Sullivan-Bradford-Wyoming County PA Archives Biographies.....SWARTS, M. DeWitt ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 3, 2007, 1:44 am Author: Thomas J. Ingham (1899) M. DeWITT SWARTS. - The financial and commercial history of Sullivan county would be very incomplete and unsatisfactory without a personal and somewhat extended mention of those whose lives are interwoven so closely with its business interests. Among this number is Mr. Swarts, the courteous and obliging cashier of the First National bank of Dushore. He was born in Wantage township, Sussex county, New Jersey, a son of John and Elizabeth (DeWitt) Swarts, and is the fourth in order of birth in their family of ten children. He was educated in the public schools of his native township and the Mount Retirement Seminary. At the age of sixteen he entered the office of the prothonotary as assistant to his uncle, who then held that position in Wyoming county, Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1861 he went to Port Jervis, New York, where he was employed as clerk in a large dry-goods store until the spring of 1865, when he removed to Towanda, Pennsylvania, and entered the employ of Joseph Powell, a dry-goods merchant at that place. After one year spent as clerk in that establishment he returned to his home in New Jersey, and during the following year served as tax collector in his native township. On again going to Towanda he was employed as clerk in the dry-goods house of Taylor & Company for three years, and for the following four years was clerk and bookkeeper for the Towanda Tanning Company at Greenwood, Pennsylvania. He was next a bookkeeper in the First National Bank, of Waverly, New York, for three years, and in a similar capacity spent six months in the Citizens' National Bank, at Towanda. He was then employed as clerk in the grocery store of Stevens & Long until 1880, for the following year was in the insurance business, and subsequently was with A. S. Gordon, a grocer, until January 1, 1881. He then opened a cash grocery of his own, which he conducted until June 15, 1882, when he went to Athens, Pennsylvania, and took charge of a store for R. H. Patch & Company, remaining there until May, 1883. Returning to Towanda, he helped W. H. D. Green open his large dry-goods store and worked for him until the fall of 1884, when he embarked in the hay business, which he carried on for eighteen months. He then conducted a general store at the nail works at South Towanda until October, 1888, when he came to Dushore and took charge of George H. Wells' interests, closing out his large mercantile business. He was largely instrumental in founding the First National Bank, which was chartered January 17, 1891, and opened for business February 2, following, with George H. Wells as president, A. H. Zaner vice-president, and M. D. Swarts as cashier. In that capacity our subject has since served with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned, and is recognized as one of the most thorough business men of the county. Energy, close application, perseverance and good management - these are the elements which have entered into his business career and secured his advancement. In 1871 Mr. Swarts married Miss Frank Carter, youngest daughter of Dr. Carter, of Towanda, and to them was born one daughter, Josephine C., who now assists her father in the bank. Mrs. Swarts, who was a most estimable lady, departed this life June 30, 1890. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Sullivan County Pennsylvania by Thomas J. Ingham Compendium of Biography The Lewis Publishing Company Chicago: 1899 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb