Samuel Swartz

As printed in 1889

AMUEL SWARTZ was born in Union County, Penn., June 3, 1816, and in 1819 came to Ohio with his parents, his father, John Swartz, settling in Canaan Township, Wayne County. At the age of eighteen (in 1831) Samuel first came on his future homestead, hiring out to John Miller, who had recently bought the tract of the Government, same being then regarded as mostly waste and swamp lands. Mr. Swartz continued to work as a hired hand at clearing the then unbroken wilderness, in company with his brother John, until 1839, in which year he was married to Mary Miller, daughter of his employer, a young lady of scarce sixteeii summers. Mr. Swartz departed this life, at his residence in Milton Township, October 15, 1885, in the seventieth year of his age. His widow survives him, having lived on the same farm since the age of six years, and in the companionship of the departed for more than fifty years, their friendship antedating their marriage by several years. Mr. Swartz was always strong, robust and hearty, and an indefatigable worker. Under the ringing blows of his ax, which he could field with marvelous skill, the dense forest on his land was swept away, and by the careful culture of later years his farm became noted as one of the finest in the country. He was a model farmer, taking the lead in hus-

OItK C / fft '/'4Jt£ baudry of every kind; was enterprising and thrifty, and prosperity constantly waited upon him to crown his honest toil. He was a man of strong will and decided conTictious of right and duty; and while these traits sometimes produced friction in his dealings with others, his honesty and integrity no one could question; as a neighbor he was generous and helpful and a true friend; from every vice he was remarkably free, and he had but little sympathy for any form of it in others. Of pure thought, he never uttered a profane word, or indulged in slang or vulgar speech of any kind; in dress and living he was plain, and in all his habits strictly temperate. Under the daily inspiration of such an example, it is not to be wondered that every member of his large family grew to maturity free from every form of vice. Mr. Swartz was public-spirited, and at different times he was elected to offices of public trust, which he filled creditably. Industrious and economical, at the age of forty he found himself free from debt, and most of his subsequent earnings he expended in the education and culture of his children.

He was the father of twelve children, ten of whom, six sous and four daughters, survive him, and with their children, numbering in all nearly forty, were present at his funeral. To his six sons he gave a complete collegiate education, some of them taking a post-graduate course; the advantages of a higher education he also afforded his daughters, according to their choice. His eldest son, John M., graduated at Granville, Ohio, in 1809, and is now a prominent lawyer of Newark, and prosecuting attorney of Licking County, Ohio; Hiram B. graduated from the literary and law department of Michigan University in 1872, and was elected probate judge of Wayne County in 1887, which position he is now occupy)ying; he was also mayor of the city of Wooster, Ohio, from 1877 to 1881; Franklin P. graduated at Granville in 1(370, and from Rochester Theological Seminary in 1878 (was pastor of the Baptist Church at Loudonville, Ohio, for nine years, and is now pastor of the Baptist Church of Portsmouth, Ohio); Samiiel E. graduated at Granville in 1879, and has ever since been principal of the Newark public schools; Douglas A. graduated from Adelbert College, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1884, after which he was appointed by Gov. Hoadly to a position in the Cleveland Asylum for the In.sane, which he resigned to enter upon the study of medicine in the Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio, whence he graduated in 1888, (he is now engaged in the practice of his chosen profession in Canton, Ohio): Ulysses G. graduated from Adelbert College in 1886, and located in Wooster, this county, where he is engaged in the manufacture and sale of paints and varnishes, being at the head of the Wooster Paint Works in that city. Of the daughters, Adeline lives with her children near Sterling, Ohio, her husband, H. G. Zeigler, having died in 1879; Isabella is the widow of M. H. Murdock, of Kittman, Ohio; Sarah E. is the wife of L. B. Harris, of Newark, Ohio, and Ellen A. is the wife of Christopher Blankenhoru, a thrifty farmer of Milton Township, having bought the old home farm.

Mr. Swartz lived to see all his children converted and united with the Baptist Church, and took great comfort in their activity in Sunday-school and church work. In politics he was a life-long Democrat of the Jeffersonian school, and his political faith he inculcated on his sons. He eschewed all public amusements, and successfully impressed his convictions upon every one of his children. He was converted at an early age, and united with the Dunkard Church, the cardinal doctrines of which faith he ever stoutly defended. With his brethren on some matters of dress and education he differed, and so drifted from them, but not from the hope of the gospel. As his children grew up nnd united with the Baptist Church, he, with his wife, joined that church at Sterling, Ohio, and he was chosen deacon. A man of prayer it was his custom to close every day with family devotions, and here it was he gave best expression to his inner life and the desires of his soul. He prayed ever for his children, the church and the triumph of the gospel in the world, his love for all which was never-failing. Indeed, his ardent zeal for purity in life and doctrine in the membership and ministry of the church somewhat married the peace of his latter years.

He was impatient that sin in any form should enter the household of faith. To his strong nature what seemed to some to be faults appeared to him as vices not to be endured; yet he forgave and forgot all personal wrongs, and died at peace with the whole world.

On May 4, 1881, he was stricken with partial paralysis, from which he never fully recovered. On Christmas day, 1883, he fell and broke his hip-bone, which hastened his end. His eyesight failed so he could not read, and thus he quietly suffered and waited, longing for the end to come, his mind continuing national until the last. Surrounded by his large family of loving sous and daughters, and his ever faithful wife, who ministered to him as an angel of mercy throughout all his years of suffering, he folded his arms and closed his eyes in the calm embrace of death. Thus ended a long and useful life; thus lived and died another of that noble baud of pioneers whose strong arms and brave hearts made the wilderness here to "blossom as the rose. "

A man of pure thoughts and words, and of upright life, the memory of Samuel Swartz will live in his children whom he blessed. His fellow-citizens will cherish his good example, mentioning his name in after years as one whom the community delighted to honor. His neighbors and friends will remember him as one who loved integrity and hated iniquity, a good-natured, cordial, honest man; and his brethren in the church will not forget the words of counsel, faith and hope which in the day of his strength he ever gave the cause he loved. He was interred in the family burying-ground, in the old church-yard on the hill, on the Saturday following his demise, the funeral services, which were unusually impressive, being held at the Sterling Baptist Church, Rev. P. J. Ward, pastor, conducting, assisted by Rev. William F. Slocum, pastor of the Baptist Church at Wooster. The texas and sacred songs for the occasion were selected as those best loved and oftenest repeated by the departed. At his special request, his six sons acted as pall-bearers. Truly, of him it may be said; "His end is peace, and the memory of the just is blessed."

The above tribute is not an imaginary sketch, but was largely copied from the local papers printed soon after his death.

As printed in Commemorative biographical record of Wayne County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families .. (1889). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.