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In connection with the view
of the house of Henry B. Swearingen, published in this work,
we give the following brief sketch of the Swearingen family.
The original representative of the family in
America was Garrett Van Swerengen (as the name was spelled),
who was a native of Brabant, a province of Holland. HE
emigrated with his family, consisting of his wife, Barbara (De
Barette), and two children - Zachariah and Elizabeth
- to the American colonies, about the year 1654. He settled
near Annapolis, Maryland, and in 1669 he and his family were
naturalized citizens of the province of Maryland. Zachariah
had four sons: Thomas Van, John and Samuel.
The children of Thomas were
two sons, namely: Thomas and Van, who, according to an
old "History of the Valley of Virginia," settled in a neighborhood
of Shepherdstown, that State, on or near the Cohongornton, in the
year 1734, and were among the first settlers on that water-course
and its vicinity. Van Swearingen was county lieutenant
of militia of the county of Berkeley, Virginia. He bore the
title of colonel, and was a man of local note. He was the
father of five children, of whom Josiah, the next in lineal
descent, was the oldest, born Mar. 28, 1744. He was a captain
under General Lewis in Lord Dunmore's war. He
married, on the fifth day of January, 1777, Phebe Strode, who
was born on the eighth day of December, 1747. He died Aug. 9,
1795, and she July 6, 1786. They had three sons - Thomas,
James and Samuel, and a daughter, Eleanor,
who became the wife of Governor Thomas Worthington.
James Strode Worthington, who was the second son of
Josiah and Phebe Swearingen, was born in Berkeley county,
Virginia, now Jefferson county, West Virginia, on the third day of
February, 1782. At the age of thirteen he became a clerk in a
store at Battletown (now Berryville), Virginia, near Winchester,
where he remained about two years. He then went into the
county clerk's office, as a clerk, at Winchester, Frederick county,
and remained about four years, when, on account of ill health, he
was compelled to seek other employment. His experience in the
county office was an excellent school for him, and he there formed
those methodical habits so characteristic of him during his life.
In 1799 he came to Chillicothe, having exchanged his
land in Virginia with Governor Worthington for land in the
vicinity of Chillicothe. In 1800 he was appointed an ensign in
the army, and two years afterwards he set out from Chillicothe for
Detroit, on horseback, accompanied by a guide. The country was
almost a complete wilderness, there being, at that time, no
settlement between Chillicothe and Lake Erie except the old town of
Franklintown, and he made this part of the journey without a morsel
of food to eat. He was, at this time, a first or second
lieutenant, and on his arrival at Detroit, he was placed in command
of a company and sent to Chicago, where he assisted in building old
Fort Dearborn. He was afterwards stationed at different
points: Fort Pickering, Mississippi; Fort Mifflin, below
Philadelphia; Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and
other places, but most of the time he was on the frontier.
Nov. 4, 1811, while stationed at Pittsburg, he was
united in marriage to Nancy, daughter of Henry and Rachel
(Strode) Bedinger. She was born Jan. 7, 1737. Her
remote ancestor, Adam Bedinger, was a native of Alsace,
Germany. He and his family were protestants, and to escape
persecution after the conquest, which resulted in the cession of
Alsace to France, he emigrated to America, landing at Philadelphia
in 1734. Soon thereafter he joined a party of German
emigrants, who settled upon those beautiful, rich lands on the
Conowago, York county, Pennsylvania. His son Henry
married Magdalena Schlegel (Slagle, as anglicised), and
removed to Shepherdstown, Virginia, in the spring of 1762. His
son Henry, the father of Mrs. Nancy Swearingen, was
born Oct. 16, 1753. He was a captain in the Revolutionary war;
was taken prisoner at Fort Washington, and confined on Long Island
for four years. In 1796 he located the tract of land in
Jackson township, Pickaway county, known as the Bedinger
survey, the most of which is now owned by Henry B. Swearingen.
Henry Bedinger was a man of good native ability, great energy
and force of character, and was prominent in the community in which
he lived.
In 1814, being then quartermaster-general and a staff
officer, James S. Swearingen made his headquarters at
Chillicothe, where he remained on duty until the close of the war,
when he made a settlement and resided there the remainder of his
life. He received, soon after his marriage, from his
father-in-law, the Bedinger tract in Jackson township,
Pickaway County, Ohio, but he never settled upon it. He died
in Chillicothe, Feb. 3, 1864, and his wife Jan. 11, 1869. They
were parents of seven children, three of whom died young. The
others were Henry B., Eleanor, Sarah B., and Virginia,
who died unmarried, at the age of twenty-one. Eleanor
was married first to Dr. John H. Grant, of Covington,
Kentucky, and after his death to Major Edward Clarkson, of
the same place. She died Jan. 20, 1879, in Jackson township.
Sarah B. became the wife of N. W. Thatcher, of
Chillicothe, now deceased. Mrs. Thatcher occupies the
old home in Chillicothe.
Henry B. Swearingen was born in Chillicothe,
Nov. 16, 1814. He came to Pickaway county in 1837, and settled
where he now lives, in Jackson township, in December, 1851. He
was married, Jan. 2, 1850 to Elizabeth Nesbitt, of Xenia, who
was born June 3, 1827. To them have been born eight children-
Eleanor V., born Mar. 26, 1854; James S., born Aug.
19, 1857; Nancy N., born Dec. 22, 1858; Robert N.,
born Feb. 22, 1861 (died Oct. 27, 1865); John G., born Feb.
24, 1863; Henry B., born May 26, 1865; Thomas T., was
born Jan. 15, 1868; and Mary S., was born Mar. 9, 1871.
The Bedinger survey - the most of which is now
owned by Henry B. Swearingen - has never been bought nor
sold. It was located by Captain Bedinger in 1796, in
consideration of his services in the Revolution. He
subsequently gave it to his son-in-law, James S. Swearingen,
from whom it was inherited by the latter's son, Henry B., and
daughter Eleanor, now deceased. Henry B. Swearingen
now occupies the homestead.
One of the most attractive illustrations in this work
is that of the residence of Mr. Swearingen and its
surroundings. The house, embowered in forest-trees, stands on
a beautiful swell of ground, and looking eastward, commands a fine
view of picturesque scenery for many miles.
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