My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN S. SWETLAND, M.D., a well-established and successful physician of Brocton, is a son of Sanford and Rhoda (Moore) Swetland, and was born at Middlefield, Otsego county, New York, March 15, 1854. The Swetlands are of Welsh descent, and are one of the old families of Massachusetts. Sanford Swetland, the father of Dr. Swetland, was born in East Longmeadow, Hampton county, Massachusetts, and moved with his father, when a small boy, to Otsego county, New York, but left there when thirty-five years of age, and came to the village of Portland in 1858, where he died in 1884 when in the sixty-second year of his age. He was a mason by trade, an abolitionist and republican in politics, and a Methodist in religious belief. During the late civil war he enlisted twice in a Federal company, but was rejected both times on account of physical disability. He married Rhoda Moore, of Scotch-Holland-Dutch descent, and a native of Otsego county, who was born in 1821, and is a consistent member of the Methodist church of Portland, where she now resides.

Benjamin S. Swetland was reared principally in the town of Portland, where he received his early education in the public schools, and then attended the Westfield High School. Leaving school, he read medicine, and then entered the medical department of the University of Buffalo, from which he was graduated February 26th, 1878. In the same year he opened an office at Portland, where he practiced until the spring of 1883, when he went to Boston, Mass., and became a traveling solicitor and correspondent for the Boston Journal of Commerce. During his four years successful experience in that capacity he learned much valuable knowledge of human nature. In the spring of 1887 he returned to the practice of his profession and came to Brocton, where he has been in active and successful practice ever since.

On May 14th of the Centennial year Dr. Swetland united in marriage with Eva C., daughter of Milton Munson, of Portland. To their union have been born three children, two sons and one daughter: Mabel E., J. Minor and Herbert.

Dr. Swetland is pleasant and courteous, gives close attention to the practice of his profession, and has been for some years a member of the Chautauqua County Medical Society. He is a republican in politics. He is a member of Brocton Castle, No. 284 Knights of Pythias.