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S. B. SWOPE, of the Huston and Swope Company, operating two grain elevators in the Village of Amanda, has been
a livelong resident of Amanda Township, Fairfield County, Ohio. He was born November 20, 1874, and is shte son
of Felix and Alice (Kraft) Swope. His father was born in the same school district in Amanda Township and at present
resides in Lancaster, O.
Thomas Swope, grandfather of S. B. Swope, was born in Huntingdon County, PA., Feb. 19, 1800, and was the youngest
son of David and Mary (Cole) Swope. David Swope was born March 4, 1771 and was the owner of a farm in Huntingdon
County, PA., three and one-half miles distant from that of his wife's father, Thomas Cole, the mountain lying between
them. The records of Huntingdon County show the sale of the Cole farm on May 12, 1801, and that of David Swope
on May 16, 1801. After disposing of their farms, they, with their respective families, moved, in May or June of
that year, to Fairfield County, O. There, in the dense forest, they cleared land and built cabins, and, with their
neighbors endured the privations and hardships of pioneer life. A convenient cabin was built by David Swope, with
one window, a door hung on wooden hinges fastened with wooden latch on the inside and opened on the outside by
means of a string that was tied to the latch and put through a gimlet hole in the door. The Indianas regarded those
who left the latchstring of their cabin doors outside as friendly, but those who too in the string were objects
of suspicion. David Swope set out an apple orchard and other furuits and early built a two-story, hewed log house,
which contained two rooms below and two above. Two porches graced the building, one on the south and one on the
north side. He also built a hewed long house with a threshing-floor between two commodious mows, wheat in those
days being threshed by the trampling of horses upon it.
David Swope, by thrift and industry, accumulated sufficient to give each of his children a property. The home farm
at his death, August 9, 1826, went to his youngest son, David Swope, who, not inclining to farm life sold it later
to his brother, Thomas Swope. The wife of David Swope Sr., was born June 3, 1779, and survived her husband many
years, dying February 20, 1857. Thomas Swope walled in a lot on the home place where his father, a brother and
sister, a niece and the oldest and the youngest of his own children were buried. In 1909 the last two named were
removed to the family burying ground in Amanda Township Cemetery.
Soon after his marriage, Thomas Swoope took possession of his farm which he cleared and on which he built a two-story,
brick house, a large frame barn and other buildings needed in successful operation of his farm. In the early days
he carred on the business of freighting by means of a four or six-horse team and wagon, and hauled produce from
the surrounding country to Baltimore, MD., and would there load far the return trip with supplied for the merchants
of the towns near home. These trips were often attended with great difficulties and dangers, and sometimes were
without financial rewards. Upon one occasion, having slaughtered some seventy-five hogs and cured the meat, he
conveyed it to Baltimore, where is was disposed of to merchants, who failed before paying him. In 1819, with a
man named Hooker, he built a raft and loaded it with produce for New Orleans. The trip down the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers was easy, but the return was most difficult, and many miles of it were walked along the river banks. He
died August 13, 1884.
Thomas Swope was married to Rebecca Le Fever, who was born October 10, 1805, and died August 15, 1887. She was
a daughter of Jacob and Rebecca (Bechtel) Le Fever. Her father was born March 1766, and died November 18, 1844,
and her mother was born December 4, 1770, and died February 3, 1829. Thomas and Rebecca Swope were parents of the
following children, of whom the oldest and youngest died during the lives of the parents. David, the eldest, in
1837, fell from a loaded wagon and was crushed beneath the wheels. Jacob died at Wellsville, MO., in 1906. Margaret
A. died in April 1911, on the home farm. Mary E. is the wife of Robert Sturgeon and lives in Kansas. Rebecca died
in 1906. Thomas J. lives at Reynoldsburg, O. Tilitha Jane, now deceased, was the wife of James Ingman and lives
at Barnes, KS. Abner R. lives at Bloomingburn, Fayette County, O. Louisa is the wife a B. F. Ashbrook and lives
at Milo, O. Samuel lives at Toledo, O. Felix is a resident of Lancaster, O. Emma J. was the wife of Robert Peters
and died in 1872.
Felix Swope engaged in Farming in Amanda Township until 1908, since which time he has been a resident of Lancaster.
He has been a stock dealer all his life and still operates along that line. He was married July 20, 1872 to Alice
Kraft, who was born in Circleville, O., February 3, 1853, and died July 19, 1906, being buried in Amanda Township
Cemetery. She was the daughter of George H. and Caroline (Wilson) Kraft. Her father was two years old when he came
to this lpart of Ohio, with his parents. He came later to Fairfield County, where for nine years he lived in Amanda
Township. He then moved to Berne Township, in March 1872, living there until 1888, when he moved to Ashville, O.,
where he died April 22, 1905.
Nine children were born to Felix and Alice Swope, as follows: Carrie, who is the wife of A. P. Glick, of Columbus,
O.; Scott Boyd; Grace; Chester D., who is an osteopathic physician practicing in Washington, D.C.; Ethel, who is
a student in New Haven Hospital at New Haven, Conn.; Rebecca; Mary Alice, who is a student in the Ohio Stat University;
Bertha, who died June 4, 1895, aged three years; and Maria, who attends the Lancaster High School
Scott Boyd Swope attended the local schools and later pursued a commercial course in Columbus. He engaged in farming
and also followed auctioneering until he came to Amanda in 1909, and still continued in the latter vocation. On
April 1, 1909, he started in the elevator business buying out A.E. Huston. On August 9, 1909, he formed a partnership
with Mr. Huston, they, at the time, purchased the elevator of F. W. Ruff, which they operatin in connection with
the one Mr. Swope already owned. They handle grain of all kinds and also coal and have a well established business.
On August 21, 1901, Mr. Swope married M. Ivy Dunnick, who was born in Madison Township, Pickaway County, O., and
is the daughter of Henton Monroe and Sarah (Brobst) Dunnick of Walut Township, Pickaway County. Six children have
blessed this union: Kathleen; Felix Dunnick; Fred L; Alice Louise born Novembetr 26, 1907, who died February 24, 1908;
Elizabeth, born October 8, 1909, who died March 14, 1911; and Rebecca, born december
29, 1910, who died March 28, 1911. Fraternally he is a member of the Masons at Lithopolis and of the Knights of
Pythias at Ashville.
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| Children born to Scott Boyd Swope & wife after the book's publication were: Tom Henton SWOPE b. Dec. 12, 1914
& twins. One twin was stillborn and the other died shortly after birth. The source of this additional information
is the daughter of Tom Henton Swope. Ann Iva Swope. Sept 30, 2008. |
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