Alice Swaney M.D. Bio. Hancock County, WV ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** Submitted by Valerie Crook The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 224-225 Hancock County ALICE SWANEY, M. D. The professional career of Dr. Alice Swaney, which it is proposed briefly to sketch, embraces a period of eighteen years, practically all of which have been passed at New Cumberland. It possesses some features of interest, inasmuch as it assisted in breaking through the barrier of professional bigotry which had to some extent before her coming excluded women from practicing the healing art in a professional way. To her example, winning by assiduous attention to her profes- sional calls and by profound knowledge of the art and skill in its practice a place among the reputable prac- titioners of medicine and surgery in Hancock County, has been due in a measure the rapid advancement made recently by her sex in this field of effort. Doctor Swaney was born at New Cumberland, Han- cock County, West Virginia, and is a daughter of John S. and Ella (Grafton) Swaney. The Swaney family, which originated in Holland, has resided for many years in Pennsylvania, where was born Isaac Swaney, the grand- father of Doctor Swaney. He was a carpenter by trade and was ten years of age when brought by his parents to the vicinity of New Cumberland, where he spent his life in working at his vocation. He died in Hancock County dur- ing the Civil war period, at the age of fifty-five years, after a career that had included only an industrious application to his trade, without any public achievements. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Margaret Summerwell, was also a native of Pennsylvania, and died in Hancock County in extreme old age. John S. Swaney, father of Doctor Swaney, was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, April 3, 1845, and as a child was brought by his parents to Lexington, three miles above New Cumberland. During his early years he mastered the trade of stone mason, which he followed in connec- tion with farming. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company F, First Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer In- fantry, which was later consolidated with other troops, becoming the Second Veterans. Mr. Swaney's brother, T. R., served in the same company, and a younger brother, S. D., served in the fourth West Virginia Cavalry. Both are now deceased. Following the war Mr. Swaney resumed his operations as a stone mason and farmer, but gradually gave up the former vocation. He became interested in the breeding of track horses and had a number of good performers which brought fancy prices. One of these, "Sul- tan," was a noted prize-winner at the Pittsburgh Horse Show. In 1881 Mr. Swaney was elected sheriff of Han- cock County, serving in that office until 1884, and again in 1889 was chosen for that position, and served until 1893. Later he acted for six years as a member of the Board of County Commissioners, and his entire record in both offices was a splendid one. He has always been an active republican. In 1871, at the age of twenty-six years, Mr. Swaney was united in marriage with Miss Ella Grat- ton, who was born October 13, 1848, and died August 11, 1921, after fifty years of married life, their Golden Wed- ding Anniversary having been celebrated at San Diego, California. They were the parents of two children: Wil- liam Grafton, who has medical courses at the University of West Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania, but became a business man and was Pacific Coast manager for the Ingersoll Construction Company at Portland, Oregon, when he died at the age of thirty-five years; and Alice. William Hill Grafton, the maternal great-grandfather of Doctor Swaney, was born April 13, 1787, in Harford County, Maryland, and came to what is now Hancock County West Virginia (then in Virginia) in the year 1806. On July 19, 1807, he married Nancy Baker, of Virginia, born in February, 1789. William Hill Grafton was the first postmaster of the Town of New Cumberland, assuming the duties of that office in 1844. In the year 1840 he helped organize the Christian Church, the first church organized at this place, and from 1850 until 1856 he served as sheriff of Hancock County. He and Thomas Bousall were the first merchants of New Cumberland. Mr. Grafton was the father of a large family, among his children being Nathan Baker Grafton, who was born April 3, 1819. On January 22, 1848, he married Rachel Chapman. Nathan B. Grafton became the first school teacher of New Cumberland, in 1845, and also followed merchandising, traveling about once a year by stage and canal boat to Philadelphia in order to replenish his stock. He served as county supervisor, which corresponds with the present office of county commissioner, and in his later years was a justice of the peace. Ella Grafton Swaney, the wife of John S. Swaney, and Charles Edwin Grafton, the mother and uncle of Dr. Alice Swaney, were daughter and son of Nathan B. Grafton. Ella G. Swaney was born October 13, 1848, graduated from Pleasant Hill Seminary, Washington County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1865, married John S. Swaney March 23, 1871, and died July 11, 1921. Charles Edwin Grafton, M. S., C. E.. brother of Mrs. John S. Swaney was born Septem- ber 15, 1854, and in 1880 graduated from West Virginia University, being the first graduate of that institution to receive the degree of civil engineer. His work has been largely confined to railroad construction, and during his career he has held responsible positions with the Illinois Central, Baltimore & Ohio and Union Pacific railroads and others. During the past ten years he has been county engineer for Hancock County, his present post. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Alice Swaney, following her graduation from high school, spent three years at Oberlin and then enrolled as a student at the Women's Medical College, Philadelphia, from which she was graduated as a member of the class of 1903, receiving her degree of Doctor of Medicine. For one year thereafter she did post-graduate work in the Women's Hospital, Philadelphia, and then began the gen- eral practice of her calling. She is a member of the Hancock County Medical Society, the West Virginia State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and acts as medical examiner in the public schools. While not a suffragette, in the generally accepted meaning of the term, she believes in equal suffrage for her sex. Her own example is a stimulating one. She has arisen to influence and has obtained recognition through solid merit, founded upon good natural abilities, ripened by liberal scholastic training and matured by thorough scientific study and long, continuous and assiduous practice. With all her acquisitions she has fully preserved the innate delicacy of her womanly nature, and is none the less a lady because she has become a physician. Her religious connection is with the old Christian Church, the first church to be estab- lished at New Cumberland.