Rev. Sayrs Gazlay was born in New York, and eventually moved with his parents and siblings to Ohio. He was an uncle on the maternal side to the distinguished Professor David Swing. Rev. Gazlay was a man of much learning and the author of several books, among them an extensive Biblical Commentary. He was a man of some attainments, especially in theology, but very eccentric, dogmatic and intolerant. His faith was a somber Calvinism darkened into fatalism, in which a few elect were to be rescued from the general collapse and failure of creation. He held the dogma of the divine origin and right of human slavery in the same manner, proving it the while with Bible texts, and no one dared to doubt his exegesis. Riding fast horses was his passion, but whistling was his pet abomination, and he kept a ledger in which to record the names of all boys who practices the vice. If a boy felt moved to bird-like music he looked about him before puckering his lips to begin, but after nightfall the theologian heard many a warbled tune with variations. David’s religious views were explained by his boyhood friends as, in part at least, a reaction from the radical and too violent views of his uncle. Doubtless that strange man served him as a kind of negative pole of thought, but he seems to have been endowed, from the first, with a mind at once judicial and humane.^{8, 9}

He was pastor at several churches in New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky over his lifetime. An index of Presbyterian Ministers shows his name (under various spellings) in the Presbyterian Church’s records and minutes from 1828 to 1874.¹⁰

Sayrs was admitted as a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Durham, Greene County, New York, on 30 August 1811, “by letter from the church of Pleasant Valley. Entered the ministry.” This was likely in conjunction with his parents’ and siblings’ move to Greene County.¹¹

His name is found in several registers of the American Education Society (1827, 1829) in the Synod of Geneva, Presbytery of Chenango, N. Y., in the town of Oxford. In 1829 he was reappointed for one year in Warren County, Ohio. This was apparently when Sayrs moved from New York to Ohio. In 1832 he was reappointed for four months to the Presbytery of Ebenezer, Kentucky. Later in 1832 he was reappointed for one year to Millersburg and vicinity, Kentucky.¹²

Sayrs was apparently interested in, and had acquired some expertise in, fossilized wood in Ohio, having observed and collected specimens over several years. His letter to Professor Benjamin Stillman in 1833 provides rich details of his efforts on this topic, citing various finds mostly by individuals in digging their wells in the area around Springfield, Ohio.¹³

On 1 October 1833, the Rev. Gazlay was installed as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Williamsburgh, Ohio.¹⁴

In 1835, Sayrs married Susan Hay. The two children born to them both died in infancy.³

Rev. Gazlay was among 35 ministers and elders to provide testimony and to vote in the infamous trial of Rev. Lyman Beecher for heresy in the Presbyterian Church in 1835. After all the testimony, Rev. Gazlay voted to sustain the charges, which vote was in the minority, so Rev. Beecher was acquitted in the trial. On appeal to the general synod, he was again acquitted.¹⁵

Rev. Gazlay was the minister at Hopewell Church, Hopewell, Indiana 1840-41. He apparently had occasional differences of opinion with his congregants. In one incident, two women were spending the day with Rev. Gazlay’s wife, when he express strong objection to “wasting the luxury of tea upon her guests at the dinner hour.” Another time, Rev. Gazlay had stopped to spend the night at McGuire’s Tavern near Waverly, Indiana (about ten miles northwest of Hopewell). While there, he criticized the food and attempted to tell the owner how to cook. The owner, in front of many guests, said, “Judging from your manners, you ought to be running a restaurant instead of preaching the gospel.” In another incident, Rev. Gazlay was asked to allow Dr. Thomas Clelland, a well known Kentucky Presbyterian, to speak at Hopewell. Rev. Gazlay refused. So instead, a meeting was called at a private home where Dr. Clelland preached to a group of people. It apparently was after this incident that Rev. Gazlay left Hopewell.¹⁶

Rev. Gazlay was involved in an interesting and important law suit in Ohio. When Williamsburgh, Ohio, was originally laid out in 1795 or 1796, Gen. William Lytle, the town’s proprietor and founder, reserved five and one-half acres of land that were dedicated and appropriated to the public for county public buildings. Four years later, Clermont County was organized, with Williamsburgh as the first county seat. In 1824, the county seat was moved to Batavia, and the people of Williamsburgh took possession of the public buildings and square, using them for public purposes. Gen. Lytle then claimed that the square reverted to him. The county brought suit against Lytle, and the Supreme Court for Clermont County dismissed the suit, with title settled in favor of Lytle, who conveyed title to the United States Bank, to satisfy Lytle’s debt to the bank. In 1846, the bank sold the same to Sayrs Gazlay for four hundred and fifty dollars, who, along with Adam Walker, took control and possession of the public square and claimed to hold title to the square and its buildings. The corporate authorities of Williamsburgh filed suit for an injunction against Gazlay and Walker, and in December 1849 the Clermont County Supreme Court declared the title was held by the town, and the injunction was made perpetual. Rev. Gazlay and others counter-sued, and in December 1854 the Supreme Court of Ohio heard and ultimately dismissed their suit, ending the matter.^{8, 17}

In May, 1854, Rev. Gazlay and others organized the Loveland Presbyterian Church, in Clermont County, Ohio, although other ministers served as the church’s preacher.⁸

Sayrs was the author of several published works, including The Way of Salvation, published in Original Sermons; by Presbyterian Ministers, in The Mississippi Valley in 1833, and the extensive Comments on Select Passages of The Holy Scriptures in 1870.^{18, 19}

The 1870 U.S. Census shows “S. Gasley,” age 84, born in New York, living in Newport, Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati. Living with him is “O. D. Gasley,” a 76 year old female, born in New York. Her identity has not been determined; she could be Sayrs’ second wife, although no record of another marriage has been found.⁶

Sayrs died 24 May 1874 and is buried in Williamsburgh Cemetery, Williamsburgh, Clermont County, Ohio.⁵