Eliza
J. (Minor) Swearingen
(1832-1903)
Eliza J. (Minor) Swearingen was born in 1832 at Leistville (Camp Charlotte), Pickaway County, OH, the daughter of John and Lucretia (Morris) Minor. She and her husband were pioneers of Missouri.
Eliza married farmer John S. Swearingen (1830-1901), a native of Chillicothe, OH. Early in the marriage, they lived on a town lot on Elizabeth Street in Tarlton, Pickaway County, OH. Their children were Ella J. Swearingen, Anna McReynolds, Catherine Swearingen, Mamie W. Haley and Harley Van Swearingen.
They suffered the death of daughter Ella when she was very young. She is buried in the Tarlton Cemetery, where her small faded headstone is barely legible. The grave is tangible but grim evidence of the family's years in Ohio.
In 1867, Eliza and John got into a dispute with her sister and brother in law, Matilda and Charles Culp, over their late parents' real estate. The original lawsuit still is on file at the clerk of courts office in Circleville, Pickaway County. The Swearingens and Culps were all "tenants in common" of the land. When it was decided that the 10-plus acre tract could not be subdivided to all the heirs without harming its value, the land went up for sale. John had wanted to buy it and make his home there. He planned to live on it for two years and rent it out during that time. He received assurances from friends named Holderman and Steele that they would not bid against him, or else he would run up the bidding beyond a price they could afford. Disappointingly, the outcome of the case is not known.
The Swearingens moved to Butler, Bates
County, MO, sometime in the 1870s. Eliza's
brother John "Henry" Minor also was
an early settler of Butler. The East Side Square of Butler, with the Farmers
Bank at the corner, is seen here in a rare postcard photograph of that
era.
John died in Butler in April 1901.
Eliza later moved to Nevada, Vernon County, MO, where she died at the home of son Harley in March 1903.
They are believed to be buried at Double Branch Cemetery, 10 miles southeast of Butler.
In 1911, an uncle of Anna, Mamie and Harley -- William C. Roberts -- died, leaving a 1/3 tract of land in Pickaway without clear ownership. As legal heirs to the land, Anna, Mamie and Harley sued, urging the county common pleas court to sell the land and distribute proceeds among all the heirs, including their aunt, Matilda (Miner) Culp, as well as the brothers and nephews of the deceased -- George, Thomas, Jack, John and Edward Roberts. While the land was appraised at $550, it eventually sold at auction at the under-valued price of $410. Each Swearingen heir thus received $27.11.
Copyright © 2000, 2002 Mark A. Miner