BIO: Silas C. SWALLOW, Dauphin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2008.  All rights reserved.
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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, pages 345-346.
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  SWALLOW, S. C., was born March 5, 1839, near Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in 
the historic and classic valley of Wyoming.  He was of English-Irish 
ancestry.  Receiving his preliminary education in the common schools in 
the vicinity of his home, he afterwards attended Wyoming Seminary, and 
completed his education at Susquehanna University.  After his 
graduation, he at first entered upon the business of teaching, in which 
he continued engaged for five years, of which one year was passed at 
the seminary above named.
  Having decided on adopting the law as a profession, Mr. Swallow 
entered as a student the office of that matchless counselor, Volney L. 
Maxwell.  Under such skilled direction he would doubtless have obtained 
an exact and extended acquaintance with legal lore and practice, and 
been fitted to shine in this profession, had not circumstances and 
native inclination led him to give up the law and adopt the ministry as 
his future calling.  Having passed through the essential course of 
instruction in divinity, he entered the pulpit of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and thus at length began what has since continued the 
active and useful work of his life.  In recognition of his high 
standing in the ministry, Taylor University, of Fort Wayne, Ind., 
conferred on him in 1888 the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
  Dr. Swallow long continued active in the pulpit, filling a number of 
important posts in Central and Southern Pennsylvania.  His high 
standing in the church subsequently brought him an elevation to the 
position of presiding elder, and for four years he acted in this 
capacity in the district of Altoona, Pa., a field of labor that 
embraces five or six counties.  He has been twice elected a delegate to 
the General Conference of his church, the last time being during the 
meeting of this body for the year 1896.
  Within recent years Dr. Swallow has exchanged the active labors of 
the pulpit and the supervising duties of presiding elder for literary 
labor in connection with the interests of the church.  Four years ago 
he accepted the editorship of the Pennsylvania Methodist an important 
organ of the denomination published at Harrisburg, which he edits with 
a judgment and literary skill that give its columns much weight in the 
counsels of the church.  He also occupies the important post of 
superintendent of the Methodist publishing interests for Central 
Pennsylvania. 
  Aside from the more immediate duties of the ministry and the editor's 
sanctum, Dr. Swallow has taken a vital interest in the great reform 
movements of recent times.  In his younger days, when human slavery was 
the leading evil in this country, he ardently entered the ranks of the 
Abolitionists, speaking his sentiments with no uncertain voice.  Later, 
when slavery had plunged the country into war, he ranked as an earnest 
patriot, and a fearless supporter of the Government against the 
rebellion.  He subsequently became equally active and earnest in 
another labor of abolition, that of the legalized liquor traffic, of 
which he has long been and continues an uncompromising advocate.  
Recognizing that intemperance is the most active and dangerous vice in 
this land, and the one that leads to an endless array of crimes, 
diseases, and family and local evils, Dr. Swallow is an outspoken 
champion of the cause of prohibition of the sale of ardent spirits.  
His standing in this direction is so pronounced, and his services have 
been so useful, that a few years ago the Prohibition party tendered him 
the nomination for governor of the State. 
  Dr. Swallow is an able and fluent orator, and wields the editorial 
pen with a trenchant power which has given him a widespread influence, 
not only in Harrisburg, where he has resided during the past ten years, 
but throughout the State.  He is indeed favorably known throughout the 
Nation as a leading divine in this church, and an active advocate of 
the various reforms which now agitate the public mind.

1900 Harrisburg Ward 4, Dauphin County census -
Silas C. Swallow, 61  
Rebecca L. Swallow, 56  
Bessie Bingaman, 27  
Harold S. Bingaman, 5