Marion County, West Virginia - Biography of Thomas N. SWISHER

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Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by Floa Swisher <fladam@netassoc.net>

This is a biographic article on Thomas N. SWISHER taken from:
"Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia of Monongalia, Marion and Taylor Co. WV"
1895, Rush West & Co Publishers Phildelphia

THOMAS N. SWISHER, a prosperous farmer and 
business man of Marion county, and commander of Meade Post, No. 6, 
G.A.R., at Fairmont, is a son of Jacob and Barsheba Swisher, and 
was born in Winfield district, Marion county, Virginia (now West 
Virginia), November 8, 1836.  He grew to manhood on the farm, 
received his education in the district school of his day and 
engaged in farming, which he followed until August 7, 1861, when 
he enlisted in company "C", sixth West Virginia infantry.  Ten 
months later he was transferred to battery "F", first West 
Virginia light artillery, in which he was promoted to first 
sergeant, and served until September 15, 1864, when he was 
honorably discharged at Wheeling, West Virginia.  He was in the 
battles of Martinsburg, Carter's farm and Winchester, and, after 
returning home, resumed farming, which he has followed up to the 
present time.  In addition to cultivating his farm of sixty acres, 
he has done considerable in the line of carpentering and 
wagon-making.
On April 15, 1858, Mr. Swisher wedded Sarah Ann Morley, a 
daughter of Benjamin Morley, a farmer of Greene county, 
Pennsylvania.  To their union have been born seven children:
Samuel S., a farmer of Smithtown, Monongalia county; Francis M., a 
resident of Fairmont; Charles E., a resident of this county; 
Willie Grant, now dead; Sabina Belle, wife of Joseph Carothers, a 
farmer of Monongalia county; Jacob O., engaged in farming; and 
James H., a resident of Faimont.
In politics, Mr. Swisher has always been a republican.  He 
served as register of his district for four years, was census 
enumerator in 1890, and acted as secretary of the board of 
education for several succesive terms, and is now a notary pubic 
in the county in which he resides.  He is a member and the present 
commander of Meade Post, No. 6, G.A.R., and some years ago united 
with Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is now 
trustee.  He is also recording steward of the Palatine circuit, in 
which his church is included.  Thomas N. Swisher has been not only 
active, but industrious and economical, and, by hard work and good 
judgment, has secured a competancy, and, what is far more 
valuable, a good and honorable name in his neighborhood.
The ancestors of Mr. Swisher were, a century ago, resident in 
Berkeley county, from which his paternal grandfather Jacob M. 
Swisher, came in 1810, to Winfield district.  Jacob M. Swisher 
purchased a farm there and followed farming.  He was a soldier of 
the War of 1812, and married Miss Bunner.  Their children were:
Joseph, Rev. Jacob, Henry, Allen, Mrs. Nancy Harris, Mrs. 
Elizabeth Carder, Mrs Roannah Brain and Mrs Almeda Martin.  Rev. 
Jacob Swisher was born in Berkeley county, and served as a 
Methodist minister for nearly half a century.  He owned a farm of 
fifty acres in Winfield district, and lived an industrious and 
useful life.  He did considerable in the timber trade on the 
river, and died March 25, 1881, aged seventy-five years. He was a 
democrat, and afterward a republican, and served a number of years 
as justice of the peace.  In 1829 he married Barsheba Farrell, who 
was a daughter of Enoch Farrell, and died in March, 1864, at 
fifty-three years of age.  They reared a family of seven sons and 
eight daughters:  Solomon C., of Schuyler county Illinois; 
Elizabeth M., residing at Fairmont; E.W. of Champaign county 
Illinois; Nancy, widow of William Doak, of Doddridge county; 
Thomas N., subject of sketch; Harriet, of Fairmont; Charles W., 
enlisted in June, 1861 in Company "B", Third West Virginia 
infantry, and was killed at the battle of Rocky Gap; Elvira, of 
Fairmont; Robert M., a farmer of Missouri; Sarah, wife of Dr. J.R. 
Watson, of Smithfield, Fayette county, Pennsylvania; Henry, a 
farmer of Winfield district; Emeline, wife of Napolean B. Swisher,
of Catawba, this county; Jennie and Frank, of Winfield district, 
this county; and Letitia, now dead.
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