Kinsmen and Kinswomen

Howard Townsend Swain, M.D. was the much-loved and revered patriarch of my grandmother’s family.

He was called “Buppie” by close kin. That’s at least the way I’ve chosen to spell his nickname.

(A note to younger readers who have never heard it pronounced: I don’t know if it was ever written out. At any rate, it is said with the “u” sounding like “oo” in look, or book. So think, Bookie, and then substitute a p for the k. Buppie. Or if you want to really be technical, /ˈbʊpi/, but I never learned to read “dictionary-speak,” and come to think of it, don’t know anyone who did. Continuing with this minutiae on the subject of names, he appears to have been named, actually named, for a Dr. Howard Townsend, Professor and Chair of Obstetrics at Albany Medical College where his father, William Dexter Swain, M.D., had studied medicine.  Dr. Townsend died in January, 1867, shortly before Howard Townsend Swain’s birth.)

As a young man, Buppie came from a relatively simple rural life, but he rose within the Boston medical establishment to become a widely respected and sought-after physician.

It was said – often – that although he was an ob/gyn, men would nevertheless make appointments with him just to seek his counsel, coming to see him in his home-office at 226 Commonwealth Ave.

My grandmother, Helen Swain Burgin, his daughter, mentioned him in passing at least once every couple of days when we were together, and I think she thought of him even more often. It would not be overkill to say his presence, the fact of having known him, was one of the great anchors or touchstones of her life.

After he died, an unknown Boston newspaper dated Thursday, Dec 10, 1936, took note of his passing with a small two paragraph notice entitled “Affection,” which reads as follows:

“Rarely has such a tribute been paid to a doctor as at the funeral of Dr. Howard T. Swain, the distinguished gynecologist yesterday. In the past 30 years he brought into the world the children of hundreds of Back Bay families. He was more than a physician, he was a devoted friend and counsellor of mothers and children. They came to rely on his advice in many things.

“It is a splendid thing for a man to have earned such wide affection. Those who gathered for the last tribute to him were those who had personal reasons to cherish his memory.”

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At the time of his first marriage, in 1854, William Dexter Swain described himself as a mechanic. Later, in the 1860 Census, he listed himself as a pianoforte maker. But in 1868, at the age of 40, he was graduated from Albany Medical College, and became a physician. It’s an interesting series of transitions.

When a respected professor of obstetrics at Albany Medical College, Dr. Howard Townsend, died in January, 1867, just before the birth of Swain’s second son, he named the baby after his mentor: Howard Townsend Swain. (Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the boy would go on to become a well-known obstetrician in his own right.)

The photographs below are the only images I know of that show what William Dexter Swain looked like. They were taken on two separate occasions near the end of his life, when Howard, now grown, brought his three children, Helen, Margaret, and Howard, Jr., to Copake for a visit. The top picture, in black and white, appears to be earlier than the rest, in sepia.

One thing that has always stood out to me about these pictures, aside from the terrific Civil War-era beard, is the humble nature of the structures. Here was a son, striving to take his place at the top of Boston society, with patients who included the wife of Admiral Byrd, a professorship at Harvard Medical School, raising a family on Commonwealth Ave., and his father’s house is in dire need of basic repair and paint. Had he offered to help, but been rebuffed? Had he not offered to help? What was their relationship like? I suspect that this, too, is something we we will never know.

 

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Left to right: Helen Swain; Margaret Swain; William Dexter Swain; Howard T. Swain, Sr.

Left to right: William Dexter Swain, Howard T. Swain, Sr., and Howard T. Swain, Jr.

 

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Putting together Parts I, II, and III, we get this chart, which helps it all make some sense, while laying out some clear challenges for future researchers.

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Research organized by city:

 

	Births	Marriages	Deaths	Burial	Census
Hampton Falls, NH	John Swain? 11/12 or 14/1777 Levi Swain	John Swain and Judeth Page. John Swain and Eunice Rogers Swett*** Parents on these?
Keene, NH	4/22/1785 Salome/ Sarah Hall	Levi and Salome bef 1827
Poultney, VT	1779 Levi Swain?
Gilmanton, NH (Smith meeting House Burial Ground)	?Levi Swain (per Joel’s death cert.)?		John Swain bef. 10/4/1798; Eunice Rogers Swett Swain? Theophilus Swain 2/5/1818/9 Also son Stephen, & wife Eliz.	John and Eunice Swain?	A John Swain, and John Jr. , 1800
Castleton, VT					A John Swain, and a John Jr., 1820
Brattleboro, VT	1810 Joel Eaton Swain (possibly named after a maternal uncle who had just died in 1805) Julia Ann Swain? 1814 Emily Swain?	7/20/1808 Levi Swain to Rhoda Eaton	8/22/1813 Joel Eaton Swain   02/1814 Simeon Eaton writes his will	? Joel Eaton Swain	Levi (and Rhoda?), 1810
Colrain, MA	4/9/1827 William Dexter Swain 1829 Joel Swain 1831 Samuel H. Swain	Levi and Salome bef 1827?	-8/13/1822 Rhoda Eaton -6/12/1854 Salome/ Sarah Hall [parents?] 10/10 1851 Levi Swain (black jaundice) Note: Levi and Salome died intestate.	Rhoda Eaton Salome/ Sarah Hall	Levi w/ 3 daus and a wife, 1820; again 1840
Rowe, MA	10/3/1834 Ellen Dodge 7/27/1855 Marion Salome Swain 1/26/1858 Frances A. Swain	3/2/1815 Joseph Dodge to Sarah Angel 7/4/1853 Samuel H. Swain to Laura Hicks 9/5/1854 Wm. D. Swain to Ellen Dodge	Joseph Dodge and Sarah Angel Dodge	c. 7/20/1862 Ellen Dodge “Our Mother awaits us”	William D. Swain “farmer” 1850
Albany, NY	1862 Albany NY		7/20/1862 Ellen Dodge? [Death 2nd childbirth?]
Bath on Hudson, NY	5/16/1868 Howard T Swain
Copake, NY (a/o Schodack, or Niverville)	1869 Franklin Niver Swain	WDS and Millicent Niver?	11/10/1920 Wm. D. Swain 1/10/1922 Millicent Niver	Wm D Swain Millicent Niver (Methodist Episcopal Cem., by tree in back)

 

Current Swain Questions:

 

1. Who was John Swain’s father? Look at actual wedding entry in Hampton/ Hampton Falls for John and Judeth/ Judith Page.
2. Which branch of the Eaton clan did Simeon Eaton hail from?
3. Where were Levi and Salome married? Loudon? Gilmanton? Colrain? Was it Sally Eaton? In 1827? If so, the marriage was in January, and the baby, William Dexter Swain, arrived in April. Whoops.
4. Levi owned some property in Brattleboro, yet we can find no record of similar ownership in Colrain, nor does he appear to have left a will.  This rather suggests a reduction in circumstances.  True?
5. What prompted Wm. Dexter Swain to go to medical school at about 40 years of age?
6. Where were Wm. Dexter Swain and Millicent Niver married? After 1862, before 1868. Near Copake or Niverville, NY? What does that marriage entry say?
7. Did HTS want to put some distance between himself and his roots—possibly because he had a mentally ill uncle wandering about Colrain until 1897?

This, as you will see, is the very definition of a work in progress.

In sum, it is the best attempt on the parts of my cousin Elisha Lee and myself to reconstruct the family’s history from the point where the Transcript article leaves off to Howard T. Swain’s departure from Copake for Exeter, and from there for Boston.

Small moves…

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Part III: Recent History

The Swain family continued to live in the Hampton, NH and Hampton Falls, NH area until the late 1700’s, where we pick up the current trail.

The genealogy during this period is, at this point, conjecture. Once a generation or two is forgotten, you can’t say anything for sure. Certainty only reappears, as we go back from the present.

As of this writing we can go as far back as John Swain and Eunice Rogers Swett, residents of Hampton Falls, NH… THE remaining mystery is nailing down John Swain’s father, who may be either John Swain b. Jan 11, 1685, husband of Martha Tongue, or alternately, William Swain (IV), b. 1724, husband of Judith Gove. If the former, John would have been about 58, with a 37 yo 2^nd wife when he had Levi. If the latter, he would have been younger, but that man has no dates. Once this link is established, we’ll know how to connect the entire line. On the whole, the evidence best suggests the John Swain / Martha Tongue option.

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In the next few posts, I’m going to present what I know, or really, what I think I know, about our branch of the Swain family in America.

There are people out there, today, who have done really good research on this family, and they know a lot more than I’ll be able to present here.

Perhaps at the end of this series, I’ll put up links to some of their work which I have yet to sift through: titles of books I’d like to read, web pages I’d like to spend some time with; if only to point you in the right direction.

I should also add, along similar lines, that what is here is not iron clad. It’s decent research that occasionally involves some conjecture, best guesses, educated hunches, and the like. Please take it all with a pinch of salt.

But…to use an old phrase that the original Nantucket Swains might have recognized, “It’s true in the main.”

 

Part I: Origins

The following is excerpted from The Swains of Nantucket: Tales and Trails, by Robert H. Swain, 1990, 1994; pp.1-13.  As near as I can tell the book is now out of print, but a digital copy is available for reading, here. There is also a page for it on Amazon, here, but that says the book is unavailable.

The author begins by examining what is known about the founder of our line of Swains in America, one Richard Swayn….

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