Preston County, West Virginia Biography of Howard Llewellyn SWISHER ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , July 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 176 HOWARD LLEWELLYN SWISHER, general manager of the Morgantown Building Association, has been for a quarter of a century actively identified with the growth and de- velopment of the fine little city that is the judicial center of Monongalia County. He is one of the leading representa- tives of real estate enterprise at Morgantown, and is es- sentially loyal and progressive as a citizen. Mr. Swisher was born in Hampshire County, West Vir- ginia, September 21, 1870, and is a son of David W. and Mary Katherine (Bonnifield) Swisher. David W. Swisher was born in Augusta County, Virginia, April 29, 1822, of Swiss-German ancestry, and in 1838 he came from his native county to what is now Preston County, West Vir- ginia, but a few years later he purchased land and made permanent settlement in Hampshire County, where he de- veloped a productive farm and where he passed the re- mainder of his life. In 1846 he married Mary Katherine Bonnifield, daughter of Dr. Arnold Bonnified, of St. George, Tucker County, and she survived him by several years. In 1892 Howard L. Swisher graduated from the West Virginia State Normal School at Fairmont, and thereafter was for two years a teacher in the public schools of Cali- fornia. Upon his return to his native state he entered the University of West Virginia, and in the same was grad- uated in 1897 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After leaving the university Mr. Swisher opened a book and sta- tionery store at Morgantown, and in 1898 he here organ- ized the Acme Publishing Company, of which he continued the president for a number of years. In 1904 he organized the Main Street Building Company, which erected the fine business block now known as the Strand Building. He organized and incorporated the Howard L. Swisher Com- pany in November, 1914, and organized the Morgantown Building Association in November, 1918, with an author- ized capital of $250,000, and of this company he has since been the general manager. Each of the corporations thus formed by Mr. Swisher has done effective service in fur- thering the material development and upbuilding of Mor- gantown. The Morgantown Building Association has been especially influential in aiding citizens of Morgantown to become the owners of excellent homes, as it has done a large amount of building and offered effective cooperation to home-buyers. Mr. Swisher was one of the organizers and is secretary of the Royalty Oil Company, which owns mining rights and also upward of sixteen thousand acres of prospective oil lands in the South and Southwestern states. Mr. Swisher is affiliated with Morgantown Union Lodge No. 4, Free and Accepted Masons; Morgantown Lodge No. - 411, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club, the Country Club and the Old Colony Club, in which latter he is a member of the National Advisory Council. He is affiliated with the Sigma Chi college fraternity. In 1898 Mr. Swisher wedded Miss Mary Dering, daughter of Edward A. and Cordelia (Walker) Dering, of Morgan- town, both the Dering and Walker families having been founded in Virginia in the early Colonial period of our national history.