"Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia of Monongalia, Marion and Taylor Co. WV" 1895.... Rush West & Co Publishers Phildelphia
THOMAS N. SWISHER, a prosperous farmer and business man of Marion county, and commander of Meade Post, No. 6, G.A.R., at Fairmont, is a son of Jacob and Barsheba Swisher, and was born in Winfield district, Marion county, Virginia (now West Virginia), November 8, 1836. He grew to manhood on the farm, received his education in the district school of his day and engaged in farming, which he followed until August 7, 1861, when he enlisted in company "C", sixth West Virginia infantry. Ten months later he was transferred to battery "F", first West Virginia light artillery, in which he was promoted to first sergeant, and served until September 15, 1864, when he was honorably discharged at Wheeling, West Virginia. He was in the battles of Martinsburg, Carter's farm and Winchester, and, after returning home, resumed farming, which he has followed up to the present time. In addition to cultivating his farm of sixty acres, he has done considerable in the line of carpentering and wagon-making. On April 15, 1858, Mr. Swisher wedded Sarah Ann Morley, a daughter of Benjamin Morley, a farmer of Greene county, Pennsylvania. To their union have been born seven children: Samuel S., a farmer of Smithtown, Monongalia county; Francis M., a resident of Fairmont; Charles E., a resident of this county; Willie Grant, now dead; Sabina Belle, wife of Joseph Carothers, a farmer of Monongalia county; Jacob O., engaged in farming; and James H., a resident of Faimont. In politics, Mr. Swisher has always been a republican. He served as register of his district for four years, was census enumerator in 1890, and acted as secretary of the board of education for several succesive terms, and is now a notary pubic in the county in which he resides. He is a member and the present commander of Meade Post, No. 6, G.A.R., and some years ago united with Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is now trustee. He is also recording steward of the Palatine circuit, in which his church is included. Thomas N. Swisher has been not only active, but industrious and economical, and, by hard work and good judgment, has secured a competancy, and, what is far more valuable, a good and honorable name in his neighborhood. The ancestors of Mr. Swisher were, a century ago, resident in Berkeley county, from which his paternal grandfather Jacob M. Swisher, came in 1810, to Winfield district. Jacob M. Swisher purchased a farm there and followed farming. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, and married Miss Bunner. Their children were: Joseph, Rev. Jacob, Henry, Allen, Mrs. Nancy Harris, Mrs. Elizabeth Carder, Mrs Roannah Brain and Mrs Almeda Martin. Rev. Jacob Swisher was born in Berkeley county, and served as a Methodist minister for nearly half a century. He owned a farm of fifty acres in Winfield district, and lived an industrious and useful life. He did considerable in the timber trade on the river, and died March 25, 1881, aged seventy-five years. He was a democrat, and afterward a republican, and served a number of years as justice of the peace. In 1829 he married Barsheba Farrell, who was a daughter of Enoch Farrell, and died in March, 1864, at fifty-three years of age. They reared a family of seven sons and eight daughters: Solomon C., of Schuyler county Illinois; Elizabeth M., residing at Fairmont; E.W. of Champaign county Illinois; Nancy, widow of William Doak, of Doddridge county; Thomas N., subject of sketch; Harriet, of Fairmont; Charles W., enlisted in June, 1861 in Company "B", Third West Virginia infantry, and was killed at the battle of Rocky Gap; Elvira, of Fairmont; Robert M., a farmer of Missouri; Sarah, wife of Dr. J.R. Watson, of Smithfield, Fayette county, Pennsylvania; Henry, a farmer of Winfield district; Emeline, wife of Napolean B. Swisher, of Catawba, this county; Jennie and Frank, of Winfield district, this county; and Letitia, now dead. ------------------TO SEE A FEW LETTERS FROM THOMAS N. SWISHER TO HIS WIFE SARAH ANNE (a few are from his brother to him) DURING THE CIVIL WAR....
