William1

William's birth date and place are unknown. William and Mary's marital data are not known. Mary was born in Wales.

According to Hattie and Jean, William's son Charles was born in 1795. This is the earliest useful date we have to work with, and from it we estimate that William and Mary were born not much later than 1770, and possibly a decade earlier, as they had four sons altogether.

From Hattie and Jean's family history we read:

"William Swan was a sergeant-major in the army. Later when William Swan retired from the army he had more years of service to his credit than he had years of age because one year served in India counted as two. When he retired he received three shillings or almost a dollar a day as his pension. This was big money in those days.

"Before William came back to England he fought under an American born British General from Boston, by the name of Putman. This was when they were fighting the French in India.

"Later, in the year 1810 at the Isle of France, William had the experience of having the men on the left of him and on his right, both shot down, but he came through unhurt."

The British Army records of births and marriages in India are thought to be complete, and all three Presidencies have been thoroughly searched in the hope of identifying William's unit. The one item of interest located was the Bengal record of the birth 31 Aug 1795 of Elizabeth, daughter of "William Swan, Priv. 2nd Cy. Arty", recorded by the Rev. T. Clark Futtyghas (if I have read the somewhat ornate script of the minister's name correctly) [Anon., 1795]. Companies of the British Army were not officially numbered, so the reference to this William's unit is probably an informal way of distinguishing between two companies of artillery at that time stationed at the same place. The location of the birth is difficult to ascertain because of the complex layout of the large ledger pages, but may have been the Fort William garrison.

This date presents something of a problem. If this is our William, with a hitherto unknown daughter, then his son Charles could not have been born in 1795, as was claimed by Hattie and Jean. As discussed in detail under his name in the next generation, however, Charles' actual birth year is in considerable doubt. But in any event, we still don't have an answer as to why the birth itself cannot be found in the British records, whatever the date. Thus, it still seems entirely possible that William Swan, of a "second" artillery company, who had a daughter Elizabeth in 1795, may have been our ancestor.

In the battle of 1810 mentioned by Hattie and Jean, the English captured the Île de France, an island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, which they renamed Mauritius. (It's companion island, then Bourbon, now La Réunion, remained a possession of France.) Mauritius bears modest fame as the home of the extinct dodo, gone long before the time of that battle. France had been using a base there to harass British shipping to India during the long struggle with Napoleon. There were four companies of the Royal Artillery in the Indian Ocean in 1810 [Laws, 1952]. Of those, only one,the 5th Battalion, actually mustered at Mauritius, in December of that year. (A muster was a monthly roll call certified by a civil authority.) However, this company had been at Cape of Good Hope since 1806, and never saw service in India itself, so doesn't match what we think we know of William's service record.

There is a record in 1814, however, which is difficult to read but intriquing [The Royal Horse Artillery, War Office/69/62]. It reads, in so far as I can make out in the copy I saw:

1 Jan 1814 5th Battalion, Gr. Swan, William … to 5th … July 1814

The "Gr." indicates that this was the Indian Grenadiers, as the British Grenadiers did not serve in India. The 5th Battalion was also known (possibly earlier or later) as the 112th Infantry [www.grenadiers.info/indian/]. This record, four years after the battle referred to above, might have been of a transfer from one battalion to another during the process of mustering out a retired Sergeant Major for his return to England, as the date agrees approximately with what we know from Hattie and Jean's family history. But that is pure surmise. There exists another book I've not seen which might shed some light on his possible unit -- Records of the Royal Horse Artillery, by Lt-Col. J. E. Michell, Revised Edition 1888.

The other three companies were stationed at Colombo and Trincomali, Ceylon, (the large island at the southern tip of India, then in the process since 1795 of being wrested from the Dutch) for the entire year. While they did not muster at Mauritius, any of them could have participated in that battle between their monthly musters at Ceylon, or on their way back to Britain. Since William had presumably been more or less continuously in the Indian theatre of operations up to this time, one of these last three could quite possibly be his if, in fact, it was our William serving in the Royal Artillery.

To make matters more obscure, however, there were also Royal Horse Artilleries (not researched by Laws in the preceding reference), which were formed during the war with France from various Indian Artillery units, as well as Field and Garrison Artilleries. The company referred to in the birth record could as well have been from one of these regiments. I've found no records saying whether or not any of these units fought on the Île de France.

So while the information so far uncovered is intriquing, more extensive research in the British War Office and Public Record Office will have to be undertaken in order to find our ancestor's service and retirement records. This would be invaluable as they would tell us his age, occupation, and the place where he was recruited into the service, the records of his unit would provide details of the engagements in which he fought, and possibly the place he lived while on pension.

Sometime soon after the turn of the century, 1803 or 1804 if Hattie and Jean have it right, Mary left William in India to take their son Charles to Wales. "He had never been a sturdy child and the Indian climate did not prove any too good for him." For this reason, and for his education, Mary took him to the home of a relative, Wade Honeywell, a minister and school teacher who lived in Wales. Honeywell seems to be a relatively rare name, and the FHL IGI does not have that surname in Wales.

Mary "was a very strong minded Welsh woman. She had seen enough army life and warfare to last her always. She made up her mind that just because this army business was her husband's calling it need not be her son's. To her kinsman Wade Honeywell she said, before she returned [to India], "Now is the time for military service in this family to stop. There have been enough Swan menfolk in the army. Charles will learn to do something different." Charles did. He became a baker."

Before Charles finished his schooling, William and Mary returned to England, but we have no knowledge as to where they settled, nor how long they lived. However, their grandson James was told tales of his youth that reveal a little more about their family: "Two of his uncles had brought the first damask loom to England from India. Then there was the story of Uncle John Swan who had set sail for India and had never been heard of after that." This implies that there were four sons in the family, but their relative ages are unknown. They most probably got their education in India, as their later trading occupation indicates a knowledge of the country that would have exceeded that of Charles who left as a child. Whether they too were born in India, or in Britain before William went overseas, we do not know.

A William Swan, born in Armagh, Ireland, immigrated to this country on 10 July, 1807, at the age of 22 [Scott, 1981]. This is the right age for him to be one of the brothers to Charles. This might be taken as a hint that the William Swans, as well as Ann Morrison who married Charles, lived in Armagh before or after William's service in India, and would explain where the two of them met. Unfortunately, the reference for the immigration is very poorly recorded, and there seems to be no index card for it in the Federal Archives.

This deserves further research, for it might reveal another branch of our Swan family in this country. As will be discussed below, William and Mary's grandson James W. Swan was born either in Hulme, England or Armagh, Ireland [Swan and Swan, 1939]. In the Parlimentary Returns of 1740, the name of Jno Swan appears on a list of Protestant Housekeepers in Derynus(?) Parish in county Armagh. This could be an ancestor if indeed the Swan family came from there before William's time. The English name of Swan appearing in Ireland probably stems from the "plantation" of English and Scotch settlers on land from which James I expelled the Irish owners at the beginning of the seventeenth century. However, I have not been able to find a source which provides a complete list of surnames involved in that settlement. The family could, alternately, have emigrated to Ireland some time after that infamous act of King James.

The four children of William and Mary (Honeywell) Swan were Charles, John, a son and a son.

i     Charles Swan, son, born in 1792.

ii     John Swan, son.

iii     Unnamed Swan, son.

iv     Unnamed Swan, son.

Charles Swan & Ann C. Morrison

William1, Charles2

Charles was born about 1792 in India, and died before 1841 in Hulme, Lancashire, England. Charles and Ann C. married 1819 in Ireland?. Ann C. was born 1794/1795 in Flanders, France, and died about 1859 in New York, New York, New York.

Charles' birth year is in considerable doubt. Albert Markley Swan in his genealogical notes says that Charles (he names him incorrectly as James) was born in India, and that he died at age 49. However, we know from the 1841 English census that Anne was by that date a widow. Combining these two data would imply a birth year of 1792 or earlier. Hattie and Jean say in one place in their family history [Swan and Swan, 1939] that Charles was born in India about 1795. Elsewhere, however, they say that he was taken to Wales when he was about six years old in 1803 or 1804, giving a birth year of 1796 to 1798. The possible birth to William and Mary of a daughter in 1795 in India (discussed above in William's history) would, if true, require an earlier or later date. From all of these possibilities, I've selected 1792 as a best guess for Charles' birth.

Charles went with his mother to the home of a relative, Wade Honeywell, a minister and school teacher, who lived in Wales. Hattie and Jean write that Charles' trip with his mother from India to Wales "was on a slow sailing boat and was a dreadfully long journey for a small boy. He thought the water would never end. He had been much awed by the sea but he was very very glad to see the land again.

"When little Charles reached Wales he looked up at the mountains and saw something he had never seen before. It was snow! Here he was in Wales now and his school days had begun." Before Charles finished his schooling his parents returned from India, some time after 1810.

We do not know the circumstances that allowed Charles and Ann to meet and marry, but it was evidently in Ireland. From the census data discussed below, we think that they moved to England about 1826. Hattie and Jean write, "they opened a bake shop at Hulme, a suburb of Manchester, England". In the 1838-39 edition of Pigot and Sons's General, Classified, and Street Directory of Manchester and Salford, there is a Charles Swan listed at 4 John St., Hulme (pronounced Hume), but no occupation is given. There were as many as a dozen other Swans listed in that directory and later editions through 1852, many of them in Hulme, and any of these could be unrecognized brothers or cousins of Charles.

One of the tales of his role as father concerned Charles' daughters' request to visit another church. "Ellen and Sarah Sabina… were raised in the Episcopal Church and were in the habit of going there. They had been told of the very different services being held in the Methodist Chapel and out of curiosity decided they and their friends would have fun visiting the Dissenters. However, when they asked their father's permission, Charles soberly answered "You may go to the chapel services as long as you behave yourself. Remember it is their way of worship so show respect for it." This answer took the wind out of their sails so they decided if they had to be as sober in the church of the Dissenters as they did in their own church they would not go — it would not be fun."

That the family were members of the Church of England seems natural, but it is curious that there is no record of any of the last three children being baptised in Christ Church, Hulme. There are no indexes to the parish records, but a search through all of the volumes turned up not a single reference to our Swans. Other Swans appeared, with baptisms from 1791 through 1829, one or more of whom might even have been Charles' brothers, but we have no way of establishing any relationships. The family names of the sons-in-law also appeared in those records. Bates, Hargreaves, and, to a lesser extent, Tweddle, seem to have been common names in that church, but references specifically to the daughters' husbands and children cannot be found in the church records of marriages and baptisms.

Charles and Ann's eldest daughter Mary married young, and died leaving a son Charlie Hargreaves. He was raised in the Swan household, and grew up as a brother to the other children, being only three to five years younger than William. By the time of the census of 1841, Charles had died, and the widowed Ann was the head of her household. The family lived in "Cellars" below No. 1, Paradise Court, an interesting juxtaposition of names. The rest of the full address was St. George's Ward, township of Hulme, Borough of Manchester, hundred of Salford, county of Lancashire.

1841 Census of Hulme, Manchester, England

Ann's employment was not given, but her age was 45 and she was born in Ireland. (See the introduction to the Morrison family history for a discussion of her birthplace.) Her daughters Ellen and Sarah were both aged 15, one born in Ireland and the other in Lancashire, England! Both also were employed as "Cotton doublers", while James, aged 14, born in Lancashire, was a "Cotton piecer". William, then about 8 to 10 years of age, was for some reason missing in that census, but Ann's grandson Charles, 4, was listed. All of the childrens' surnames were indicated with ditto marks, so Charlie was probably known as a Swan.

A curious juxtaposition of employments appears on this census page. Just above Ann's name can be seen that of John Longley, a watchmonger, and in the household before his appears Thomas Hickney, an iron founder. James Swan, then 14, later became a brass founder, and his brother William apprenticed in NYC to James' future father-in-law, Hamilton Brown, a watch glass maker. Most surely all coincidence, but interesting, nonetheless.

That the "Irish" Ellen and "English" Sarah were both 15 is conceivable, if they had been born less than one year apart. But even allowing for the typical census inaccuracy, this does seem to point to a move by the family from Ireland to Hulme about 1826. Hattie and Jean say in the text of their history that all of the children were born in Hulme, and then indicate in one of their charts that James was born in Armagh, Ireland in 1827. Albert Markley Swan in his notes says that James was born in Ireland while his parents were on a visit, but that his "home" was in Manchester. (One has to remember that Irish ancestry was not necessarily something to be avidly claimed by descendants with an English surname.) The 1841 census clearly gives James' birth as being "in the county", i.e., Lancashire, and for the 1900 census he himself testified that he was born in England. The reference to Armagh, however, is undoubtedly in some way a valid family recollection, and is probably the place where Ann and Charles were married and started their family. Probably the census data is the more reliable as to the family's move from Ireland to England than the family recollections recorded by Hattie and Jean.

Ann Morrison was definitely raised as "an Army brat", in our more modern slang. Hattie and Jean write: "One of the earliest things she could remember was watching the horses being watered in the cold winter mornings. She remembered this because the water froze on the nostrils of the horses, making them look very funny." (Hattie and Jean were born when Ann would have been in her nineties had see been still living, so this memory had to have been handed down by at least one intermediate generation.)

"At the time of the Battle of Waterloo Ann was a girl of eighteen (more nearly twenty if her census age is accepted). All her life she remembered these stirring times and told many stories to her children and grandchildren. One of the stories was as follows — In those days the wives and children of the soldiers kept as near to them as they could — even following them to the battlefields to carry food and to give them aid when they were hurt. On this occasion — it was at the Battle of Waterloo — the women and children were following the army in large wagons or wains, as they called them. All of a sudden there was a loud Pop-Pop. Each of the women thought that she herself had been shot and great was the excitement. It was soon found, however, that it was only the corks popping out of the bottles of spruce beer, which were being taken to the soldiers on the battle field."

We know from Albert Swan's notes that James, and probably Ann, had left England for Glasgow some three years before they came to America. In the 31 March 1851 census for Glasgow, we find (courtesy of John D. McCreadie of Glasgow, 12 Dec 2001) her and James residing at 7 Cheapside Street, Anderston District, Glasgow. This is a one-block long street ending on the River Clyde, somewhat to the west of the center of the city. Ann, aged 55, was listed as a widow and head of household, and worked as a laundress. Her birth was recorded as France, and it was noted that she was a British subject. This is documentary evidence that the family history by Hattie and Jean was correct in stating that she was born in Flanders while her father was serving in the army. James, age 23, was censused with her as an Iron Moulder born in England. Also in the household were Mary Devote, 34, and her three children, Angelina, Virginia and Louis, designated as lodgers. Mary's occupation was given as "domestic duties", and she was born in Italy. Thus it seems that having left behind England and the family bakery, Ann was taking in laundry and lodgers as James worked as an apprentice iron molder in Glasgow.

The 1880 census of James and Jane Swan in Topeka, Kansas, indicates that James had immigrated in the last half of 1851, and Hattie and Jean indicate that he came with his mother, Ann. Thus William Swan came here first (he was censused in New York City in 1850), and was followed a year or so later by his mother and older brother James. Apparently Ann's grandson Charlie Hargreaves, whom she raised from infancy after her daughter Mary's early death, did not come to this country with her. He would have been around 14 or 15 years old when the family emigrated to America, and capable of earning a living at that age in industrial England, just as James was working at that age ten years earlier.

In The Famine Immigrants [Glazier, 1986] there appears an Anne Swan on the Martha's Vineyard from Glasgow which docked 27 Oct 1851. According to the genealogical notes written by Albert Markley Swan, Glasgow is where her son James had been working as a foundryman, and Albert writes that this is precisely the date (the day after her twelth birthday) when James first met Jane Brown, his future wife and daughter of his brother William's employer, Hamilton Brown. See the following section describing James' life which verifies that he was indeed on that ship, but under an inadvertantly, but very effectively, disguised name. With that discovery, it is undeniably a fact that this Anne Swan is our Ann. The entire list is in one handwriting, and it is more than likely that the purser simply spelled her given name the way he was used to spelling it.

The City Directories then trace Ann in New York. "Ann Swan, widow of Charles", lived at 648 Houston in 1852–53 and 1853–54. Houston crosses the Bowery right where her son William's shop was located, and to the west passes Greenwich Village where her son James was married. But 648 Huston is not a valid street number today for either East or West Houston. It may be that the street has been renumbered since the 1850s.

Ann had moved quite some distance north to 72 W 32nd (18th ward) by 1855–56 and 1856–57. (One directory lists her as "widow of George" at that address.) Finally, in 1857–58 and 1858–59, she appeared two doors down at 68 W 32nd where, in the last directory, she was listed as Ann C. Swan. (Could this be "C" for Charlotte, her granddaughter's name?). A request for a search for a Manhattan death record for 1859 was sent to New York, but no record found. It is possible, however, that Ann went to Maryland with her son James and his family before 1860, and died there, or in New Jersey after James moved there in 1864, or even in Wisconsin if she went west with him in 1870, when she would have been about 85 years old.

The five children of Charles and Ann C. (Morrison) Swan were Mary, Ellen, Sarah Sabina, James W. and William.

i     Mary Swan, dtr., born before 1820 in Ireland, and died after 1837 in Hulme.

Mary married Charles Hargreaves.

Since Mary's son Charlie was aged four in the 1841 census, and so born 1836 or 1837, Mary must have been born no later than 1820. Hattie and Jean give her parents' marriage as 1819, so this seems to pin down Mary's birth date fairly closely. I am assuming her birth in Ireland from my reconstruction of her family's move to England around 1826 given elsewhere. Her death must have occurred between Charlie's birth and the 1841 census, when he was living with his grandmother Ann.

The only child of Charles and Mary (Swan) Hargreaves:

1     Charles "Charlie" Hargreaves, son, born 1836/1837 in Hulme.

Charlie was censused as a Swan when he was four years old, and may have retained that surname as an adult.

ii     Ellen Swan, dtr., born about 1825 in Ireland.

Ellen married Jacob Tweddle.

The only child listed by Hattie and Jean for Ellen and Jacob Tweddle was a son Jacob, called Jake. In the 1851 census for Hulme, there is listed an Ellen Tweedle as head of household, aged 30, a blacksmith's wife (not widow) born in Hulme. Her children are given as Jacob, aged 6, Amelia, aged 3, and Mary, 5 months, all born in Hulme. They were living at #2 Lilly Court, in the same house as James and Elizabeth Williams, aged 60 and 55 years, born in Holywell, and Bridget, 60, a widowed sister, born in Ireland. Holywell is a town in Flintshire, some fifty miles west of Hulme on the Irish Sea coast south of Liverpool.

Whether or not this is our Ellen (Swan) Tweddle is difficult to decide. Her age is five years older than Ellen's as given in the 1841 census, and the birthplace is Hulme rather than Ireland. The son's name is correct, but the two daughters should have been known to Ann when she immigrated about this time, and hence their names handed down to Hattie and Jean. I am inclined to believe that these are the same Ellen (as I have little faith in the accuracy of census data), simply on the basis of the names Ellen and Jake. However, such an identification is surely not firmly grounded.

Why Ellen as wife, not widow, is head of household remains a mystery. There was also in the Hulme census Peter Tweddle, a 43 year old porter, his wife Mary, 42, and their six children aged 2 to 16 living at No. 2, Pryme Ct. Peter was born in Manchester, and his wife in Salford (near Hulme), so these might provide clues to the Tweddle family if it turns out Peter was related to Ellen's missing (1841) husband Jacob.

In 2006 a record was found [http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/] of the marriage of James Tweedell and Ellen Swan in 1844 at the Manchester Cathedral. This looks very much as if it might be our Ellen, but the husband's name in that record is James, not Jacob. It's not inconceivable that Ellen's son's name got incorrectly assigned to his father, as well in Hattie and Jean's history. Alternatively, the original marriage record or a transcription of it might have been incorrectly read. Perhaps the original marriage certificate will shed light on this possibility. A marriage in 1844 and a son Jacob aged six in 1851 (above) is exactly what one might expect.

The only child of Jacob and Ellen (Swan) Tweddle:

1     Jacob "Jake" Tweddle, son, born 1846/1847.

iii     Sarah Sabina Swan, dtr., born 1821/1826 in Hulme.

Sarah Sabina married Henry Bates {born 1816/1817 in England}.

The name of Sarah's husband (as Bate) is from Hattie and Jean [Swan and Swan, 1939]. I was unable to find a Sarah, or Sarah Sabina, Bate in the 1851 census for St. George's parish, Hulme, but have not been able to check the Glasgow census for that year where her mother and brother James were found. A Peter and Mary Bates lived next to the Peter Tweddle mentioned above, in Pryne Ct. in Hulme. This couple were both 51 years old, born in Cheshire, and had living with them Ann, unmarried, age 29, and a granddaughter Mary Ann, aged 9, a "scholar". Whether or not this evidences any family connection is problematical.

Henry and Sarah Bates, born in England in 1817 and 1822, respectively, were censused 1880 in Darlington, Lafayette, Wisconsin, with their children Leonard and Clara. Darlington is about 126 miles southwest of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where we know Sarah's brother James came in April, 1870.

Henry BATES     Self    S   63  ENG Making Brick    ENG ENG Sarah BATES     Wife    M   58  ENG Keeping House   ENG ENG Leonard BATES   Son     S   26  NY  Laborer         ENG ENG Clara BATES     Dau     S   22  NY  At Home         ENG ENG ----------------------------------------------------------- 1880 Census Darlington, La Fayette, WI, T9-1433, 62C

These names, dates and birthplaces are all very compatible with this being the family of Sarah (Swan) Bates, although a documented connection has not been found. Nevertheless, I'm assuming that these apparent identifications are correct, and so list the families here. If this lineage is correct, Henry T.'s birthplace in New York demonstrates that Henry and Sarah came over from England before 1845, to be compared with her brother William who we know was here by 1850. (The 1850 census needs to be checked also for Henry and Sarah.)

From the ages of the Wisconsin Henry and Sarah's children, they were in NY from at least 1854 to at least 1870. I've not been able to find these folk in the 1870 federal census either in New York or Wisconsin.

The only child of Henry and Sarah Sabina (Swan) Bates:

1     Henry T. Bates, son, born Sep 1842 in New York.

Henry T. was married 1864/1865 to Mary Harris {born 1842 in Illinois}.

Censused adjacent to Henry and Sarah was their son Henry T. and his wife Mary (Harris) Bates. The children of the latter couple were Harry, Mabel and Charley, and Mary's sister Pauline (single) was in their home that year, thus giving us Mary's maiden name:

Henry T. BATES  Self    M   35  NY  Dept. Sheriff   ENG ENG Mary BATES      Wife    M   34  IL  Keeping House   --- --- Harry BATES     Son     S   10  WI  At School       NY  IL Mabel BATES     Dau     S    8  WI  At School       NY  IL Charley BATES   Son     S    1  WI                  NY  IL Pauline HARRIS  SisterL S   28  IL  Tailoris        --- --- ----------------------------------------------------------- 1880 Census Darlington, La Fayette, WI, T9-1433, 62C

Since son Harry was born 1869/70, I would expect to find this family in the 1870 Wisconsin census, but have been unsuccessful in that search. In 1900, Henry and Mary were still in Darlington, with Mabel and Charley still at home. This census, of course, gives us the months of their births, and idenifies the birthplaces of Mary's parents as Vermont and New York. Except, for Mary and her daughter, whose birth months I cannot read.

1900 census of Henry and Mary Bates

The three children of Henry T. and Mary (Harris) Bate:

i     Harry Bate, son, born Jul 1868 in Wisconsin.

Harry was married 1891/1892 to Margaret Murphy {born Jul 1868}.

Harry was censused 1900 in Darlington with wife Margaret, son and daughter Harry and Margaret, mother-in-law Eliza Murphy, and her sons Edward and Joseph. Eliza was born in Ireland, the rest of the members of this household all in Wisconsin. One of their children was deceased by the time of this census, and I've assumed that that child was their firstborn.

Harry and Margaret Bates 1900 census

The three children of Harry and Margaret (Murphy) Bates:

1     Unnamed child, born 1892/1893 in Wisconsin and died before 20 Jun 1900.

2     Harry Bates, son, born Dec 1894 in Wisconsin.

Harry married Lillian ____ {born 1892/1893}.

This is surely the Harry Bates censused 1920 at age 25 in Darlington, with wife Lillian, age 27, born in Wisconsin of German born parents.

3     Margaret Bates, dtr., born Dec 1898 in Wisconsin.

ii     Mabel Bate, dtr., born 1871 in Wisconsin.

iii     Charles "Charley" Bate, son, born Dec 1878 in Wisconsin.

There were men named Charles Bates, both aged 22 and born in Wisconsin, censused 1900 in Oregon and Wyoming. There is no way at present to tell whether or not either one of these was the son of Henry and Mary.

iv     James W. Swan, son, born 15 Aug 1827.

v     William Swan, son, born 1831/1833 in Hulme.

William was married 1849/1850 to Mary Ann Barlow {born 1831/1834 in Ireland and was buried 24 Dec 1882 in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens, New York}.

Five households past Hamilton Brown in the 1850 New York City census are listed William and Mary Ann Swan. (This entry was first spotted by the eagle eye of Wilma Adkins, genealogist at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.) William, aged 21 (I had been somewhat doubtful of the reading, but Pat reexamined the census and confirmed that it does, in fact, read "21"), i.e., born 1828/29, and born in England, is listed as a glass cutter, and Mary Ann, 22 (born 1827/28) was born in Ireland. The 1860 census, in which he was listed as a "Watchglassmaker", has both William and Mary (nmi) of age 28, thus born 1831/32. They didn't age very much that decade!

In their Swan family history, Hattie and Jean recorded William Swan as being born in 1831 and married in 1849 to Mary Ann, last name unknown. I'm estimating 1831 as the birth year for both of this couple, although the earlier year of the 1850 census may be correct. The 1850 census confirmed that they had been married within the previous year, but doesn't indicate whether in New York or in Great Britain. The 1860 census provided us with the ages of their first four children (the eldest daughter is listed as "Mary A."); Hattie and Jean's listing of the children is not by age.

In 1870 William was censused in the 6th Election district of the 17th Ward in New York as a maker of artificial flowers, and as a U. S. citizen. Mary was not so noted. Their son James, 17, was working as an office boy.

That the watch glass maker William Swan is indeed the younger brother of our immigrant James Swan is indicated by two important facts. When this William was first listed in the NYC directory in 1853 as a watch glass maker, he was located at 261 Bowery, the shop which Hamilton Brown had vacated the previous year. Much later, on October 16, 1866, William the watch glass maker at this same address was naturalized as a citizen in the Superior Court of New York County, and the witness was H. Brown, watch glass maker, of De Kalb Avenue in Brooklyn. It seems clear that William lived nearby and apprenticed with Hamilton Brown from at least 1850 to about 1853, whereupon he took over his mentor's home and shop when the latter moved his business to Lower Manhattan quarters. Some three years later, William's brother James married Hamilton Brown's daughter Jane.

According to the Hattie and Jean Swan family history, William and Mary Ann had seven children: Mary Ann, who married Dick Reed and had a son David, Sarah and Ellen, both named after their father's sisters, Emma, James named after William's brother, William named for his father, and Tessie. (The names Emma and Tessie, which do not otherwise appear in the Swan family, might prove useful as clues to Mary Ann's origins.) William stayed on the Bowery as a watch crystal maker until 1870. Then, although his home address remained listed as 261 Bowery, he had moved his business to 498 Broome, just off West Broadway, and listed his occupation as "piquets". (In the 1870 census, he had listed himself a a maker of artificial flowers.) After the 1870–71 edition, he no longer appears in the New York City directories.

This was as far as I was able to trace William until, at the end of August, 2004, Liz McPherson of Waldorf, Maryland, found a query I had posted online and recognized that her great-grandfather was this William Swan. All of the following information presented here has been given to me by Liz.

The same year, 1870, that William listed himself in the city directory with an occupation "piquets", he told the census taker that he was an artificial flower maker. I haven't located any other reference that equates these two terms. Liz's understanding is that these were very intricate flowers made for ladies to wear in their hats.

Around 1878 (as shown by the birth places of the grandchildren) William's son James moved to New Jersey. It's probable that William moved his family at about the same, as he and James lived a few houses apart in Elizabeth, Union County, in the 1880 census which Liz McPherson located. William and William, Jr. were listed as working for Singer Sewing Machine Company, the father as an engineer, and James was listed as a machinist:

William SWAN    Self    M   47  ENG Works In Singers    ENG ENG Mary SWAN       Wife    M   47  IRE Keeping House       IRE IRE William SWAN    Son         19  NY  Works In Singers    ENG IRE Emma SWAN       Dau     S   17  NY  At Home             ENG IRE Teressa SWAN    Dau     S    9  NY  At School           ENG IRE --------------------------------------------------------------- 1880 Census, 5th Ward, District 2, Elizabeth, Union, New Jersey T9-0800, 243D

"Early sewing machines were designed for industrial applications, but in 1851, Isaac Merritt Singer, a machinist from Boston, Massachusetts, introduced the first sewing machine scaled for home use. Although Singer's early machines were based on Elias Howe's concept [the lock stitch], he patented the rigid arm for holding the needle and a vertical bar to hold the cloth down against the upward stroke of the needle. Singer also developed the continuous stitch machine and went on to found the Singer Sewing Machine Company, which became one of the world's largest manufacturers of personal sewing machines [www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/sewmachine.htm]." According to a New Jersey City University web page, [faculty.njcu.edu/ckarnoutsos/Chronology_old.htm], the Singer sewing machine factory opened 1873 in Elizabeth. This was about 10 miles from Menlo Park where Edison invented the the phonograph in 1877, and the incandescent lamp in 1879.

At this point in our research, we have no record of William after 1882.

Mary Ann was born in Ireland according to the 1850 and 1860 New York censuses. We don't know whether they were married overseas or in New York, but the former is the most likely, considering their youth at the time of the marriage.

The seven children of William and Mary Ann (Barlow) Swan:

1     Mary Ann Swan, dtr., born 1850/1851 in New York City, New York.

Mary Ann married Richard "Dick" Reed.

The only child of Richard "Dick" and Mary Ann (Swan) Reed:

i     David Reed, son.

David married an unknown person.

The three children of David Reed:

1     David Reed, son.

2     Thomas Reed, son.

3     Ann Reed, dtr.

2     James Swan, son, born 1852/1854 in New York City.

James married Mary Coapman {born 1856/1857 in Austria}.

In 1870 James was censused at age 17 in his father's home in NYC both as having attended school, and working as an Office Boy.

He worked as a Machinist, according to the 1880 census in Elizabeth, New Jersey, which Liz McPherson located. That record also gives us his wife's maiden name, as her brother and sister were living with them. Note that George Coapman was a "Manufactor Ladies Hats", and evidently points to the original connection between the Coapman and Swan families that resulted in James' and Mary's marriage.

James SWAN      Self   M   26  NY  Machinist               ENG IRE Mary SWAN       Wife   M   23  AUS Keeping House           AUS AUS William SWAN    Son    S    5  NY  At School               NY  AUS Charlotte SWAN  Dau     S    3  NY                          NY  AUS Mary SWAN       Dau     S  5M  NJ                          NY  AUS Geo. W. COAPMAN BroL    M  34  NY  Manufactor Ladies Hats  NY  NY Fannie COAPMAN  SisterL M  28  AUS Boarding                AUS AUS Hattie COAPMAN  Niece   S   1  NY                          NY  AUS ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1880 Census 1037 Bond Street, 5th Ward Dist 2, Elizabeth, Union, NJ T9-0800, 243C

The 1879/80 Elizabeth City Directory lists "Swan, Mary Mrs., widow, 1037 Bond Street", but none of the males in the family. Then in the 1881/82 directory James is shown working at the Singer Sewing Machine Company with his brother and father. These appear to be completely incompatible records, and I have no explanation of how they came about. The latter directory lists William, Sr. on Bond Street corner of Catherine Street, and William C. at 421 Catharine, which is right at the same corner and might even be the same house. James' residence is given as 524 Meadow, which is about eight blocks north of his father and brother.

The three children of James and Mary (Coapman) Swan:

i     William Swan, son, born 1874/1875 in New York.

I believe it's likely that this William appeared in the 1890/91 Elizabeth City Directory as a machinist boarding at 98 Trumbull Street. Since his father was a machinist, it seems reasonable that William followed him in the trade, even though he was only 15 or 16 years of age. That address doesn't exist now, but was probably located at that time at what now would be 98 Puleo Place, the extension of Trumbull at its east end.

ii     Charlotte Swan, dtr., born 1876/1877 in New York.

iii     Mary Swan, dtr., born 1879/1880 in New Jersey.

3     Sarah "Sally" Swan, dtr., born 15 Feb 1855 in New York City and died 15 Jul 1939 in Ronkonkoma, Long Island, Suffolk, New York.

Sarah "Sally" was married 6 Sep 1874 in New York City to Henry Myers/Meyer {born in 1852 and died in 1909}.

"Sarah owned a confectionery shop in Brooklyn, NY, for years. The 1910 Kings County census shows Sally and my grandmother living there. My grandparents married in 1916 and the 1920 census shows Sally as living with them on Long Island." [Liz]

Henry was a clerk for the Brooklyn Railroad.

The six children of Henry and Sarah "Sally" (Swan) Myers/Meyer:

i     Mamie Meyer, dtr., born in 1876 and died in 1893.

ii     Sadie Meyer, dtr., born in 1878.

Sadie married Frederick Noll.

The four children of Frederick and Sadie (Meyer) Noll:

1     Sarah Noll, dtr., born in 1904 and died in 1983.

Sarah married Leonard Buckley.

Sarah's and Leonard's daughter Marilyn married Daniel Hayes.

2     Charlotte Noll, dtr., born in 1905 and died in 1988.

Charlotte married Edward Bloom.

Charlotte and Edward had a son Edward born in 1929.

3     Fred Noll, son, born in xxxx.

4     Marion Noll, dtr.

iii     Henry Ý Meyer, son, born in 1881 and died in 1883.

iv     Otto Ý Meyer, son, born in 1888 and died in 1889.

v     Hannah Ý Meyer, dtr., born in 1890 and died in 1908.

vi     Charlotte "Lottie" Meyer, dtr., born in 1893 and died in 1966.

Charlotte "Lottie" married (1) John Henry. She m (2) Peter Taylor {born in 1887 and died in 1968}.

This is Liz McPherson's line. Her descent from her grandparents Charlotte and Peter goes through their daughter Alvina Ann (1917-1986) and her first husband Doyle Hiott (1911-1998).

The only child of John and Charlotte "Lottie" (Meyer) Henry:

1     John Ý Henry, son, born in 1914 and died in 1914.

The only child of Peter and Charlotte "Lottie" (Meyer) Taylor:

1     Alvina Ann Henry, dtr., born in 1917 and died in 1986.

Alvina Ann married (1) Doyle Hiott {born in 1911 and died in 1998}.

4     Ellen Swan, dtr., born in New York City.

Since Ellen was not listed in either the 1860 or 1870 censuses of her father's household, she probably was both born and died either before or after 1860. Hattie and Jean list her between Sarah and Emma, which I follow here since that's a four year gap, but that same list of children has James as the sixth child instead of the second, so is not completely reliable.

5     Emma Swan, dtr., born 1858/1859 in New York City.

For some reason, Emma's age in the 1880 census was given as 17 years, instead of 21 that would be inferred from her age of 1 year in 1860. The later implies a birth year of 1858/59, the former of 1862/63, which can't be correct since she appeared in the 1860 census.

6     Teressa "Tessie" Swan, dtr., born 1860/1861 in New York City.

7     William Swan, son, born Dec 1861 in New York City.

William was married 1894/1895 to Catherine O'Leary {born Dec 1860}.

According to the 1880 census he was 19 years old, and worked at Singer Sewing Machine Company with his brother and father in Elizabeth, NJ.

William C. Swan, born Dec 1861 in New York, was censused 1900 in Brooklyn, Kings Co., NY, with wife Catherine, b Dec 1860 and brother-in-law John O'Leary, b 1863 [Series: T623 Roll: 1044 Page: 188]. He was born in NY, his father in England, and mother in Ireland. Catherine was born in Ireland of Ireland born parents, and she and John had immigrated 1890. William's occupation was scribbled over and unreadable on the census, but John's was clearly Artificial Flowers. I believe this correspondence with William, Sr.'s one time occupation is sufficient to clinch the identification of this record as being for William, Jr. , and thus accept Catherine as his wife.

The birth years for William in the 1880 and 1900 censuses are in agreement, but William was listed 1870 as age 6 instead of 9. This is rather unusual.

James W. Swan & Jane Brown

William1, Charles2, James W.3

James W. was born 15 Aug 1827 in England. He died 29 Dec 1909 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, and was buried 3 Jan 1910 in Inglewood Cem. James W. and Jane married 19 Aug 1857 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York. Jane was born 26 Oct 1839 in New York, New York, New York. She died 8 Jul 1922 in Los Angeles and was buried 10 Jul 1922 in Inglewood Cem.

James W. Swan and Jane (Brown) Swan

James' middle initial was "W.", but we have never found a reference as to what that stands for. His paternal grandfather was William, so it is quite likely that he was given the name James William, but that is at this time pure speculation.

Of James' life as a child in England we have a charming description by Hattie and Jean in their chapter entitled "Household in Hulme":

"Ann was a strict churchwoman and her family were invariably in their place of worship in the Episcopal Church in Hulme each Sunday. As a matter of fact the boys' Sabbath observance commenced quietly at sundown Saturday evening. However it did not end at sundown on Sunday and the boys could never understand this.

"To the brothers and their young and more restless nephew the church services would have been very tiresome if it had not been for the soldiers who had to attend also. At one time there were ten thousand soldiers stationed there. Their bright uniforms made a large spot of brightness to the young boys.

"Jim Swan was delicate as a child and was not sent to school very much. Later, after his father's death, when he was stronger, he had to go to work to help his mother support the family. When he was an old man he liked to say,

"I went to school but one half day and me schoolmaster was absent the day."

"He often said that he learned more in Sunday school than in the Old Dames schools. These Dame schools were kept by old women, widows and spinsters who were unable to do much else. In their own homes they herded the youngsters of the community while the mothers and other able bodied women were out helping to earn a living or tending to their younger children.

"Jim's teacher at Sunday school was a retired old army sergeant named Walters. He heard many of the experiences of these old soldiers. One story which made an impression on the boy was the one told about Sir John Moore who had a man shot for stealing a loaf of bread.

"One day, when Jim had grown to be quite a boy, Captain Dick Taylor, of the Fifth Dragoon Guards, stopped at his house looking for recruits for the army.

"What about this young fellow going into the service a bit later?" he inquired of Ann.

"But Ann shook her head. "I'll say what my husband's mother said, "There have been enough Swans in the military. Jim will do something else."

According to his grandson Albert Markley Swan's genealogical notes [Swan, Undated], James at age 14 went to work in a foundry in Manchester to learn the trade. He was also censused at that age as a cotton piecer in Hulme, so that year evidently marks his passage from "children's work" to that of a young man starting his own career. Albert wrote that, after his apprenticeship, James worked at his trade in Glasgow, Scotland for three years just prior to coming to this country at age 24. It would have been about 1848, then, that he moved to Scotland, and 1851 that he came to America. That latter year is confirmed by a later census which recorded his time in this country.

It is a tradition in the family that Ann and Jim came to this country in order to prevent his having to go into the service. Whether or not this was a realistic threat at this midpoint of the nineteenth century in England is not clear, but certainly the family antipathy to more military service was quite firmly established. Some seventy years later, however, James' grandson William Hamilton Swan, son of Hamilton and Clara, died in the service of his country in World War I.

Another family tradition says that James came over with his mother, Ann. Several years ago a record was found, the ship's list for the Martha's Vineyard which arrived in New York City from Glasgow on 27 Oct 1851 [Glazier, 1986]. The difficulty was that an Anne Swan, age 55, was listed, but James Swan, age 24, did not appear on the list. Then we found from Albert Swan's notes that James had already worked as a molder in Glasgow before coming here, and that he met his future wife on the day after her twelfth birthday -- that very same date. Therefore the immigration record was reexamined. Wonder of wonders, the entry on the ship's list immediately preceeding that of Anne Swan, age 55, was James Leaven, 24, with an occupation of molder! Somewhere in the transcription process, the "S" of Swan had been read as "Le", the "w" became "av", and the final "an" became "en". A poorly written entry in the ship's manifest led to one of the most outlandish recording errors we have encountered, as can be seen when we finally found a copy of the original, handwritten lines:

Manifest of the ship Martha's Vineyard for 27 Oct 1851

The index to James' census in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, twenty years later, reads "James Iwan". He didn't have good luck with records of his name!

There were at least six James Swans, distinquishable by their occupations, listed in the New York City directories from 1846 through 1856, but not our James, a molder or foundryman. Why his brother William appears both in the census and in the city directories, but James doesn't, is a small mystery. Since his profession was that of a foundryman, at which we know he worked in England and Scotland, and later in Wisconsin and Kansas, he probably did that kind of work in New York, but we have as yet to find any records to that effect. Were the foundries all across the river in New Jersey, where he lived after returning from Maryland? The 1855 N.J. census is incomplete and unindexed, so would probably be of little help, although a scan of Patterson is not out of the question.

James' and Jane's 1857 marriage date, six years after he immigrated, we originally had from mother's notes, but this was confirmed when the original marriage certificate was found in the effects of their granddaughter-in-law Lillian Swan after her death in 1993 [Anon., 1857]. The certificate was exactly the same form used for Jane's mother Mary's marriage 24 years earlier (see the Brown family history), but now the minister, Nicholas E. Smith, was of the Protestant Dutch Church in Brooklyn, where Hamilton and his family were living by that time. The certificate was for some reason given at Brooklyn 13 Feb 1858, some six months after the marriage date of 19 August the previous year. We don't know if Jane's father and stepmother Charlotte (both born in Scotland) also were members, but obviously Jane still belonged to the Reformed Dutch Church of her mother, Mary Biggert.

Marriage Certificate of James Swan and Jane Brown

The other primary evidence found for James and Jane in New York City is the birth record for their daughter Charlotte on 10 March 1859, for which the address given was 118s Harlem. The attending physician was J. Stotley [Birth Certificate, 1859]. Pat found a Harlem St. listed in the 21st ward in 1878, and was told by someone who had lived near there that Harlem was an old street in the Wall Street district, but that it no longer exists. This latter seems the most probable location for James and Jane, as that was near where her father, and James' brother William, both worked in the watchmaker trade.

Shortly after Charlotte's birth, James and Jane started out on their peripatic life of the next twenty years. The map below provides a log of their travels across the country, with the dates of their moves when these are known, and locates the births of their four children. Most of the information for this slow trek to Kansas comes from a Topeka Daily Capital biography of their son William on the occasion of his candidacy in 1892 for election to the State legislature. The details are also confirmed in part and extended by the genealogical notes of their grandson Albert Markley Swan.

James W. & Jane Swan in the U. S.

For their first move James and Jane, with their baby daughter Charlotte, went to Maryland, where in 1860 Hamilton was born, in Baltimore according to Albert's notes. Then, at some time during the next four years, they moved back north. This time they settled in Paterson, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from their former home, and so not too far from James' brother William and Jane's father. If James had been workng in New Jersey when they first lived in New York City, it could well happen that he returned to his old job, and they chose to live closer to his work than before. There their son William was born in 1864.

According to William's biography, because the New Jersey climate did not agree well with James' health, the family decided to move in April, 1870 to the north central part of the country. The actual decision may have been fairly abrupt, for they took the children out of school before the end of the term, William having just started first grade the previous fall. From Albert's notes we learn that Jane's father, Hamilton Brown, went with them, and may even have bought the farm on which they settled two or three miles west of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. However, he was about 70 years old when they moved west, and it was undoubtedly James and his sons who did the farm work. The name Fond du Lac means, literally, "at the far end of the lake", the town being located at the southern end of Lake Winnebago.

At one point in our research it appeared that James and his brother William might possibly have been granted patents to land in central Wisconsin on 15 Dec 1855. A James and William Swan each bought 80 acres in Portage County, adjacent to Waupaca County and some six miles north of the border with Waushara county, Wisconsin. And, four months after the Swans bought their land, a Hamilton Brown was granted patents on five or seven parcels in Waushara, Co., about fifteen miles to the southeast. Further research, however, determined that these William and James Swan were father and son, and not our James and his brother William.

Before they purchased the farm west of town, James and Jane lived in the 1st Ward of the City of Fond du Lac, where they were censused in 1870. (The Ancestry.com index lists his surname as "Iwan".) Probably they were staying there upon their arrival from New Jersey, having arrived just in time to be censused. By 1875, James was censused in Fond du Lac town (township), and this corresponds to Albert's notes. Nearly 20 years later, the record shows two 10 acre plots belonging to A. C. Brown just two miles west of the city limits [Plat Book, 1893]. One of these might well be the original home, as Hamilton Brown's eldest son was named Alexander, and he could have inherited the family property.

James both farmed that land and established a foundry, the trade that he learned in Scotland and which would continue to occupy him for the rest of his working life, and furnish work for all of his sons, as well, over the years. Albert's notes also say that James worked for the C. & N. W. Railroad (Chicago and North-Western) for about three years before James Albert's birth, thus from about 1871 to 1874. It is quite likely that he was doing foundry work for that railroad, as he did for the Santa Fe later in Topeka. The C. & N. W., for which the ground breaking ceremony was held in Fond du Lac 10 Jul 1851, was one of four roads serving the city.

The children attended school for a few months each winter for the next eight years, but the boys spent the rest of each year working on the farm and in the foundry, while Lottie undoubtedly worked with her mother in the farmhouse. That these young boys worked in their father's foundry here indicates that his work for the C. & N. W. must have been as an independent contractor, and this may have set the pattern for his later work for the Santa Fe, also.

Early in May of 1878 the Swan family contracted "Kansas fever" and started out (in a covered wagon, according to an addition on a copy of Albert's notes) on the overland route to that frontier state. James first homesteaded a claim two miles north of Fort Larned, Albert says 10 miles from town, in Pawnee county. On an 1873 map of Kansas by Asher and Adams, Fort Larned is shown as approximately four miles square with its center about ten miles southwest of the town. The two descriptions of James' land would place it near the south border of Range XVIII West, Township 21 South. The fort, some thirty miles southwest of Great Bend, is now a national monument. James soon concluded that farming was not then a viable business in that part of Kansas, and the next year moved the family to Topeka, where they remained the rest of his working life. It's noteworthy that there were five James Swans in Kansas by 1870, two of whom were in Shawnee County, one in Dover and one in Topeka. One James was in Williamsport Township, Shawnee County, in 1860, and an L. H. Swan was in Auburn Township, Shawnee County, as early as 1859.

Of the three of our ancestral lines to come to Topeka — Swan, Markley, and Hartzell — James was the first. We give here a brief chronology of the settlement and joining of the three branches of our family in Topeka, the capital city of Kansas:

Nov 1879  James and Jane (Brown) Swan arrived from Wisconsin, via Fort Larned, Kansas, with their four children, Lottie, Ham, Will, and James Albert "Burt", aged four years.

About 1882  Aaron and Mary Alice (Mitchell) Markley arrived from Indiana, via Lawrence, Kansas, with Orren, Otto, Emma, Belle, and Marguerite "Maggie", aged about seven years.

4 May 1898  James Albert Swan and Marguerite Markley married.

15 Oct 1903  Their son Paul Reese Swan was born in Topeka.

1917  Mary Jane "Merrie" (Alford) Hartzell arrived from Oklahoma with Lawrence, Lillian, and Mildred, aged fourteen.

4 Jun 1927  Paul Swan and Mildred Hartzell married.

In March of 1880 James took charge of the brass foundry at the Sante Fe shops, and William at age 16, and Hamilton at 20, went to work there for their father. Their residence at that time was on Hancock Street in Topeka, and all of the children were still living at home. Here is their census that year:

James SWAN      Self    M   52  ENG Moulder                 ENG ENG Jane SWAN       Wife    M   40  NY  Keeps House             SCT SCT Charlotte SWAN  Dau     S   21  NY  Seamstress              ENG NY Hamilton SWAN   Son     S   20  MD  Apprentice To Moulder   ENG NY William SWAN    Son     S   16  NJ  Moulder Apprentice      ENG NY James A. SWAN   Son     S    6  WI                          ENG NY ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1880 Census, Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas, N 1/2 2nd Ward, Hancock Street T9-0397, 57C

They lived there less than a year, according to Albert, and from 1882 through 1885 on three adjacent streets — Madison, then a brick house also on Madison "next door to Goodrich", Monroe, and at 100 Quincy — all about a year each. These are the riverfront blocks which terminate at the Kaw, the local name for the Kansas River, and the Santa Fe Shops are located just a few blocks to the east.

By 1887, James and Jane had moved to the west part of the city, where they lived at 622 Buchanan. Apparently up to this time they had lived in rented houses. On 5 Oct 1885 a James Swan purchased from James Gillett lot 455 and part of 453 on Kansas Avenue [111:336], but it's difficult to know whether this was our James, or the James and Wilminea Swan who owned land south of Highland Park from 1878 to at least 1883. But on 9 Oct 1891 they purchased Lot 206 in Horne's Addition on Buchanan Street, probably the house in which they had been living. According to the record, they sold Lot 204 on Buchanan for $1950 on 29 Mar 1904 [321:486], and this is probably the same lot, with a confusion of numbers in the record or in our reading of it.

In 1895, James Swan, 66 and born in Scotland, was listed in the Kansas State Census living in Mission Township (land west of Topeka Avenue), Shawnee County [Vol 353, page 1].

For the next ten years James is listed in the city directory as a Brass Molder, presumably remaining in charge of the shop foundry for the Santa Fe. The payroll records for the Topeka Shops do not list the job of brass molder, and it is probable that James was an independent contractor doing all of the foundry work for the Topeka shops. Over the following decade, he is listed alternately as Contractor and Brass Molder, so he must have set himself up a least part time with an independent business. His youngest son James Albert went to work for his father by 1893 (but see also his employment history, below), and all three of his sons continued to work with him for varying periods up until his retirement around 1902, at age about seventy-five years.

On 22 Jul 1895 James purchased for $200 six lots, numbered 405-07-09-11-13-15, on Grand Avenue in Norton's 1st Addition [223:259]. As will be seen later, he also owned lots 415-17-19-21-23, but we did not find the record of that purchase. The six constitute about one fourth of the block of what is now Plass Street between 11th and Munson. On 8 Feb the next year, he and Jane sold this property for $325, a quick 62 profit on their investment. But then, an interesting transaction occurred. J. H. Hunt on 11 Mar 1896 paid the back taxes of some $15 for 1892 on three of James' lots on Plass for which we do not have the purchase record. Hunt then transferred the certificate of overdue tax payment back to James. Finally, since the assessments had been paid for the intervening years, the third part of the court action transferred the ownership back to James and Jane. Possibly a real estate attorney could explain just what transpired in that particular shuffle.

In 1899 their son James Albert solved a similar problem, apparently paying the back taxes for 1896 on lot 421 for his parents [272:45].

In 1900 James and Jane were living with their daughter Lottie on Buchanan Street in Topeka adjacent to their son William and his wife Belle.

In 1899 their son James Albert solved a similar problem, apparently paying the back taxes for 1896 on lot 421 for his parents[272:45]. Then, on 20 May 1908, James and wife Jane, "of Los Angeles", sold lots 421 and 423 on Plas for $1250 [340:552]. We don't know that they ever lived on Grand (Plass) Street, and it may be assumed that these were investment properties.

Another transaction the meaning of which has been lost is the one of 27 Sep 1902 in which James transferred for $1 to Jane, "his wife", lot 206 on Buchanan, apparently their home at number 622 [290:574]. This was just about the time he retired, and presumably represented some kind of machinations prepatory to selling their property and leaving for California. On 15 Nov 1904 James and Jane sold, for $300, a 20 rod (320 foot) square property on the southwest corner of Huntoon and Wanamaker Road, now cut diagonally by the Interstate 470 bypass.

After James retired, he and Jane moved to Los Angeles, settling by 1903, according to both of their death certificates, at 931 West 36th Place. This street starts at the University of Southern California and runs due west about a mile and a half. James died of chronic gastroenteritus, the information on his death certificate being provided by their daughter Lottie who was living with them. It's interesting that Aunt Lottie was confused about her grandfather's name, listing James' father as James, rather than as Charles, and that her brother Albert Markley Swan made the same mistake in his genealogical notes on the famiy. Jane's death certificate, with Lottie Swan as informant, indicates she died of senility. At the time of her death, she and Lottie were still living at the same address they had when James had died twelve and a half years previously.

The four children of James W. and Jane (Brown) Swan were Charlotte "Lottie", Hamilton, William Brown and James Albert.

i     Charlotte "Lottie" Swan, dtr., born 9 Mar 1859 in New York and died 18 Feb 1950 in Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas.

Charlotte, "Aunt Lottie" to all of us for many years, was the first born in our direct Swan line in this country, although it is probable that her Uncle William Swan had several of his children born here before her. The record of her birth in New York is amusing, for there she is named "Charles, a white female" [Anon., 1859]. Her nephew Albert Markley Swan, in one place (only) in his genealogical notes, writes "(Ann)" after her name, which presumably he thought might be her middle name. Her grandmother, Ann, in her last listing in the New York City directory, is listed as "Ann C.". Could it be that Jane named her daughter Charlotte Ann after her own mother, Ann Charlotte?

Lottie never married, and lived with her parents until her mother's death. In the 1889 Topeka Directory, she is listed as a dressmaker. After her mother's death, Lottie stayed in California at least until 1927, for we have in our possession our parents' wedding announcement mailed to her in Los Angeles. Eventually, however, she returned to Topeka and lived the rest of her life with her brother Albert and Maggie, our grandparents.

ii     Hamilton Swan, son, born 4 Aug 1860 in Maryland, died 24 Jan 1937 in Topeka and was buried in Topeka Cemetery.

Hamilton married Clara Davidson {born 4 Nov 1860 in St. Louis, Missouri, and died 19 Aug 1936 in Topeka}.

From some family source I had Hamilton's birth date as August, 1860. Albert Markley Swan, in his notes, in one place gives 4 Aug 1861, but appends a question mark, while elsewhere he writes 1861. I've merged these records, but this is obviously in question. To all of the family, Hamilton was known as "Ham".

In contrast to his brother Will, Ham had only one place of employment throughout most of his life — the Santa Fe Shops. But if he worked at only one place, he moved often enough. From the birthplace of his first daughter, we can presume that he lived right after his marriage in Johnson Co., Kansas. We know that during his married life he lived in eleven homes in Topeka, three of which at least were houses that he built himself. His name has been found on sixteen Shawnee county land deeds (and we know we missed some), and it may be that he built more than the homes at 2801 (or 03), 2809, and 2810 Ohio St. in Highland Park.

The first three Topeka homes that Hamilton and Clara lived in were close to where his father first lived, near the Kaw River and the Santa Fe Shops. About 1896 he moved to 1141 Clay St., some six blocks from where his parents had moved some ten years previously in the western part of town, and lived there for about three years. It's interesting that just one block south was located the property purchased in 1892 for the glove fitting and dress cutting system of Aaron and Mary Alice Markley. While Ham and Clara were living on Clay, his youngest brother James Albert in 1898 married Marguerite, the daughter of Aaron and Mary Alice, and these are our grandparents. This is probably the neighborhood where the two families became acquainted.

In 1899 Ham and Clara moved to Lime Street on the block where it abuts Shunganunga Creek in the east part of town, and in 1902 back to the western part of town at 1115 West 10th. They seem to have been there, although during this time Ham executed seven land deeds, until they moved to 2803 Ohio where they were listed in the 1914 directory reproduced in the Highland Park History. By 1921 they lived across the street at 2814 Ohio while Ham built the adjacent home, probably numbered 2810, later owned by Bill Root, the postmaster of Topeka. From Highland Park they moved by 1924 to Elmwood, then to Lincoln, and finally to 801 Lindenwood where they spent the last decade of Hamilton's life.

Below are summarized the land transactions found under Ham's name in the Shawnee County deed books. In an attempt at brevity and clarity, the original lot and subdivision descriptions have been omitted and replaced with their street number equivalents. However, the deed book and page numbers for each transaction have been retained so that the original descriptions could be easily found if desired.

On 5 Sep 1893, a parcel consisting of a lot and a fraction belonging to Ham, on the west side of Clay north of Munson, was sold for taxes [244:242]. We failed to find the deed recording Hamilton's original purchase of this property. On 15 Apr 1899 Ham repurchased this land for $900 [257:425], and this purchase price probably indicates that a house existed on the lot. On 25 Jan 1901 Ham and Clara sold this property for $1000 [280:355], and this small increase in price certainly indicates that Ham had not improved the lot by building on it.

3 Jul 1895 Ham bought, for $100, one and 1/2 lots on Lime north of Sixth Street [239:387]. Almost four years later, 7 Mar 1899 (six weeks before his Clay street repurchase), he bought for $300 from his brother James Albert and wife Maggie another two and one half lots on Lime toward Shunganunga Creek adjoining the original parcel [278:54], and they lived there at least by this time. 23 Jan 1902 Ham and Clara sold to Marion G. Wright for $250 two lots of the Lime Street property [307:562], and on 22 Mar 1904 they sold to Wright for $200 another one and 1/2 lots of this property [312:359]. (Sale of the remaining one-half of a lot seems not to have been recorded.) A comparison of purchase and sale prices seems to indicated that Ham didn't build on any of these lots.

24 Sep 1898 Ham and Clara sold for $1250 a lot on Madison between Crane Street and the river [270:539]. We didn't find a record of the purchase of this property.

15 Mar 1899 Ham bought for $900 two lots on the south side of 10th Street in the middle of the block between Clay and Buchanan [270:116]. On 20 Feb 1907 he and Clara sold this property for $2450 [315:385]. This substantially increased value surely is due to Ham having built a house on the property. In 1909 there was another entry in the deed index concerning the 10th Street property [348:433], probably the final payment on a mortgage given by Ham to the buyers in 1907.

Ham's brother James had purchased six lots on Ohio in Highland Park in Sep 1906. We believe that Ham soon after that date built the house for James and Maggie on the most southern three lots. No record of the construction has been found, nor of the payment James must have made for the work. This became our grandparents' home for the rest of their lives.

Then, 7 May 1909, Ham purchased for $325 from James the first three of the Ohio lots on the corner of Eagle (28th) [351:529]. Here Ham built a second house, numbered 2803 Ohio, and moved into it sometime before 1916 when he and his wife and their three grown children were listed at that address. He then sold it 21 Aug 1921 to W. C. Lamb [472:567].

That house was bought back by our grandparents, James and Margaret Swan, from Lamb on 9 Jan 1926 [544:443]. On 8 July that year they mortgaged it for $2000, and on 23 September for an additional $200. On 8 Dec 1936 they sold the house and land to our parents Paul Reese and Mildred Swan for the balance due on the mortgages of $1785 and $200 [735:205]. However, our family moved into the property (and renumbered it 2801 Ohio) before Pat was born 19 Nov 1931, so it was probably being rented from Dad's parents until that time. Mother finally sold the property 13 May 1981 when she moved to an apartment in Mission Towers at 29th and Minnesota.

5 Sep 1913 Ham sold to his brother J. Albert Swan for $1 and other considerations one and 1/2 lots on the west side of Monroe Street between 1st and 2nd Streets [394:273]. We didn't find a record of the purchase of this property.

19 Aug 1919 Ham bought for $2900 from Maggie Swan and James the eight lots at 28th Street on the east side of Ohio [452:288]. Margaret's parents Mary Alice and Aaron Markley had purchased this land and house, in two parcels, 10 Oct [326:496] and 3 Dec for a total of $1050. Ham built a house on the corner parcel of six lots (whether before or after purchasing the land from his brother is not known), while he and Clara lived in the Markley home, at 2814 Ohio, on the next two lots. On 11 Jan 1923 Ham sold these eight lots and the two houses to Bill Root [489:168] in exchange for a lot and a half on Lincoln Street between 11th and Munson Streets [489:164].

The last transaction found in the deed books for Ham is his sale 6 Sep 1936, for $1 and love, an undivided interest in their home at 801 Lindenwood to his daughters Hattie and Jean. Three months later Ham died, of cardiac insufficiency, and is buried in Topeka Cemetery.

According to the 1910 census in Shawnee county, Clara's father was born in Scotland, and her mother in Michigan. That her first daughter was born in Mission, Johnson County, Kansas probably means that she was living in the Kansas City area at the time of her marriage.

Using that Scottish birth information, searching the 1880 census gives her father's family in Kansas. Her parents' names have been reduced to initials, only, but we find their ages and the fact that Clara's maternal grandparents were born in New York and Canada:

J. R. DAVIDSON      Self    M   49  SCO Farmer          SCO SCO A. M. DAVIDSON      Wife    M   42  MI  Keeps House     NY  CAN Ida E. DAVIDSON     Dau     S   21  IL  Does House Work SCO MI Clara DAVIDSON      Dau     S   19  MO  Does House Work SCO MI Lucy DAVIDSON       Dau     S   16  WI  Does House Work SCO MI George W. DAVIDSON  Son     S   13  WI  Does Farm Work  SCO MI Nellie DAVIDSON     Dau     S   13  WI                  SCO MI James DAVIDSON      Son     S   6   WI                  SCO MI -------------------------------------------------------------- 1880 Census, High Point, Ness, Kansas   T9-0391, 314C

Jean Clara, William Hamilton and Hattiebel Charlotte Swan Children of Hamilton and Clara (Davidson) Swan

In her burial record at Topeka Cemetery, Clara is recorded as Harriet, wife of Hamilton Swan. Whether that is a first or middle name I don't know. However, I would guess that she went by her middle name Clara all her life but the cemetery required her legal first name for their records. From that record we have her birth and death dates.

The three children of Hamilton and Clara (Davidson) Swan:

1     Hattiebel Charlotte Swan, dtr., born 3 Oct 1885 in Mission, Johnson, Kansas.

2     Jean Clara Swan, dtr., born 23 May 1887 and died 1 Jul 1951.

3     William Hamilton Swan, son, born 9 Jan 1890 in Topeka, died 30 Oct 1918 in France, and was buried 18 Oct 1921 in Topeka Cemetery.

William Hamilton married Clara May Haynes.

William entered the Army 19 Sep 1917, Com. D, 353rd Infantry, 849th Division. He was killed in France 30 Oct 1918.

iii     William Brown Swan, son, born 16 Feb 1864 in Patterson, Passaic, New Jersey, died 1 Sep 1902 in Ludington, Mason, Michigan, and was buried in Topeka Cemetery.

William Brown was married 5 Jan 1898 to Belle B. Bennett {born Nov 1871 in Illinois, died 23 Jan 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, and was buried 25 Jan 1944 in Topeka Cemetery}.

William Brown Swan (William's birth is recorded in the FHL IGI from an extraction, batch C512401, sheet 5543, so the original record could be identified and examined), known as Will to his family, was a man of many talents — brass molder, foundry foreman, graduate of Baker University, Methodist minister, newspaperman, legislator, homeopathic physician who studied under Karl Menninger, Secretary of the Kansas State Board of Health, and University Trustee. His accidental death at the age of thirty-eight was a tragic loss.

In 1892 William became a successful candidate for the Kansas legislature. During the campaign, the Topeka Daily Capital endorsed him for the seat, and ran a biography in support of his candidacy. This short article provided us with our first knowledge of the itinerary of his parents as they moved from New Jersey to Wisconsin to Kansas, and relates William's own life up to that time.

As a youth Will worked on his father's farms and in his foundrys as a brass molder. He entered Baker University at Baldwin, Kansas in the fall of 1882. After having taken two years off to secure more funds for his education, he earned his A.B. with honors in 1889. After graduation, he was invited to fill the pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal church at Peru in Chautauqua county, Kansas, just west of Coffeyville and a few miles from the Oklahoma line. He left there at the end of the Methodist conference year, in March, 1890, and returned to Topeka to work again for his father as a brass molder at the foundry in the Santa Fe Shops.

Early in 1891 William accepted a position as advertising agent for the Knoxville, Tennesee Journal, and was associated as well with the Memphis Commercial. After only nine months in Tennesee, he returned to a job as foreman with his father at the Santa Fe brass foundry. It was at this time he was elected to the legislature. These were turbulent political times, and at one point violence became the preferred method of political action. In the legislative war of 1893, the statehouse had been barricaded by the Populists in an effort to prevent the Republican legislators from taking their seats. William is mentioned as one of the crowd who battered down the door to enable Stephen Douglas to legally call the house to order. Pistols were brandished by several men of both parties, but no shots were actually fired and only votes, not lives, were lost.

While working as the foundry foreman, and carrying out his legislative duties, Will had begun studying medicine under Dr. Karl Menninger, and in 1893 went to the Chicago Homeopathic (Webster: "Homeopathy: a system of medical practice that treats a disease especially by the administration of minute doses of a remedy that would in healthy persons produce symptoms of the disease treated".) Medical School, Chicago, Illinois, to continue his studies. (One source says he also studied there in 1891-92, but that conflicts with his biography which puts him in Tennessee and back in Topeka at that time. This is probably a confusion with his study under Dr. Menninger.) Upon graduation with an A.M. (1895) and M.D. (1896), he entered practice in Topeka, opening an office at 725 Kansas Avenue (telephone 942, according to an ad for his practice.). In 1899 William was elected secretary of the State Board of Health, a position which he held until his death, and in March 1902 was chosen as a Trustee of Baker University, representing the Kansas Conference of the Methodist Church.

In 1900 William and Belle (censused as Bella) were living on Buchanan Street in Topeka, with his birth date given as Feb 1863 rather than 1864. They were censused adjacent to his parents James and Jane and sister Lottie.

While on vacation with his family on Lake Michigann in 1902, Will and two friends decided to attempt rowing in the face of a rough sea. The boat capsized, and Will, being unable to swim, was drowned despite the efforts of his friends to rescue him. His body was returned home for burial in Topeka Cemetery.

William's wife Belle was the daughter of Henry Bennett, for whom an extensive biography can be found in A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans [Connelley, 1918] We abstract a few of the highlights here:

Henry served with the Chicago Board of Trade Battery for almost three years during the Civil War, and started a very successful construction business in Chicago before coming to Kansas in 1876. There he engaged in an impressively wide range of construction work, including buildings for the insane asylum at Ossawatomie, many of the state buildings in whole or in part, churches, banks, business blocks and many of the important structures for the Santa Fe Railway. In 1878 he went to Manhattan and put up several structures for the state at Manhattan, including the auditorium, the mechanical engineering building, the veterinary building and the original creamery building. (A KSU archive states that Henry Bennett of Silver Lake was awarded the contract for the interior work on Anderson Hall.) In 1888 he took the contract for remodeling the east wing of the State House as a senate chamber and put in between $250,000 and $300,000 of interior finish work on the central part of the building.

Some of the more conspicuous of his operations in Topeka alone have been the Governor Crawford Block, the Columbia, the Masonic Block, the Independent Telephone Building, the original Central National Bank Building, the National Hotel, the old Copeland Hotel which was destroyed by fire and the present fireproof building on the old site. He built the governor's mansion, the Topeka Library Building, and the Edison office building. After he had passed his seventieth birthday his organization undertook the new Santa Fe office building, the Grace Cathedral, and the Sunday School building of the First Methodist Church.

In 1891 Mr. Bennett went to Mexico and constructed the general offices, a depot and a hotel for the Gulf & Monterey railroad, and also built a number of stations between Monterey and Mexico City for the Mexican National Railway. He also had several contracts for construction work on the World's Fair grounds at Chicago, and put up the Territorial Building for the territories of Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and Alaska. In 1896 he erected the National Hotel at Cripple Creek, Colorado, and has erected many buildings for the Santa Fe Railway Company all over the Southwest. When Oklahoma was open to settlement he had a contract with the Rock Island Railroad for building every station on that company's line in Oklahoma. That was one of his largest years and besides all his work he put up the roundhouse and other buildings for the Rock Island at Blue Island, Illinois.

Mr. Bennett was a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Topeka, a Knight Templar Mason, a past commander of the Loyal Legion in the State of Kansas, and belonged to the Rotary and the Topeka Commercial Clubs.

After William died, Belle took out permit #10724 for a $2,250 house at 914 Munson (then King) where she then lived with her father, who established an office in the building [skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/schs/preservation/virtualtours.html].

Belle appears in the 1905 census index for Topeka, age 33, but I have not seen the census itself to determine her residence address. Her place of birth is recorded there as Kansas, but this doesn't gibe with the biographies of her father.

I cannot find Belle in the 1910 census, but her father was censused in the 3rd ward in Topeka on a page [Series: T624 Roll: 457 Page: 43] that is so faded as to be almost entirely illegible, so Belle was probably listed there also but her entry not readable.

In 1920 Belle and her daughter were censused living with Henry on King Street in Topeka, her birthplace given as Illinois and her age as 49. Wilma was 17 years old. Both are listed with no occupation [Series: T625 Roll: 551 Page: 234].

On 13 Jul 1922 Belle B. Swan purchased lots 110, 112, and part of 114 on King Street in Giles subdivision [443:575]. This is now Munson Street, and the lots lie in the middle of the block between Western and Fillmore, around the corner and a block over from her where her in-laws, James and Marguerite Swan, had lived.

After William's death by drowning, Belle remarried to Charles B. Minor, and she is buried in the Bennett family plot in Topeka Cemetery, Section 69, Lot 136.

The only child of William Brown and Belle B. (Bennett) Swan:

1     Wilma Bennett Swan, dtr., born 1 Dec 1902 in Topeka, died 21 May 1925 and was buried in Topeka Cemetery.

Wilma's birth and death years given here are from her tombstone in Topeka Cemetery. The cemetery record says that she died of tuberculosis.

iv     James Albert Swan, son, born 29 Mar 1874.

James Albert Swan & Marguerite Markley

William1, Charles2, James W.3, James Albert4

James Albert was born 29 Mar 1874 in Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and died 28 Jan 1937 in Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas. James Albert and Marguerite married 4 May 1898 in Topeka. Marguerite was born 20 May 1875 in Indiana, and died 29 Dec 1949 in Topeka.

James Albert Swan and Margaret

James Albert, called "Burt" within the family, was much the youngest child, being born ten years after his brother Will. He was a small child when the family moved to Kansas. His name first appears in the Topeka directory of 1893-94 when he is listed as a brass molder, living with his parents. On 25 Jul 1895, James bought twelve lots on Indiana Street next to the new Highland Park Addition. (Described as Lots 2, 4, and 16 [sic?] on Indiana and lots 6-8-10-12-14-16-17-18-19 on Indiana in Hughes Park Addition and Lot 20 on Indiana [223:265]. Lots on the west side of Indiana, within the Highland Park addition, carried odd numbers. Highland Park lots to the south, on both sides of the street were above 100, and Indiana was not platted north of 23rd.) I failed to examine the relevant plot maps, but it is likely that this purchase was on the east side of Indiana between Oriole (23rd) and Falcon (24th). The land was bought just five days after his father bought lots on Grand in downtown Topeka, and both were apparently buying investment property. The disposition of this Indiana Street property was not found in the Shawnee County deed index, but may simply have been overlooked in our search. This purchase might have been made by the James Swan, unrelated, who lived south of Topeka. The record of the sale (with the wife's name) would have to be found to determine this.

James Albert and Margaret were married, Wednesday, 4 May 1898, by George S. Dearborn, Minister of the Gospel at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Highland Park. Their son Albert in his genealogical notes says that they were married in the Markley home on the southeast corner of 29th (then Jay) and Minnesota Streets.

Burt and Maggie first made their home at 1194 Clay, across the street from his brother Hamilton and a block south of the dress making establishment of her parents.This is probably the lot 440 which Margaret's mother Mary Alice bought 13 Oct 1892, but I failed to examine the plat map carefully enough to determine this. This is probably the address given as 1161 Clay by their son Albert in his notes, and corrected by someone else to 1261, but those numbers would have been on the other side of the street. Here a least four of their boys were born. Burt bought lots 496 and 498 on Buchanan 28 Mar 1901 for $700, across the street from Mary Alice's dress making establishment. There they lived until 1905, according to Albert, when they moved to Highland Park.

On 15 Sep 1906 Burt bought for $35 land on the west side of Lane between 5th and Willow (fractional lots 127-29-31 and the N 1/2 of 133 [319:278], the block being quite small and trapezoidal in shape), and apparently mortgaged the lots to the Cheshire Provident Institution. However, our copy of that transaction [326:294 and 324:15] is incomplete and may be misinterpreted, as the day we wrote was 1 Sep, before the purchase. On 4 Nov 1910 they sold this property for $1200 [368:399], and so must have had a home or business built on it during that period. Whether they lived there for a time and did not in fact move to Highland Park until 1910, is unknown (but see below).

About the same time as the Lane Street purchase, James bought the six lots on the west side of Ohio Steet in Highland Park, 1 Sep 1906, from Cornelia Curry [326:299]. These were directly across the street from the six lots that Mary Alice Markley bought the next month. Then, in December, Aaron Markley bought the next two lots and house on the east side of the street. Surely the two families planned these purchases together.

The location was a choice one in the Park, as the electric train line to Topeka ran along 28th Street right by these properties. Converted from the old steam line in 1903, the route started in a loop in downtown Topeka, ran across the Shunganunga Creek and through a pasture to 21st and Maryland. There it ran south to 28th where it turned and ran several miles east to Vinewood Park. This was a wooded area developed by the Edison Electric Company with lagoons, band shell, skating rink, dancing pavilion, and other fairground type of amusements. The electric line from there continued east as a freight line to the stone quarry about where Lake Shawnee is now located. Regular freight runs were made carrying supplies for Vinewood and feed and machinery to the farmers, and returning with grain, crushed rock, and often cattle and sheep destined for Topeka. While the freight movements might have seemed a nuisance, that was surely more than offset by the ready passenger access both to Vinewood, and every forty five minues to downtown Topeka. This service continued until 1926 when the trains were replaced by bus service [The History of Highland Park].

According to The History of Highland Park [Anon., 1956], page 72, James Albert worked for the Hewitt Company, "a brass factory, located in the Santa Fe yards". This surely must have some connection with his father's work as head of the brass foundry for the shops, but the details are not known. Perhaps the Shawnee County Historical Society might have more information about the shops and the Hewitt Company. It goes on to say "Later he started a business of his own in a steel corregated building at his home. Because of transportation difficulties this business did not prosper and he went into the store department of the Santa Fe where he worked until his death". These events must have been before 1907, when Burt went to work as a clerk for the Santa Fe, and the home and business may have been on the Lane Street property, but this we don't know. By 1909 he was a clerk auditor of disbursements, an assistant clerk and general storekeeper in 1910, and was listed as a clerk in the shops from 1916 until at least 1935.

Margaret's parents Aaron and Mary Alice Markley had purchased the eight lots in Highland Park on the east side of Ohio at 28th Street in 1906. These had been passed on to their children (the details are not known), and on 19 Aug 1919 Margaret and James Albert sold them to his brother Hamilton [452:288]. By this time they had have been living for some fourteen years in the house across the street at 2809 which they made their home for the rest of their lives. That was the first house built by Ham on Ohio. (Burt much later also bought lot 253, either the house south of 2809, or an empty lot, on 18 Oct 1923 [502:488].)

Burt bought the corner lots (241-43-45) between his land and 28th from Cornelius Curry 1 Sep 1906 [326:299], and sold them to his brother Ham 7 May 1909. That was the same time he bought the Lane Street property described above. Then, on 9 Jul 1926 Burt repurchased those corner lots and house from W. C. Lamb for $1 and other considerations, probably an exchange of property. Apparently Ham had sold the house he built there (where he lived in 1914) probably around the time he purchased the Markley property across the street in 1919.

A few months after selling the corner lots on Ohio to Ham, and while owning the Lane Street property, Burt on 19 Oct 1909 purchased, for $200, three quarters of a square mile (SW 1/4 and the W 1/2 of the SE 1/4 of Section 27.T11.R15, from the Coromedo Development Company [324:237] ) on the Kaw (Kansas) River in west Topeka. This land is now bisected by Interstate 70, but includes the present location of the Governor's Mansion. We missed finding the sale of this property, which is unfortunate, as the record of the sale would confirm, by his wife's name, that this buyer was indeed our James Albert Swan.

On 8 Jul 1926 Burt and Maggie mortgaged the three corner lots for $2000, to be repaid to the Capitol Building and Loan Association of $22.20 monthly until July of 1938. Two months later, on 23 Sep 1926, they took out an additional mortgage on the property of $200, to be repaid at the rate of $2.22 monthly. The larger loan was repaid in full by 1935, but the small loan continued until its original maturity date. This is the home, then numbered 2801, that our parents moved into before 1931, and purchased from James Albert and Margaret in 1937.

Maggie's name was spelled "Marguerite" by her father Aaron in recording her birth in the family bible. It was also printed that way on her high school graduation program. There she headed the list of speakers, reciting "The Painter of Seville" on 2 May 1894 at the Highland Park Chapel. All later spellings I've seen have been "Margaret", and she was known mostly as "Maggie" within the famiy.

According to the notes of both Walter Markley and James Albert Swan, Margaret and her siblings were born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. However, the census of 1860 has them some 40 miles southwest of that city in Wabash, Wabash county, Indiana, so the exact place of her birth in that state awaits confirmation.

The six children of James Albert and Marguerite (Markley) Swan were Albert Markley, Donald Eugene, Paul Reese, James Aaron, Francis Hamilton and Margaret Louise.

i     Albert Markley Swan, son, born 9 Dec 1899 in Topeka and died 25 Dec 1968 in Topeka.

Albert Markley was married 16 Mar 1940 in White City, Kansas to Lillian Evangeline Jeanette Harrison {born 30 Sep 1908 in Dwight, Morris, Kansas, and died 21 May 1993 in Topeka}.

Albert and Lillian were married in the home of J. J. Richards, the pastor who performed the wedding ceremony. The license had been obtained at Alma, Kansas. They lived with his parents for some years at 2809 Ohio, then moved to 1434 Washburn in 1946. Albert for most of his life was an electrician, and owned the Swan Electric Company at 1414 West 15th Street in Topeka. His brother Fritz in 1937 worked for him and received mail at that location, and may have lived in the building at that time.

On 2 Mar 1918 Albert enlisted in Company A, Ninth Battalion, of the Kansas State Guard, and was promoted to Corporal 29 July of that year. He was then discharged 16 Aug 1918 from the Kansas State Guard because he had enlisted in the Kansas National Guard, although his State Guard enlistment had been "for the peroid [sic] of the war and one year thereafter", according to the printed discharge document. According to a source I've since lost, he entered the Army 1 Oct 1918. Then, on 9 Dec 1918 Albert received his honorable discharge from the Army of the United States by reason of the expiration of his term of service at Washburn College in Topeka.

Al and at least two of his brothers, Dad and Fritz, were enthusiastic amateur radio enthusiasts. Al gave his return address on a 1962 letter to Fritz in New Mexico as "W0JCZ, 1414 W. 15th St., Topeka, Kansas", thus identifying himself by his ham call letters.

Albert wrote several pages of undated notes on our family history which contain considerable detailed information on our line which is otherwise unrecorded [Swan, Undated]. These notes were found in Lillian's home after her death in 1993 by their niece, Vickie (Dial) Smith, who had looked after Lillian in the later years of her life. They have been cited above, primarily in the life of his grandfather James W. Swan.

Albert's Social Security number was #511-32-4471, issued in 1951, and the SS Death Index indicates that he was born 9 Dec 1899 (which is correct) and that his last benefit payment was Dec 1968 at Zip Code 66604, in the south part of Topeka.

According to the Social Security records, another Albert Swan, #511-36-8785, was born 10 Nov 1899, about a month before Al, and died Jul 1985 in Topeka at Zip Code 66605.

Lillian's Social Security number was 512-50-0459, issued in Kansas 1963 or 1964, and the Death Index gives her birth and death dates.

ii     Donald Eugene Swan, son, born 28 Dec 1900 in Topeka and died 10 Oct 1991 in Bedford, Tarrant, Texas.

Donald Eugene was married 4 May 1935 in Topeka to Percita Robbins Waggoner {born 28 Sep 1906 in Topeka and died 1 May 1994 in Keller, Texas}.

Don and Percita (Waggoner) Swan 441x464

Don worked for 20 years at the Topeka Supply Depot. Late in life, he and Percita moved in Aug 1990 to Bedford, Texas, in order to be closer to their daughter, Mary Alice. He was buried in Topeka Cemetery.

Don's Social Security number was 709-16-1304, which is interesting, because that number was not in the 510- and 511- range issued in Kansas. For some reason, no Zip Code was recorded for his last Social Security payment, but his birth date and death year were correctly recorded.

The two children of Donald Eugene and Percita Robbins (Waggoner) Swan:

1     Mary Alice Swan, dtr., born 6 Mar xxxx in Topeka.

Mary Alice was married 16 Nov 1957 to Charles "Chuck" Black {born 30 Aug xxxx in Henryetta, Okmulgee, Oklahoma}.

The three children of Charles "Chuck" and Mary Alice (Swan) Black:

i     Teri Dawn Black, dtr., born 24 Apr xxxx in Topeka.

Teri Dawn was married 24 Apr 1982 to Mark Johnson {born 24 Apr xxxx}.

The three children of Mark and Teri Dawn (Black) Johnson:

1     Adam Robert Johnson, son, born 16 Jul xxxx in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2     Katrina Marie Johnson, dtr., born 30 May xxxx in Germantown, Maryland.

3     Alex Charles Johnson, son, born 3 May xxxx in Shawnee, Kansas.

ii     Timothy David Black, son, born 6 Jul xxxx in Aurora, Kane, Illinois.

Timothy David was married 12 Nov 1994 to Jennifer Margaret Harris.

The two children of Timothy David and Jennifer Margaret (Harris) Black:

1     Addison Rebeka Black, son, born 25 Nov xxxx in Dublin, Ohio.

2     Megan Elizabeth Black, dtr., born 19 Sep xxxx in Southwick, Massachusetts.

iii     Thomas Daniel Black, son, born 30 Sep xxxx.

Thomas Daniel married Micaela Bergstrom.

Tom, Micaela and their son Evan reside in Indianapolis where Tom is doing his residency in emergency medicine and critical care [Mary Black, 2006].

I had a date 24 Jul 2002 for Micaela's birth; that might have been her marriage date.

The only child of Thomas Daniel and Micaela (Bergstrom) Black:

1     Evan Thomas Black, son, born 1 Sep xxxx in Galveston, Texas.

2     Jean Rosanne Swan, dtr., born 6 Jun xxxx.

Jean Rosanne was married 28 Nov 1968 to John Albert Corn (1) {born 12 Jul xxxx in Saint Joseph, Buchanan, Missouri}.

According to her sister [Personal Communication, April 2004], Rosanne had her name legally changed to Annie Swan Armstrong.

iii     Paul Reese Swan, son, born 15 Oct 1903.

iv     James Aaron Swan, son, born 13 Sep 1904 in Topeka and died 9 Jun 1964 in California.

James Aaron was married 16 Oct 1939 in Topeka to Inez LeClerc {born 1 Feb 1903 in Hutchinson, Kansas, and died 15 Dec 1992 in Grants Pass, Josephine, Oregon}.

A letter from his brother Fritz in Mexico City was sent to Jim at 11057 South Atlantic Ave., Lynwood, California, and the envelope later returned to Fritz for the Mexican stamp. Unfortunately the cancellation is faint and the date unreadable, but there is another registered envelope to Fritz from Jim at that same address on 20 Jul 1957. Lynwood is in greater Los Angeles, some twelve miles east of the L. A. airport, and a few miles south and east of Watts.

I did have an address for Jim and Inez in May 1957 at 8530 Lemoran Avenue, Riveria, a town just north of Santa Monica, and four miles west of Beverly Hills, California.

Apparently Jim did not receive Social Security payments, probably because he worked for the Santa Fe all of his life. However, there was a James Swan recorded, #150-09-5491, who was born less than six months before Jim in 1904, and who died one month before he did in 1964.

v     Francis Hamilton Swan, son, born 26 Oct 1908 in Topeka and died 22 Jan 1984 in Alamogordo, Otero, New Mexico.

The two main activities of interest to Fritz were radio electronics and stamp collecting. He apparently at one time had a ham radio license, but his main interest was in building electronic gadgets and listening, as did our father, to short wave transmissions from around the globe.

At his death Fritz left behind with his friends of many years, Susan and Michael Shyne, all of his personal possessions. Included in these effects was a collection of envelopes he had received (or, in a few cases, mailed), some still with the letters, some empty. From these, we have been able to reconstruct a list of the places Fritz lived over the years.

The earliest envelope in this set was obviously saved for its philatelic value, as it bore a "first day" cachet and was cancelled in Atlanta, Georgia, 2 May 1928. Apparently the envelope had travelled on a New Orleans to New York airmail flight before continuing to Fritz's address at 2809 Ohio. The next envelope was from his mother, sent to him 21 Jul 1928 at Walden, Colorado, where he was presumably vacationing.

There follows a gap of over nine years in Fritz's collection of old envelopes. We then find him receiving mail in January 1937 at 1414 West 15th Street in Topeka, his brother Al's Swan Electric Company business address. He probably worked there for Al, and may have lived at the shop as well. However, by the time of his notice to appear for his Selective Service examination 17 Jul 1942, he was back living with his mother at 2809 Ohio. In October 1942 and February, 1943, Fritz received mail at 721 Washington Blvd., Kansas City, Kansas. The first letter was from a friend Cleora discussing army matters, and enclosing a newspaper clipping reporting his sister Louise's marriage to Martin Tritt. The other envelope had as a return address the Officers Mess at Topeka Army Air Field. On 17 May 1943 Fritz received a draft notice, classifying him as "1C", but he had already mailed a letter to Cleora Campbell on 22 Mar 1943 and given his return address as "Pvt. F. H. Swan 17058639, R. C. 1773, Fort Levenworth Kans." The reason for this sequence of events is somewhat obscure.

Twelve days after his draft classification notice was mailed, he was back in Topeka at the Army Air Base where Lieut. J. T. Pierce signed a pass (typed on a three by five inch file card) entitling Fritz "to be admitted at any time" to the Office of the Officer-in-Charge, Signal Section, 307th Depot. On the reverse was another typed note good for admittance to the "confidential radio room", also signed by J. T. Pierce. Jack Pierce became a long time friend of Fritz, as we have a letter he mailed 15 Oct 1945 from Irumagawa, Japan, discussing a Japanese radio receiver he had "liberated" and sent to Fritz at 2809 Ohio. Incidently, John was incensed at that time about being marooned in Japan because the longshoremen were on strike, and there was no transport available back to the U. S.

After Pierce did return to this country, on 3 Dec 1945 he sent to Fritz in Topeka a series of six small photographs taken at various locations in Japan. His letter, with the photographs taped on, was written from the Madigan General Hospital in Tacoma, Washington, where he was recuperating from some illness. The letter mentions that he had been corresponding with various photographic and cartoonist schools, and was anxious to get back to an artistic profession. He also hoped that Fritz might "drop in with Henrietta" to visit, indicating that she had been on his staff along with Fritz. By 19 Dec Fritz received a letter from his mother addressed to him at 4125 Brooklyn, Seattle, Washington, so presumably did in fact journey there to see his friend.

In May of 1947 Fritz sent a letter to his mother postmarked Camp Verde, Arizona, and the next month our Dad sent him a letter at 4628 Date Street, La Mesa, California. This was evidently a vacation to the southwestern part of the country, and possibly the time in which he first became asquainted with the areas to which he would later return to live the rest of his life. On 9 Jun 1948 he received a registered letter from Jack Pierce (at 2613 12th Ave. No., Seattle) addressed to him at 2615 Virginia Street, Topeka. This was the address of his brother Don, and confirms my vague recollection that he lived for a time with Don and Percita before building his own house at 2807 Ohio. Exactly when over the next years he built this small home next to ours, with Dad's help, is not known. There he received in April, 1953, a postcard titled "Official Bulletin Nr. Umpteen From KVRC Hdqrs., Police Department, 5th & Jackson, Topeka" requesting his presence at the next meeting of the Kaw Valley Radio Club.

Soon after our father died, Fritz sold his house to mother and moved to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Although he continued to correspond with his brothers for several years, as far as we know Fritz never returned to Kansas. While in New Mexico he lived first at several addresses in "T or C" from August 1954 through July 1956. He then moved to La Luz, New Mexico, just outside of Alamogordo, where he lived from August, 1956 through January 1957.

Fritz gave to his brother Jim a power of attorney dated 16 May 1957 to sell for him approximately 200 acres of subdivided land in Los Angeles County. By 20 July 1957 Fritz had moved back to Truth or Consequences, where he received a registered letter from Jim (at 11057 Atlantic, Lynwood, CA) on that date. Fritz's address there was 618 Silver Street until he left for California. However, the date of his move from New Mexico is somewhat unclear. A return notice from the Society of Philatelic Americans was sent 20 Dec 1957 to him at 8530 Lemoran Avenue, Rivera, California, acknowledging his change of address. But he continued to receive mail at 618 Silver Street through May of 1958. Then, by September of that year, mail was being forwarded to him at the Lemoran Avenue address, but by May or June of 1959 he was back in New Mexico where he stayed for the rest of his life. What the connection was between the California land he asked Jim to sell in 1957, and the Rivera address he lived at late that year and early 1958, is presently unknown.

SSN 513-12-4801 KS

vi     Margaret Louise Swan, dtr., born 9 Feb 1924 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, and died 21 Oct 1991 in Topeka.

Margaret Louise and Martin Tritt (1) {born 22 Oct 1922 in Jennings, Decatur, Kansas}.

Margaret Louise, whose natal name was Helen Lucille Ebner, was adopted as a five months old baby by James and Margaret. She was born in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, at 12:45 pm, 9 Feb 1924. Louise's original birth certificate states that her mother, Mildred Ebner, was 17 years old and was born in Haskins, Iowa. Mildred lived at 2905 Campbell Avenue in Kansas City, and worked as a Telephone Operator. The place of birth was given as Kansas City General Hospital, the attending physician was Joseph G. Webster, and the birth was noted as illegitimate. The father's name was blanked out on the certified copy of the birth certificate released 29 Nov 1991 to Louise's daughter Vickie by the Local Registrar of the State of Missouri. (Vickie tells me (July, 1994) that she has found records of Mildred Ebner in Haskins, Iowa, and will send me the details of her parents and siblings.)

Louise's adoption was approved 5 Jul 1924 in the Juvenile and Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, at Kansas City. The original order appears as No. A 3468 in book 12, page 413, and was witnessed 12 Jul 1924 by the Clerk of the Court. It is interesting that James and Margaret on 1 Mar 1944 obtained from the state of Missouri a certificate of birth for Louise. In that document Margaret certifies that she "attended" the birth, but it in no way indicates that she and James were not Louise's natural parents.

Louise graduated from Highland Park High School in 1942, and was a member of the Highland Park United Methodist Church. She died in a Topeka hospital, and was buried 24 Oct in Topeka Cemetery.

Royce was stationed at Forbes Air Base, near Topeka, until 1967.

The only child of Martin and Margaret Louise (Swan) Tritt:

1     Virgie Louise Tritt, dtr., born 23 Nov xxxx in Kansas City.

Virgie Louise married (1) Ernie Bouten. She m (2) Leroy Dengault.

Virgie Louise was adopted by Louise and Martin after several years of being a foster child in their care.

The only child of Ernie and Virgie Louise (Ratliff-Tritt) Bouten:

i     Danny Bouten, son, born 28 Mar xxxx in Topeka.

The only child of Leroy and Virgie Louise (Ratliff-Tritt) Dengault:

i     Unnamed Bouten, dtr.

The only child of Royce and Margaret Louise (Swan) Dial:

1     Vickie Lou Tritt, dtr., born 19 May xxxx in Topeka.

Vickie Lou was married 28 Jul 1990 to Brian Lynn Smith {born 29 Jul xxxx}.

Vickie found the genealogical notes of her uncle Albert, and pictures of Jane and James Swan in the effects of Al's widow Lillian after her death. We are grateful to her for making copies of these very valuable documents available to us. Vickie and Brian live at 2406 SE Maryland, Topeka, 66605, telephone 913 233-7555.

3420 SE California Ave Topeka, KS (785) 266 8404

The only child of Brian Lynn and Vickie Lou (Dial) Smith:

i     Brianne Louise Smith, dtr., born 10 Feb xxxx in Topeka.

Paul Reese Swan & Mildred Louise Hartzell

William1, Charles2, James W.3, James Albert4, Paul Reese5

Paul Reese was born 15 Oct 1903 in Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas, and died 11 Oct 1953 in Topeka. Paul Reese and Mildred Louise married 4 Jun 1927 in Topeka. Mildred Louise was born 11 Jan 1903 in Mulhall, Logan, Oklahoma Terr., and died 3 Jul 1989 in Topeka.

Paul and Mildred were married in Topeka Saturday, 4 June 1927, by the Rev. C. Clark Buckner, Minister of the Gospel in the Christian Church. It is not known where the marriage ceremony took place. Dr. Buckner had been born in 1887, and was a graduate of Christian University, now Culver -Stockton College, in northeastern Missouri. He held pastorates in Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nebraska before coming to Topeka, and in Texas and Missouri subsequently. He initiated in Missouri (as did Lyndon Johnson in Texas) the National Youth Administration program under President Roosevelt in 1935.

Dad entered Santa Fe service as a clerk in the Topeka freight auditor's office in November 1919, just after his sixteenth birthday. He resigned in May of 1923, but was again employed by the Santa Fe in June 1926 as a signal helper on an Eastern Lines construction crew, and was promoted to assistant signalman 1 Apr 1927. He entered the signal engineer's office in Topeka as an assistant draftsman 8 Oct 1927, and subsequently held the positions of material supervisor 9 Mar 1929 and second draftsman 16 Nov 1930. On 1 Nov 1935 he transfered to the office of the Signal Engineer System as a draftsman, and was promoted to Chief Clerk in that office 20 Jan 1936. He held that position until his death in 1953 [Obituary, The Santa Fe Magazine, November, 1953, p. 91].

Dad purchased the three corner lots #241-3-5 on Ohio, which he renumbered as 2801, from his father 8 Dec 1936. The deed states that he assumed the balance due on two notes, of $1785 and $200, payable to the Capitol Building and Loan Association. Those notes had been taken out ten years earlier by our grandparents, and the payments of $22.20 and$2.22 per month were to run until 1938. We believe that mother and dad had been renting the home from grandfather Swan since about 1930, but the exact date of their move to Highland Park is not known.

Mildred's parents moved to Mulhall in 1898, two years after they married, when Mildred's father transfered from Norman, Oklahoma to become manager of the Carey-Lombard Lumber Company in Mulhall. (This biography is an abridged version of one written in 1993 by Leo K. Thiessen, Mildred's son-in-law. We thank him for the care he took in creating this memorial to mother.) On June 30, 1904, when she was just one and a half years old, her father died quite suddenly from a bowel obstruction. He had resigned from the lumber company shortly before his death to engage in farming, possibly with his in-laws, John Weller and Elizabeth (Teeter) Alford who were farming near Mulhall.

About 1909, Mildred moved with her family to Guthrie, Oklahoma, where her mother was a seamstress and ran a boardinghouse for the state legislators in order to support her family. Merrie also taught school at times. In 1917, the family moved to Topeka, Kansas, so that her brother Lawrence could become a boiler maker apprentice in the Santa Fe railway shops. Mildred attended the eight grade at Lincoln Grade School and completed the 9th grade of Junior High in 1919. She then worked at Crosby Brothers Department Store in Topeka until 1922. During her last year there, she also attended the Strickler School of Business, learning to be a comptometer operator. She went to work in 1922 for the W. A. L. Thompson Wholesale Hardware Company as a comptometer operator, and worked there until her marriage in 1927.

One of Mildred's friends for most of her life was Loretta Arens. Loretta worked as a teller in one of the banks in Topeka, as I recall. The Social Security file shows a Loretta Arens born 28 Aug 1902 and died in February of 1987, her last residence being Sebastian, Indian River, Florida. This may well be Mildred's friend, as the date of birth is just before

Mildred's, and we do remember her retiring and moving away from Topeka.

A few years after their marriage, Mildren and Paul set up their home at 2801 Ohio in the Highland Park section southeast of Topeka, Kansas. (See the description of Paul's uncle Hamilton Brown Swan for the history of this house which Ham built before 1909.) Mildred lived there until 1981 at which time she sold the house and moved into an apartment in Mission Towers on East 29th, behind the Highland Park Methodist Church. Just across Minnesota on that corner is the location of the home of Aaron Markley, Paul's grandfather, who bought that land in 1885, and where Paul's parents James Aaron and Marguerite (Markley) Swan were married.

As a young wife and mother, Mildred was active in the Brownie Scout organization when Pat was small, and served as President of the Topeka Girl Scout Council. She worked in grade school activities and the Sunday School. Mildred was an active member for over fifty years of the Highland Park Methodist Church which she joined 9 Dec 1934, and where Patricia and Paul, Jr., were baptised 9 Jun 1940. She was also a graduate of the well known Menninger Bible Study Classes conducted in Topeka by the wife of Dr. Karl Menninger.

Mildred became a member of the Order Of The Eastern Star, as was her mother since the family's days in Mulhall. Mildred was initiated into Buelah Chapter in Topeka on 20 October 1923, and was later chosen for Buelah Belles.

When Paul died of cancer in October, 1953, Mildred renewed her business skills by taking a six week refresher course as a comptometer operator at Clark's Secretarial School. She then went to work 23 Mar 1954 for the Kansas Corporation Commission, and moved 1 Sep 1955 to the Department of Administration where she verified vouchers and payrolls. While working there she took a 12 week course in basic accounting in 1959, and then transfered into the Department of Public Instruction, 19 Apr 1960. There her job was as a traveling auditor of the School Lunch Program in the smaller towns' schools throughout Kansas. Mildred moved from the traveling job to work in the office in July, 1964, where she worked until she retired 31 Dec 1967.

Mildred was able to live comfortably and independently after her retirement. One of her favorite recreations, both during her marriage and later, was playing bridge, and she was a member of many bridge clubs over the years. She remained very active in all of the church groups and served the Topeka Rescue Mission as volunteer and secretary. Mildred liked to travel and was able to do so both while she worked and during her retirement. She was a member of the Topeka Travel Club and thus was usually able to travel with friends and acquaintances. During this time Mildred traveled to all of the continents, except for Antartica, some more than once.

After Paul died, his youngest brother Fritz, who lived in a small house he had build next door on the first lot of their parents' property, wanted to leave for the southwest. Mildred on 12 Nov 1953 purchased the house, 2807 Ohio, and sold it in 1971, the deed being transferred 28 Aug 1981 when the mortgage was paid off. She sold her own longtime home at 2801 Ohio on 13 May 1981.

Mildred enjoyed excellent health until late December, 1987, at which time she began to have many health problems. She spent the last 6 1/2 months of her life in the Manor House nursing home in Topeka. The official cause of her death was heart failure, but she suffered from many other ailments. Her will, dated 21 Jul 1964, bequeathed to her daughter Patricia her diamond ring, dishes, and glassware, and to her daughter-in-law Mildred Louise Swan her silverware. The residue of the estate was given to Patricia and her son Paul, share and share alike.

At Paul's death in 1953, a gift of an altar bible had been given to the Highland Park Methodist Church in his memory. Thirty six years later the scriptures were read from this bible at Mildred's funeral service.

The two children of Paul Reese and Mildred Louise (Hartzell) Swan were Paul Reese and Patricia Lee.

i     Paul Reese Swan, son, born 7 Feb xxxx.

ii     Patricia Lee Swan, dtr., born 19 Nov xxxx in Topeka.

Patricia Lee was married 26 Aug 1956 in Topeka to Leo Kurtis Thiessen {born 26 Sep xxxx in Inman, McPherson, Kansas}.

The two children of Leo Kurtis and Patricia Lee (Swan) Thiessen:

1     Amy Susanne Thiessen, dtr., born 14 May xxxx in Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas.

2     Julie Marie Thiessen, dtr., born 12 Oct xxxx in Atchison, Atchison, Kansas.

Julie Marie was married 22 Jun 1986 in Denver, Denver, Colorado to Duane Orval Hartshorn {born 12 Jan xxxx in Canada}.

The four children of Duane Orval and Julie Marie (Thiessen) Hartshorn:

i     Denzel Henry Hartshorn, son, born 19 Jan xxxx in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, Michigan.

Weighed 7# 4oz, was 21.5 inches long, at birth.

ii     Lucy Ann Hartshorn, dtr., born 15 May xxxx in Ann Arbor.

iii     Ella Sue Hartshorn, dtr., born 26 Jan xxxx in Grand Junction, Colorado.

iv     Meam Kathlene Hartshorn, dtr., born 12 Mar xxxx in Grand Junction.

Meam Kathleen Hartshorn arrived 7:30 pm Friday March 12, 1999 in Grand Junction, Colorado, St. Marys Hospital. Arrival aided by father, Duane, and of course the mother. All doing just fine. Weighs 8 lb. 2 oz. A real Whopper, according to grandmother Pat.

Paul Reese Swan & Mildred Louise Hamilton

William1, Charles2, James W.3, James Albert4, Paul Reese5, Paul Reese6

Paul Reese was born 7 Feb xxxx in Topeka, Shawnee, Kansas. Paul Reese and Mildred Louise married 7 Jun 1951 in McKeesport, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Mildred Louise was born 22 Jul 1930 in McKeesport and died 21 Sep 1998 in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, California.

The three children of Paul Reese and Mildred Louise (Hamilton) Swan were Deborah Lee, Paul Reese III and Mark Hamilton.

i     Deborah Lee Swan, dtr., born 7 Mar xxxx in Orange, Essex, New Jersey.

ii     Paul Reese III Swan, son, born 25 Nov xxxx in Plainfield, Union, New Jersey.

Paul Reese III was married 15 Apr 1982 in Menlo Park, San Mateo, California to Janine Bisharat (1) and they were divorced. He was married 7 Jun 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada to Kathryn Gordon (2) {born 1 Jan xxxx in Miami, Florida}.

iii     Mark Hamilton Swan, son, born 16 Apr xxxx in Newton, Suffolk, Massachusetts.

Mark Hamilton was married 10 Jan 1987 in Stanford, Santa Clara, California to Nancy Marshall Ames (1) {born 16 Apr xxxx in San Francisco, San Francisco, California}.

Mark and Linda consider that their life together commenced 20 Aug 1996. Their marriage on 2 Sep 2000 took place in the Westin St. Francis Hotel on Union Square in San Francisco.

The two children of Mark Hamilton and Nancy Marshall (Ames) Swan:

1     Melanie Elsbeth Swan, dtr., born 9 Sep xxxx in Santa Clara, Santa Clara, California.

2     Benjamin David Swan, son, born 5 Oct xxxx in Santa Clara.

The three children of Mark Hamilton and Linda Jennifer (Stevens) Swan:

1     Lily Kathleen Swan, dtr., born 24 Nov xxxx in Los Gatos, Santa Clara, California.

2     Oliver Hamilton Swan, son, born 8 Oct xxxx in Los Gatos.

Oliver was born about 7:00 am, weighed 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and was 21 3/4 inches long. They left the Los Gatos Community Hospital to go home about 1 pm on the 9th.

3     Ruby Antoinette Swan, dtr., born 18 Sep xxxx in Los Gatos.

Ruby was 8 pounds, 12 ounces at birth, and 21 inches long.