George W. Swift, Trascribed by Patricia M. Dettloff the second son of Rev. Marcus Swift, was born May 21, 1817. He was in his ninth year when his ear caught the first notes of the melodious wolf in the Michigan forests. He enjoyed the usual advantages of the district school before leaving his native State, but the school he attended the next few years developed more muscle and manly courage than brain. In his early life in the woods, bread and butter were necessities; the advantages of the schoolroom could be omitted. During the years of his minority he attended school only such days as he could conveniently be spared from earning bread. In those days, regular attendance at school was not considered important; and it was very exceptional among our people. George, in this fitful manner, attended not to exceed four winter terms of school. In the winter of 1837-8, he, in his twenty-first year, returned to his native State and attended a common school in Macedon Center, working out of school hours for his board. The following winter he attended a select school in Northville, taught by a Mr. Ames. In the winter of 1839-40 he sat in the schoolroom of Mr. H. H. Griffen in Grass Lake. Here he bade farewell to the student's place in the schoolroom forever. The next winter he taught the only school he ever taught, in the Paxton district in Dearborn. In February of this year he married Miss Sarah A. Pudney of Northville. He built a house on the section line, just north of his father's barn. It was raised in the forenoon of the day that Harrison was inaugurated president. The morning was dark and cold, but about nine o'clock the clouds cleared, and the sun shone beautifully. O. D. Swift predicted the day was emblematic of the coming administration, dark at its opening but becoming brighter as it advanced. In the minds of some politicians, the emblem was perfect for the sun shone but a few minutes when the horizon again clouded, and the remainder of the day was dark, cold and disagreeable. Mr. Swift lived here till the summer of 1851. His business was somewhat miscellaneous. He was a farmer and carpenter and joiner and he worked at both. From here he moved to Northville, and in company with his older brother built a church in Lapham's corners in Salem, in 1851. For a short time he engaged in manufacturing and sale of boots and shoes in Northville. After a two years' residence here he bought his brother's farm in Nankin and removed thereon. A part of the years 1855-56 he spent in Detroit, as deputy, under Sheriff Joshua Howard. In the fall of 1856 he ran on the republican ticket for judge of probate, but was defeated by Elijah Hawley, Jr. The following winter he was appointed State librarian by Gov. Bingham, and soon moved his family to Lansing. In March, 1859, he, at the solicitation of the governor, went to the counties of Gratiot and Isabella to distribute the provisions the State had donated to the destitute settlers. After the termination of his term as State librarian he engaged as a builder and manufacturer of furniture. In July, 1863, on the night of the celebration of the capture of Vicksburg, his furniture shops, in the corner of Shiawassee street and Washington avenue, burned with the materials and manufactured wares. This crippled his finances and he decided to leave Lansing. Having previously purchased a part of the farm on the late Wm. Osband in Nankin, he removed to it in the June following. He was sergeant at arms of the legislature at its session in 1865, and was elected to represent his district in the legislature at the election of 1866 and reelected in 1868. He subsequently served four years as U.S. consul at Windsor, Ontario. In 1874 his wife died. He subsequently married Miss Gertrude Dunlap of Northville, with whom he lived till his death, which occurred April 29, 1885, at the age of 68 years. During his later school days George began public extemporaneous speaking. While at the Northville school in the winter of 1838-9 he threw himself into the anti slavery contest, then coming prominently before the public. The discussions commenced in the school lyceum. They soon enlisted every man, woman and child in the vicinity, old and intelligent enough to take sides. The excitement spread to surrounding towns and enlisted not only the best local talent, but the best talent in the lecture field. Thus did the abolition war commence in our locality. From this time forward, Mr. Swift’s voice was never wanting where it would bear against the institution he cordially hated. To better prepare himself for this contest, he read all the current literature on that subject, together with treatises on common and constitutional law. The cause was unpopular then. He was ostracized by society. His name became a reproach. But a change came. The clouds broke. The shackles fell from the slave. The banners of freedom waved aloft, and he became popular and served the people in the several offices mentioned above. He was a profound thinker, a successful debater and a fluent and attractive speaker. He was a temperance man of the first water, and an uncompromising opponent of the liquor traffic. His public addresses in behalf of total abstinence from all that can intoxicate were numbered by the hundreds. Mr. Swift’s social faculties were of a high order. There were few who did not covet his society. In the social circle he was dignified, pleasant, easy of approach, discussed current topics intelligently and always with tender regard for the feelings of all present. He was not a successful business man. His business methods were unfortunate and unpopular. His relations with his employes were frequently unpleasant. In his business relations he antagonized a great many men. He was active and energetic. He did a great amount of business and handled a large amount of property. But his last years were passed under a financial cloud which his persistent efforts were unable to lift. In early life he united with the M.E. church, but followed the rest of his family in secession in 1841. Later in life he joined the Congregational church, with a reservation of certain points of doctrine. He was sympathetic and his sympathies were easily excited. He loved a useful life, and did much good, and the world is better for his having lived. Orson Ross Swift, the third son of Rev. Marcus Swift, was born in Palmyra, N.Y., October 11, 1821. He was four years old when the forests of Michigan first bounded his visual horizon, and eight before he saw the inside of a schoolroom as a student. During his childhood and youth he had such school advantages as the locality furnished, limited by the customs of those times. By general consent labor at home on the farm when there was work to be done was considered necessary; the school was regarded as important at other times. It should not be understood that the pioneers looked upon education with indifference, but that under the force of necessity they were compelled to give it the second place. Early in the year 1842, he attended school at Ypsilanti and was called home when his mother died. He also attended the Ypsilanti Academy part of the winter of 1843-4, while preaching on a circuit in the vicinity. In 1842, at the age of 21, he was licensed to preach by the Wesleyan Methodists. He became popular from the first. His manner was attractive; he was fluent and enthusiastic. He threw his whole soul into his work. His emotional nature impelled him to efforts beyond his endurance. His physical strength began to fail him, and he determined to turn his attention to the profession of medicine. In 1847 he commenced to study and practice medicine with Dr. Bailey at the Valley, near Adrian. This profession he followed quite successfully the remainder of his life. He also maintained his official position in the church and preached occasionally, but never on a charge. In March, 1846 he married Miss Mary E., daughter of Capt. Geo. J. Barker, of Washtenaw county, an estimable lady of culture and refinement, but physically frail. She died in 1854, leaving him a son and daughter. He subsequently married Miss Jane E. Brink of Northville. He practiced medicine in Nankin from 1848 to 1852, when he removed to Northville, and from thence to Detroit in December 1854. He became a member of the firm of Moore, Swift & Co., druggists, for a few months and then he removed to Bryan, Ohio. His health soon broke down entirely, and he was removed to his father’s house in Nankin, where he died April 3, 1856, aged 34 and one half years, of consumption, undoubtedly induced by his extreme efforts in public speaking. Orson was a man of positive convictions, and never lacked the courage to express them. As a student he labored hard, but was more enthusiastic than profound. As a speaker he was impassioned to a marked degree; his thoughts flowed rapidly, and he spoke with much force; and as earnestness is always magnetic, he wielded a large influence in whatever cause he engaged. As a business man, he was unfortunate, and he died under a cloud of financial embarrassment. He left a wife, and two children by his first wife. Of these Marcus G. B. is a lawyer of Fall River, Mass., and Camilla A. is the wife of James Dubuar of Northville. John Marcus Swift, M.D., the youngest son of Marcus Swift, was born in Nankin, Feb. 11, 1832. In his childhood to, say his thirteenth year, his school opportunities were superior to those of his older brothers, because of the gradual improvement the schools had undergone. As the pioneers became able, better schoolhouses were built and better teachers employed; and their necessities did not compel so much absenteeism from school. But, at the age when youth should secure its best achievements in mental discipline, he was developing his muscle by holding the plow and tending and gathering the crops. The necessities of his profession took his father from home much of the time. His older brothers were seeking their fortunes elsewhere, and the larger part of the farm work devolved upon him from his early youth. With him it was a contest between study and work. He had a taste for the former, and stern necessity bound him to the latter. His efforts to compromise the matter by taking his book to the field met with indifferent success. Before his majority, with the reluctant consent of his father, he determined to go to school. For a little time he attended the college at Leoni. At the age of 18 he commenced the study of medicine, and continued it in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated in 1854. In 1852 he married Miss Emily B. Barker, at Grand Rapids, and in June of the next year, and previous to his graduation, he located in the village of Northville. He brought his wife and all his effects in a one horse wagon, owning neither horse nor wagon. After his graduation he settled down to business, having neither horse, buggy nor money, and heavily in debt. Success under these conditions could only be won by close application and hard work. In a letter to the writer, before this sketch was conceived, he said, "I was forced to put forth all my energies, physical and mental, to gain and hold a creditable and living place. I have no hesitation in saying that, during the first, say thirty years of my career after leaving home, I did the work and sustained the strain of 50 years as ordinarily employed." And now, after 36 years of successful business, he controls a more lucrative practice, and a more commanding influence than ever before. In 1867 he was thrown from his carriage and received injuries that permanently crippled his arm and shoulder. This, for a few years, induced him to engage in mercantile pursuits, but his medical practice and study was never fully interrupted. Besides his first college degree, in 1854, he received a degree from Rush Medical College of Chicago, in 1864, as a recognition of his original contributions to medical science, particularly to a dissertation on diphtheria. He also became a member of the American Medical Association; of the State Medical Society; of Wayne County Medical Society; and of several other medical societies, besides being honorary member of Sydenham Medical Society of London, England, and a councillor of Detroit Medical College. Besides his own family, he had the care of his brother Orson’s two children, left orphans in their childhood, on whom he bestowed a father’s love and a father’s care, till both were happily settled in their own homes. As a business man, the doctor seems to have been unusually fortunate. His business investments have been quite uniformly successful. He might have been rich but for the fact that his munificent charities, public and private, have absorbed a full moiety of his accumulations. The doctor was elected to the popular branch of the legislature, in the exciting election of 1864, and was the only republican elected in Wayne county. The Detroit Free Press called him the "Lone star of abolitionism," and the "Only blot on the escutcheons of Wayne county." At the close of his term of service he declined a renomination. In 1876 he was appointed, by Gov. Bagley, one of the commissioners to plan and locate the State house of correction. In early life the doctor gave enthusiastic attention to vocal music, and he has done much to promote that science, being himself a fine singer, and mingling much in society. Since 1884 he has labored under a cloud of sorrow, brought upon him by the death of an idolized daughter, his only child, Mary E., wife of Geo. A. Milne, of Fall River, Mass. The affliction overwhelmed and threatened for a time to crush him. But time, and the vigor and strength of his manhood, it is believed, are bringing him safely through. His early religious associations were with the Wesleyan Methodists. In 1876 he united with the Presbyterians on condition that the right of private judgment on certain dogmas that did not receive his credence, be conceded to him. In theology he is liberal and charitable. In his opinions of public topics he is independent and outspoken. In society he is affable. He speaks well in public, and, on occasion, supplies the vacant pulpit of his own and neighboring churches with lay sermons. He often responds to invitations to lecture upon scientific topics, politics, temperance, and upon miscellaneous public occasions of various kinds, to which his culture and versatility adapt him. And to his influence is attributable much of the financial, religious and intellectual condition of the community where he has so long resided. He is a close student, and finds in his library some of the most valued and intimate friends. In person he is under six feet but broad and heavy, and all his movements partake of a strong nervous temperament.