Otis A. Swift Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 585-586

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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OTIS A. SWIFT. Farming is not only one of the most honorable of 
occupations, but to most men it offers attractions superior to other 
avocations, both from a material and an ethical point of view. That a 
man may provide for his own wants by producing from the soil that which 
supplies the wants of his fellow men must have been a part of nature's 
original design. Among those who have found agriculture both a pleasant 
and profitable calling may be named the subject of this biographical 
sketch. His pleasant home in township 120, range 68, Faulk county, is 
supplied with comforts and conveniences of modern rural life, though he 
has been one of the chief actors in that rapidly changing scene which 
has converted a wilderness into a community of prosperous and highly 
intelligent men. 

Mr. Swift is a native of Chautauqua county, New York, and was -born 
September 15, 1857. His father, Jewel C. Swift, was a farmer, and lived 
on the same farm in Chautauqua county from the age of one year until he 
was sixty years old. He was of English descent arid his father, Jacob 
Swift, purchased the old farm and settled upon it when Chautauqua 
county was a wilderness. Our subject's mother was Francis Glasier 
before her marriage. She was of Irish descent, though the family 
settled in America several generations back. Her father was a Baptist 
preacher. 

Otis A. Swift was the second child in a family of four bays, and was 
reared on the old farm in New York, attended the country schools, and 
at the age of sixteen years entered Forrestville Free Academy. At the 
age of nineteen years he taught his first term of school, and from 1876 
to 1888 he taught every winter, and during three years of that time he 
taught the entire year through. Until 1 883 he was attending school, 
teaching and farming. In March of the latter year he arrived at 
Mellette, South Dakota, and then traveled overland west to Faulk 
county, where he preempted the southwest quarter of section 3a, 
township 120, range 67. He erected a board shanty, and with his 
partner, John Day, broke fifty acres of land and put in a crop. Between 
them they owned a team, wagon, breaking plow and harrow. Mr. Swift 
worked during the summer months on his claim and returned to New York 
during the winter, where he taught school. In 1885 he and his partner 
purchased the southeast quarter of section 25 of township 120, range 
68, and moved the shanty on to his land. At the time he took up his 
first quarter-section and built the shanty there were but three others 
in sight, and within two weeks sixty could be seen. Our subject now 
owns five hundred and sixty acres of land, two hundred and thirty of 
which are under cultivation, with a complete set of farm buildings, a 
residence in two parts, one 16 x 20 feet, the other 14 x 20, with a 
wing 12 x 20 feet. Two hundred and twenty-five acres are devoted to 
pasture, and though until 1892 he gave his attention chiefly to grain 
growing, since that time he has turned his attention largely to stock. 
He has forty head of cattle, ten head of horses and two hundred and 
twenty-five sheep. His estate is well located and adapted to 
diversified farming. In 1889 there was a failure of crops, and our 
subject moved to Mellette and was employed as principal of the city 
schools, which position he occupied for two years. While residing in 
Mellette their residence was burned, with all household goods, 
clothing, etc., Mr. Swift and family barely escaping with their lives. 
In 1893 the roof of his farm residence was blown off during a storm and 
his granary destroyed, occasioning a loss of about one hundred dollars. 

Mr. Swift was married March 27, 1888, to Miss Julia H. Bryant. Mrs. 
Swift was born in Iowa on a farm in Buchanan county. Her father, N. B. 
Bryant, is a native of Ohio, of German descent, and was an early 
settler of the state of Iowa. Mrs. Swift is one of a family of four 
children, and came to Dakota with her brother in 1885. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Swift two children have been born, namely: Clare, born July 22, 1889, 
and Martin' born in October, 1892. In political views Mr. Swift is a 
Republican, and takes an active interest in local political matters. He 
is widely known and respected throughout Faulk county.