Ada-Kootenai-Gooding County ID Archives Biographies.....Swain, Arthur J. 1862 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 11, 2012, 1:19 am

Source: See below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

    THIRTY-SEVEN years have come and gone since Arthur J. Swain arrived in Idaho
— years marked by steady and substantial progress in the business world. He
became a resident of Boise in September, 1899, an d has since been active in the
development of business enterprises which have proven of great value to the
community as well as a source of individual profit. He is now president of the
Boise Cold Storage Company, of the Orchard Company and of the Boise Stone
Company. Michigan claims Mr. Swain as a native son. He was born at Flushing,
Owassie county, that state, August 6, 1862, his parents being Peter M. and Mary
A. (Whitney) Swain. The father was born in New York but during the early '50s
removed to Michigan, where he engaged in farming until the country called for
its patriotic men to defend the Union and he joined a volunteer Michigan
regiment. He fell in the hard fighting before Vicksburg, thus laying down his
life on the altar of liberty. After the death of her husband Mrs. Swain, a
native of Massachusetts, returned with her children to her old home in
Fitchburg, that state, where she still resides, active and vigorous, at the age
of eighty-nine years. 

    Arthur J. Swain was there reared in the home of his paternal grandfather,
the Rev. Aurora M. Swain, a Baptist minister. His educational opportunities were
those afforded by the public schools and when quite young he began work as a
farm hand, at first receiving only six dollars and a quarter per month. His
industry and fidelity soon won him a wage of twelve dollars per month and when,
at the age of seventeen years, he announced his intention of removing to the
west, his employer offered him twenty dollars per month, which was considered a
very excellent wage at that time. This, however, he refused, for the
opportunities of the west proved to him an irresistible lure. For two years he
engaged in mining in Boulder county, Colorado, and in 1882 took up his abode at
Wood River, Idaho, where he followed mining until 1890. In that year he became a
resident of Coeur d'Alene, where he engaged in mining on his own account with
fair success. 

    His most rapid and substantial progress, however, has been made since he
became a resident of Boise in September, 1899. His carefully saved earnings were
invested in an interest in the hardware store of Loree & Franz, and with the
retirement of Mr. Franz the firm style of Loree & Swain was adopted. In this
field Mr. Swain found a business that was not only congenial but one for which
nature seemed to have specially adapted him, and during the years of his
connection with the business he was largely instrumental in making it one of the
leading hardware establishments of the city. On selling his interests to the
Eastman Teller Company he became one of the organizers of the Boise Cold Storage
Company in 1903 and was active in the development of what was the only business
of the kind in Boise until 1910 and which has ever remained in a position of
leadership in its line. He is also the president of the Orchard Company, formed
of orchard owners of Ada county for the protection and development of their
mutual interests. In 1916 he became a prominent factor in industrial circles of
the city as one of the organizers of the Boise Stone Company, now a large and
important concern, of which he is the president, with Gus Carlson as vice
president and Thomas McMillan as the secretary and treasurer. 

    While residing at Wood River, Mr. Swain was married to Miss Jean Terry, a
native of Canada, reared, however, in the state of Michigan, and a daughter of
George Terry. They have become the parents of one child, Edna Beatrice, born in
1887. Mr. Swain and his wife attend the Baptist church. He has membership in Ada
Lodge, I. O. O. F.; is a charter member of the Boise Lodge of Elks, and a member
of the Boise Commercial Club. His political endorsement is given to the
republican party and from 1901 until 1903 he served as a member of the city
council and was a member of the school board in 1902. In recent years, however,
he has felt no inclination to hold public office, for his time and energies are
fully occupied by his developing business interests. He has never had occasion
to regret his youthful determination to try his fortune in the west, for in this
land of opportunity he found conditions which he sought and his ability and
even-paced energy have carried him into important business relations. 


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

IDAHO
DELUXE SUPPLEMENT
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY

1920


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