Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/24

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SWAN
SWANN

army, which post he held until his resignation on 30 June, 1808. He wrote " Some Account of the Northwestern Lakes of America" (1798).


SWAN, James, soldier, b. in Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1754; d. in Paris, France, 18 March, 1831. He came to Boston at an early age, was a clerk there, and, espousing the patriot cause, was one of the " Boston tea-party." He was aide-de-camp to Gen. Joseph Warren at Bunker Hill, where he was wounded, acted as treasurer and receiver-general, became captain in Ebenezer Crafts's regiment of artillery, and participated in the expedition that drove the British fleet out of Boston harbor. He was also secretary to the Massachusetts board of war, a member of the legislature in 1778, and afterward adjutant-general of the state. Being involved in debt, he went to Paris in 1787, and became known there by the publication of " Causes qui sont opposees au progres du commerce entre la France et les Etats-Unis de l'Amerique" (1790). After acquiring a fortune he returned to the United States in 1795 and was noted for his charity and munificence. In 1798 he went to Europe again and engaged in large commercial operations until 1815, when, upon the suit of a German with whom he had transactions, he was arrested and thrown into the prison of St. Pelagie in Paris, where he remained until July, 1830, living in luxury and maintaining an unceasing litigation in the French courts. He published " Dissuasion from the Slave-Trade " (Boston, 1773); " On the Fisheries " (1784); " Fisheries of Massachusetts"

(1786); and " Address on Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce " (1817).


SWAN, Joseph Rockwell, jurist, b. in Westernville, Oneida co., N.Y., 28 Dec., 1802; d. in Columbus, Ohio, 18 Dec., 1884. He was educated in Aurora, N.Y., and in 1824 removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he studied law in the office of his uncle, Judge Gustavus Swan, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Franklin and the adjoining counties. In 1830 he was made prosecuting attorney, and in 1834 he was elected judge of the court of common pleas, but he resigned this post in 1845, and practised his profession until 1854. In that year he was elected judge of the supreme court, serving until 1859, when his most important decision was delivered. The supreme court of the state, under a writ of habeas corpus, sought to override the judgment of the U.S. district court in Ohio in attempting to discharge from jail a prisoner that had been sentenced by the court for a violation of the fugitive-slave law. Judge Swan decided that the state could not interfere with the action of the U.S. courts, and the discharge of the prisoner was refused. At the same time he said that if he were appealed to personally he would protect any slave from his pursuers. He was the author of important statutes that were passed by the legislature, and a delegate to the Constitutional convention of Ohio in 1850. In 1860 he became president of the Columbus and Xenia railroad, and from that time till 1876 he acted as solicitor for several railroads. He published "Treatise on Justices of the Peace and Constables in Ohio" (Columbus, 1836; 12th ed., 1885); "Statutes of Ohio" (1841); "Manual for Executors and Administrators" (1843); "Practice in Civil Actions and Proceedings at Law in Ohio and Precedents and Practice" (2 vols., 1845); "Swan's Pleading and Practice" (2 vols., 1851); "Commentaries on Pleadings under the Ohio Code" (Cincinnati, 1860); and "Supplement to the Revised Statutes of Ohio, etc., in Force August, 1868," with notes by Milton Sayler (1869).


SWAN, Timothy, musician, b. in Worcester, Mass., 23 July, 1758; d. in Northfield, Mass., 23 July, 1842. He began to teach music at the age of seventeen, and in 1785 published " Federal Harmony." He resided for some time at Sheffield, and while there published. in 1801, "The New England Harmony." After this he removed to Vermont, but finally settled at Northfield, Mass., where he resided until his death. Some of his psalm-tunes, among them " China," " Pownal," and " Poland," became very popular, and are still to be found in collections of church music


SWAN, William Draper, educator, b. in Dorchester, Mass., 17 Nov., 1809; d. there, 2 Nov., 1864. He was principal for many years of the Mayhew grammar-school in Boston, Mass., and afterward a bookseller in that city. In 1862 he served in the Massachusetts senate. He published a series of readers for schools, and with his brother, Robert, principal of Winthrop school in Boston, and Daniel Leach, superintendent of schools in Providence, R. I., he was the author of a series of arithmetics, and also of "The Critic Criticised and Worcester Vindicated " (Boston, 1860).


SWANK, James Moore, statistician, b. in Loyalhanna, Westmoreland co., Pa., 12 July, 1832. He was educated at Eldesridge academy and at the preparatory department of Jefferson college, Pa. In 1852 he published a weekly Whig newspaper at Johnstown, Pa., where, in 1853, he established the "Tribune," with which he was connected until 1870. He was superintendent of public schools in Cambria county, Pa., in 1861, and in 1871-'2 was chief clerk of the department of agriculture in Washington. Since 1873 he has been secretary of the American iron and steel association, and in 1885 he was appointed its general manager, which office he now (1888) holds. He is the editor of its weekly " Bulletin," compiles its. annual statistical reports, is the author of its tariff tracts, and has edited nearly all its statistical and miscellaneous publications. In 1880 he was appointed agent of the U. S. census, to collect the iron and steel statistics, his report appearing in 1881. He has published a " History of the Department of Agriculture " (Washington, 1871); " Centennial Report of the American Iron and Steel Association on the American Iron Trade " (Philadelphia, 1876); " Historical Account of Iron-Making and Coal-Mining in Pennsylvania" (1878): and " History of the Manufacture of Iron in all Ages " (1884).



SWANN, Thomas, governor of Maryland, b. in Alexandria, Va., in 1805; d. near Leesburg, Va., 24 July, 1883. His father was U. S. district attorney for the District of Columbia. After receiving his education at Columbian college and at the University of Virginia the son studied law with his father, and was made secretary to the Neapolitan commission. He settled in Baltimore in 1834, and became a director of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in 1836, of which he was president from 1847 till 1853, and he was also president of