John S. Savage was born in Clermont County, Ohio to James and Frances (Battson) Savage. James Savage was a school teacher and later a farmer. John was educated in the local public schools and in 1853 relocated to Clinton County, Ohio where he took up his father’s early vocation.
During his five years of teaching, he devoted his spare time to the study of law and, in 1865, he was admitted to the Ohio bar. That same year he was also admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Illinois. Savage opened a law office at Wilmington, Ohio, in partnership with Simeon G. Smith. Their firm, Savage & Smith, was well known in the county.
Family life
On December 31, 1868 Savage married Lydia Ayers, a native of Clinton county; they had four children.
Congress
Savage was a Democrat, casting his first vote for George B. McClellan in 1864. His election to Congress was wholly unsought—he accepted the nomination more to aid in maintaining the organization of his party than in the expectation of being elected. Ohio's third congressional district was overwhelmingly Republican, yet Savage defeated his incumbent opponent John Q. Smith by 1,162 votes. At the succeeding congressional election in 1876, he was narrowly defeated by Mills Gardner, who also served a single term.
Later career and death
Savage resumed the practicing law in Wilmington. He was a Freemason, of the Knights Templar degree.
He died in Wilmington and his remains are interred at the Sugar Grove Cemetery.
