It is with a great degree of satisfaction to the biographer when he reverts to the life of one who has made a success in any vocation requiring definiteness of purpose and determined action. Such a life, whether it be one of prosaic endeavor or radical accomplishment, abounds in valuable lesson and incentive to those who have become discouraged in the fight for recognition of to the youth whose future is undetermined. For a number of years Alexander T. Sayers, one of Fountain county's most progressive agriculturists and highly respected citizens, has directed his efforts toward the goal of success and by patient continuance has won. He belongs to that class of substantial citizens whose lives do not show any meteoric effects, but who by their support of the moral, political and social status for the general good, promote the real welfare of their respective communities and are therefore deserving of honorable mention on the pages of history.

Mr. Sayers was born in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, November 21, 1840, and is a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Frogge) Sayers. The father came from Virginia in 1831 and settled in Jackson township, Tippecanoe county, Indiana, beginning there as a pioneer, developed a good farm by his industry and there spent the balance of his life. The mother of the subject came from Tennessee, her parents emigrating to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, in 1837, and here she grew to womanhood and married Robert Sayers, and they became the parents of thirteen children, five of whom are still living. The elder Sayers was a Democrat, but he was a quiet home man and never sought or held office, having devoted his life to general farming.

Alexander T. Sayers grew to manhood on the home farm and he received his education in the public schools of his home community, and later attended business college at Indianapolis. In his early life he taught school for some time, and, although he was making some progress as an educator, he abandoned the school room and took up agricultural pursuits and stock raising as a life work. He is now the owner of seventy-eighy acres of well improved and productive land in Davis township, Fountain county, on which stands a commodious and attractive home and an excellent groupl of outbuildings. The improvements of this place were made, for the most part, by his father-in-law, with whom the subject farmed, shipped live stock and fed stock on a large scale for a number of years, in all of which they were exceptionally successful. Mr. Carter and Mr. Sayers leased the Purdue stock farm in Warren county for about five years, and managed it in a manner that brought them a satisfactory annual income and proved him to be a modern twentieth-century agriculturist in every respect. This place consists of twenty-two hundred acres.

Mr. Sayers was married on October 1, 1867, to Caroline Carter, a daughter of Samuel and Annie (Mills) Carter, who came from Hamilton county, Ohio, and settled in Davis township, Fountain county, and here they were married. They became the parents of five children, namely: Mrs. Margaret Beach is deceased; Mrs. Elizabeth Bever was the second child; James F. lives in Davis township; Caroline, who became the wife of Mr. Sayers, of this sketch.

Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sayers, namely: Julia married Elvah Davis, of Jackson township, Tippecanoe county, Indiana; William C. is a merchant at Wingate; Agnes D. married Ira Meharry, of Jackson township, Tippecanoe county, secretary of the National Horse Thief and Detective Association; Robert F., the fourth child of the subject, also lives in Jackson township, Tippecanoe county; Samuel C. married Nellie Bridges. He is a graduate of DePauw University at Greencastle, Indiana, is a merchant and is at present city clerk of the town in which he resides.

Polically, Alexander T. Sayers is a Democrat, but he has never aspired to public office. He belongs to the Methodist church at Shawnee Mound, Fountain county.

Source: Past and Present of Fountain and Warren Counties Indiana, 1913, pp. 904-906.

Submitted by Adina Watkins Dyer - gr. gr. granddaughter of Alexander and Caroline Sayers