| Notes |
- A photo of Greenup Swinney's headstone is in his family fi l e.
!Greenup and Catherine had an adopted daughter.
Following is from a book on history of various countie s o f the state of Washington.
GREEN SWINNEY
Green Swinney is a retired farmer making his home in Pomer o y. A native of Indiana, he was born on Christmas day of 1 8 41, his parents being Elijah and Hannah (Starks) Swinney . T he father was a native of Virginia and in his boy-hoo d remo ved with his parents to Indiana, where he attained h is rnaj ority and was married. Later he became one of the e arly pio neers of Davis county, Iowa, his removal to that s tate occu rring when his son Green was but an infant in arm s. The fat her remained in Davis county until 1864 and the n disposed o f his property there, after which he crossed t he plains wit h ox teams and wagon to Oregon, establishin g his home in La ne county. There he spent eleven years an d in 1875 made hi s way northward to what is now Garfield c ounty, Washington . Within the borders of that county he to ok up a homestead , which he later turned over to his son J ames, who proved u p on the property. The father resided up on that farm unti l his death and was widely known among th e leading early se ttlers of his section of the state.
Green Swinney was reared and educated in Iowa, pursuing h i s studies in the public schools of that state. He was a y ou ng man of twenty-three years when he crossed the plains , dr iving one of the ox teams and thus making his way t o a coun try which was to give him his opportunity. His sc hool trai ning had been limited to a few months' attendanc e in one o f the old-time log schoolhouses of Iowa with it s puncheon f loor and slab benches, the methods of instruct ion being a s primitive as were the furnishings. Upon his a rrival in Or egon he began work as a farm hand and continue d to work fo r wages until his removal to Washing-ton in 18 75. At tha t date he purchased a tract of railroad land i n Columbia co unty, near Dayton, and four years later he di sposed of tha t property and removed into what is now Garfi eld county, wh ere he took up a preemption of one hundred a nd sixty-five a cres eight miles east of Pomeroy. He resid ed upon that tra ct for a quarter of a century and his labo rs wrought a mark ed transformation in the appearance of th e place, for he br ought his land under high cultivation an d divided it into f ields of convenient size, annually gath ering good crops. Ye ar by year he carefully tilled the soi l and became recogniz ed as one of the representa-tive farm ers of his part of th e state. In 1904 he left the farm an d removed to Pomeroy, w here he has since made his home, en joying the fruits of for mer toil in a well earned rest.
On the 1st of July, 1877, Mr.. Swinney was united in marri a ge to Miss Catherine Smith, a daughter of Joseph Smith, w h o left his Ohio home as a boy of seventeen years, and aft e r spending a short time in Iowa, he crossed the plains i n 1 846. On the journey he contracted mountain fever and wh en t he train with which he was traveling reached Walla Wal la, h e was left with Dr. Whitman, who nursed him back to h ealth . He spent the following winter and the next sprin g with D r. Whitman, for whom he worked at splitting rail s and als o planted some small tracts to grain. In the summ er of 1847 , prior to Dr. Whitman's murder, he went to Oreg on, settlin g in lane county, where he was afterward marrie d. There h e lived until 1861, when he came to Washington a nd spent th e summer in the Orofino mines. During the har d winter of 1 861-2 -- a winter memorable in the history o f the state - - he was in Columbia county, living near Dayt on. There he a cquired land and later made that place his h ome. During th e later years of his life, however, he resid ed with Mr. an d Mrs. Swinney, reach-ing the ripe old age o f eighty-one ye ars.
In politics Mr. Swinney has always been an advocate of dem o cratic principles but has never been an office seeker . H e and his wife are members of the Christian church an d ar e most worthy people, honored and respected by all wh o kno w them and most of all by those who have known them l onges t and best-a fact which indicates that their stronges t trai ts of character are those which ever command confide nce an d respect.
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1841 - 1919 (77 years)
