HENRY C. SWART, the subject of this notice, was born November 8, 1825, and was the fourth child of Philip and Asenah (Walton) Swart. He was born in Amwell township on the home farm near Amity, and was raised to the life of a farmer, receiving his education in the old log schoolhouse, with its slab benches for seats. In his early manhood he dealt in stock, mostly hogs and horses--driving through on foot to Cumberland, Md., and shipping thence to Baltimore, Md., by railroad. He relates seeing, on one of his trips east, a lot of thirty slaves, driven along the National pike to Baltimore market, all chained and in charge of two men. On August 26, 1852, he married Miss Abigail, daughter of John and Sarah (Miller) Day, of Morris township, and they went to housekeeping on his father's farm, where they resided until he purchased, in 1857, the farm which he still owns, one mile south of Amity, formerly known as the Patterson farm. To them were born two children: John D. and Laura B.; the son, having married, still remains on the farm; the daughter, now married to a Mr. Horn, a lawyer, lives at Denver, Colo. On August 22, 1862, Mr. Swart enlisted in the Amity company, raised by Capt. Silas Parker, which afterward became the famous Company D, of the 140th P. V. I. He served faithfully, never missing a roll call. He participated in the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Spottsylvania, as well as in a number of lesser battles and skirmishes. On May 12, 1864, at the battle of Spottsylvania, after having been under fire every day for a week, he received the terrible wound which made hima cripple for life. In this same battle Mr. Swart had two brothers, John and Amos, the latter killed during the fight. His brother, A. J., was wounded in the battle of Gettysburg. Thus it will be seen that there were four brothers who enlisted and entered their country's service, all of whom left their farms and comfortable homes in the care of wives and children. After Mr. Swart was wounded he lay on the field from 4 o'clock A.M. until evening, when he was taken to a field hospital, and during the night was loaded into an army wagon and taken, with others, to Fredericksburg, a distance of some fourteen or fifteen miles, over a very rough road on a fearfully dark night, during which his sufferings were intense. To escape falling into the hands of the enemy, the trip had to be taken. After remaining at Fredericksburg some two weeks, the wounded were taken by transports and hospital boats to Washington, D. C., where he was placed in Lincoln hospital, and where he remained some ten days. He then received a leave of absence from the War Department to report when able at nearest army hospital, and was brought home to his family on a hospital stretcher in the latter part of June. Although given the best attendance, Mr. Swart suffered terrible agony for several months, and when only partially able, after an absence from hospital of about ten months, reported personally to a hospital at Pittsburgh, Penn., the following April. Remaining there about a month until his application could be acted upon, he received from the War Department an honorable discharge, returned to his home and family, but will ever bear the marks of suffering, and the scars of war. He has never since been able to do any physical labor, but successfully managed his farm and farm work until the spring of 1872, when he retired and moved to Washington, Penn., in order that his children might have better educational advantages.
In 1859 Mr. Swart made a profession of religion, and united with the Methodist Protestant Church at Amity. For nearly thirty-five years he has been a zealous, Christian worker, his membership still remaining with the church at Amity, in which he filled several important positions, representing it in the Pittsburgh Annual Conference for five or six years, and in 1884 was one of the lay representatives of the Pittsburgh Conference to the General Conference at Baltimore, Md. In early manhood he was a Whig, casting his first presidential vote in 1848 for Zachary Taylor. Upon the organization of the Republican party he united with it, and voted for Gen. Fremont in 1856, in which party he continued until 1884, in which year he joined the temperance cause, and voted for the Prohibition presidential candidate. From his youth up he has been a strong advocate of temperance, and now, having a political party in the great work of temperance, rejoices that he is in the fight, having enlisted under its banner there to remain during the war on the liquor traffic. In addition to Mr. Swart's severe wound in the hip, received at Spottsylvania, he received a slight injury on the side of the nose which has never healed, and has slowly worked its way into the eye until the sight of that eye is entirely gone, the other being also weakened, so that he is no longer able to read.
Mr. Swart's father, Philip Swart, was the eldest son in the family of ten children of Jacob and Sarah (Evans) Swart. Philip was born in 1797, and died in 1876; Asenah, his wife, was born in 1798, and died in 1870. The ancestry of this numerous family is traced to Philip Swart, a native of Germany. His children were Jacob (before mentioned) and Susan, who married John Philips, of Greene county, Penn. Mrs. Abigail (Day) Swart was born in 1831, and is still a well-preserved woman. Her father, John Day, was born in 1788 and died in 1871. During the war of 1812, he served in a cavalry company. His wife, Sarah (Miller) Day, was born in 1794, and died in 1837. Henry C. Swart and his amiable wife now live in a comfortable home in the suburbs of Washington, where they enjoy the fruits of their united labor.
Text taken from page 684 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).Transcribed September 1997 by Paula Talbert of Caldwell, OH as part of the Beers Project.
Published September 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.[ Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]