Merced County CA Archives Biographies.....Swan, Stillman Robert 1854 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 9, 2006, 1:19 am

Author: John Outcalt (1925)

STILLMAN ROBERT SWAN

   Another pioneer resident of Merced County may be found in the person of
Stillman Robert Swan, who for more than a third of a century has been identified
with the agricultural interests of this section of the State. It was in Oxford
County, forty-seven miles from Portland, Maine, that Mr. Swan was born, on
October 3, 1854, the son of Joseph Greeley Swan, who owned and farmed 200 acres
in Oxford County, and who married Miss Temperance Allen, born at Wales, Maine.
The Swans are of Welsh extraction; the paternal grandmother, Betsy Howe, was a
descendant of General Putnam, of Revolutionary War fame, and the paternal
grandfather, William Swan, a millwright by trade, was a drum major in the war of
1812. Stillman Robert Swan is the youngest of three children, the others being
Sarah, who become the wife of John Swan and passed away in Merced, and Sylvia
Howe, who became the wife of Albert L. Cressey, of Modesto, both now deceased.

   Stillman Robert Swan received a common school education in his native State;
he walked four miles to attend a high school, which was located at Denmark
Corners. At Brownfield, Maine, on Christmas Day, 1876, Mr. Swan was married to
Miss Addie A. Harnden, born in East Fryeburg Township, Oxford County, Maine, a
daughter of Elbridge Harnden, Jr., a farmer and freeholder in Oxford County, who
passed away at the age of forty-two years, leaving his widow and two children:
Addie Augusta, the wife of our subject, and Ina M., who became the wife of Elmer
Dayton Jones, and died in February, 1895.   Mr. and Mrs. Swan farmed the old
home place in Oxford County, Maine, for eleven years; then they decided to come
to Merced County, California, where Mr. Swan's two sisters were residing.-Mr.
Swan rented land from his brother-in-law, Albert L. Cressey, and farmed to
wheat, rye and barley for twenty-one years on 1700 acres of land two and a half
miles south of Livingston. Prosperity attended his untiring industry and
perseverance, and he bought twenty acres which he developed to fruit, and later
sold and is now living in Livingston, retired from active business cares. Mr.
Swan was painfully injured in an automobile accident in 1922 which incapacitated
him for over a year. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Swan: Grace
H., a partner with her brother, S. H., in the Steam Laundry in Livingston;
Stillman Herbert, married Minnie A. Condon and is head of the Steam Laundry in
Livingston; Claude Elbridge, a State traffic officer, living at Merced. During
the World War he served in the machine gun corps and at the close of the war was
discharged with the rank of corporal. Claude married Lucy Baker and they have
one daughter, Geneva Louise. S. R. Swan has been active for the betterment of
his locality and has been a member of the board of trustees of the city of
Livingston since its incorporation. In politics he is a consistent Republican.
He was among the first to subscribe to the capital stock of the First Bank of
Livingston, and is a director. Although retired from active duties, Mr. Swan
retains an interest in the Livingston Steam Laundry.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/merced/bios/swan226gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/

File size: 4.0 Kb