The Sage family was part of an early group of settlers in Oxford. Comfort was born in New York State, June 9, 1797 and when they immigrated to Upper Canada he spent his younger years along the banks of the Grand River in Brant County later moving to Oxford.
During hostilities between Great Britain and the United States, Comfort enlisted in the Oxford Militia. His name appears in the July to August Muster Roll of the 2nd Flank Company under command of Captain John Carroll. This would mean that Comfort was part of the British Regulars and Canadian Militias at the capture of Fort Detroit.
According to the family history he may have been at some of the bloodier battles of the war, as the Muster Rolls indicate he was actively engaged in October and November of 1813 with another company with possible service at Lundy’s Lane and Stoney Creek.
After the War in 1816, as a veteran, Comfort was entitled to a land grant, which he turned down and instead took a settlement in the form of a $20.00 per year pension.
After leaving the service, Comfort began his own family when he married Susannah Lawrence of Burford and settled on Lot 14, Concession 1, West Oxford Township. The had seven children:
- Lucinda, married James Nichols Jr. and after his death in 1848 she married Calvin Brown
- Mary, married John Nichols
- Levi, married Mirian Sweezy, inherited part of the homestead, later sold and moved to Iowa
- Allen, married Betsy Armstrong, lived and died on his inherited part of the homestead
- Enoch, married Martha Wilson
- Lucy, married Silas Scott
- Sally, never married
The 1824 assessment roll shows that he had 20 acres of cultivated land and another 30 to be cleared. In the meantime he built a frame house with lumber from the Nichols saw mill and square hand forged nails he reportedly carried from Brantford.
By 1832 he was able to purchase 200 acres of Lots 11 & 12 of Concession 3, part of which he gave to his son Allen a while another son, Enoch, helping to farm the remaining half. The 1855 Voters List for West Oxford shows Comfort living on another 100 acres at Lot 8, Concession 5.
Comfort’s youngest daughter, Sally died in 1854 at the age of 29 and his beloved wife Susannah passed away in 1868, both are buried in the West Oxford Church Cemetery. His son Enoch in 1875 contracted consumption and died in the summer of 1876 leaving his wife and young family in the care of his father Comfort.
Comfort’s favourite pastime was hunting and when he grew older, was to gather his grandsons around him and tell them tales of his life with the Indians and of his hunting experiences.
He died on April 5, 1887 at the age of 90 years, in the stone house he had helped his son Enoch build. Comfort is buried with his beloved wife and most of his children in the West Oxford Church Cemetery.
One can only imagine all the different things Comfort Sage would have experienced in his lifetime: the transition of farming from clearing the land with oxen to threshing with steam, railroads, cheese factories, kerosene lamps and Confederation just to name a few.