Howard Reynold Jefferson Sawyer was born on August 7, 1883, in Green Turtle Cay, Abaco to William Aladdin “Laddie” Sawyer (1855-1915) and Martha Lowe (1859-1894).

His siblings included…

• Charles Luddinton (1881)
• William Albert (1888)
• Maud Euphemia Isabel (1890)
• Fanny Jeanette (1892)
• Thomas Wilson (1895)

Howard was living in Key West with Clarence Singleton and Marion (Lowe) Singleton by 1900.

He married Cornelia Curry Roberts (1887-1947) on 25 October 1906 in Key West, Florida, in a ceremony performed by E. A. Harrison, Pastor of the First M.E. Church S. Cornelia is the daughter of Bahamians Benjamin Roberts and Sarah Adelaide Sawyer.

Their children included…

• Ethelind Louise (1908)
• Edward
• Lois Dorothy
• Howard Jefferson Jr

Howard Jefferson Sawyer, tax assessor, was killed, 22 March 1924, by a hit-and-run driver while attending a Masonic conference in Jacksonville, Florida. He was 38 years of age. He is my 2nd cousin 3 times removed.

Abe Goldman, connected with a Jacksonville automobile distributing concern, was arrested and charged with manslaughter as a result of the killing of Howard Sawyer, of Key West, tax assessor of Monroe county, who was run down by an automobile at the intersection of Forsythe and Newnan streets.

Another name was added to Florida’s rapidly growing list of women county officials when Governor Cary A. Hardee appointed Mrs. Howard J. Sawyer, of Key West, to be tax assessor of Monroe county, to succeed her husband, who was killed in an automobile accident in Jacksonville, last week.

The Bradford County Telegraph
Starke, Florida
Friday March 31, 1922 Page 3