the Menominee Nation in Northern Wisconsin.

[1] Philetus Sawyer was born in 1816 in Whiting, Vermont, and moved with his family to rural forested Essex County, New York, as an infant in 1817.

After two years toiling unsuccessfully at his farm, he decided to return to his lumbering roots in the nearby pine forests along the Wolf River.

[4] In 1859, he was elected to the Winnebago County board of supervisors,[5] and in 1860, he won another term in the State Assembly, serving in the 14th Wisconsin Legislature.

[3] Sawyer had declined to run for U.S. House of Representatives in 1862,[3] but in September 1864, he accepted the nomination from the Republican National Union Party convention for Wisconsin's 5th congressional district to be their candidate for that fall.

His Democratic opponent was the recently returned Union Army colonel Gabriel Bouck, of the 18th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment.

In the 1872 election, Sawyer defeated Democrat Myron P. Lindsley, but announced two years later that he would not run for a sixth term.

[3] During his time in Congress, Sawyer secured significant federal appropriations for river and harbor improvements in northern Wisconsin, due to his collection of favors.

He declining the chairmanship of the then-powerful House Commerce Committee for three consecutive terms in favor of allies Nathan F. Dixon II, Samuel Shellabarger, and William A. Wheeler.

With further acquisitions, he consolidated his rail holdings into the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway, and served as vice president and director of the company until 1880.