My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL SWANK, farmer, Sec. 24; P. O. Gordon, Ohio; was born in Montgomery Co. Oct. 25, 1836, and is a son of Jacob and Sarah Swank. Mr. Swank was born in Kentucky, and Mrs. Swank was born in Pennsylvania; his father died at the age of 79 years, his mother at the age of 52 years. Our subject was reared as a farmer’s boy, and assisted his father until he was 21 years of age, when he began life for himself, and engaged in farming in Montgomery Co. for three years on his father’s place; thence to Darke Co. and purchased a steam saw mill, which he managed for thirteen years, and still has the mill in his possession; he purchased 124 acres of land, where he now resides in 1867; it was all in the green woods, which he has cleared up, so it is all in a good state of cultivation; his improvements are second to none in the township; his fine house, now in the course of erection, is an ornament to the farm and shows the taste and good judgment of the builder; his property is the fruit of his own hard labor and good management. He was united in marriage with Miss Catherine, daughter of Paul Tobias, Feb. 28, 1861, and resides in Montgomery Co. Four children have been given to this union, viz.: Sarah, born March 20, 1864; Ira, April 21, 1866; Elmer. Aug. 1, 1870; Clement L., born in April, 1863, died in Sept. 1864. Mr. Swank has been School Director for a period of three years; he only had the advantages of a common-school education, but experience has made him a close calculator, and he is greatly interested in educational matters, and is giving his children good educations.