William Moseley Swain
m. Sarah James (1812-1891)
b.
d.
burial:
occ.
Co-founder of Philadelphia’s Public Ledger and Baltimore Sun
children:
William
James Swain (1839-1903)
Charles
Moseley Swain (1849-1902)
son
of William Swain (1781-1812) and
Phylura Dunham (1783-1861)
Residence:
Additional
info:
Co-founded
as a messenger Philadelphia Public Ledger 1836 with messengers Arunah
Shepherdson Abell and Azariah H. Simmons as a penny newspaper. Most newspapers at the time charged six
cents. A year later Abell was selected
to represent the three men and supervise the establishment of a similar
newspaper venture in
William
Moseley Swain and Amos Kendall of Kentucky founded the National Telegraphic
Network. As a result of using the telegraph, newspapers were able to
disseminate the news events closer to the time of their occurrence. Polk's
presidential message in 1846 was the first to be transmitted by wire.
According to Walt E. Smith, another direct descendant of
William M's father: "Photos and a detailed obit from the Philadelphia
Public Ledger (Feb. 16, 1868) are on file." He made the Ledger the first
daily to use a pony express, and one of the first to use the magnetic
telegraph. He was a director of the Magnetic Telegraph Co." He is included
on the list of distinguished people buried in the
1860
Real Estate Value: $110,000 (in 2002 would be $1,294,700)
Personal Estate: $50,000 (in 2002 would be $588,500)
Age 50
At home: Sarah James Swain (wife), 47; William James Swain
(son), 21; Charles Moseley Swain (son), 11; English domestics Ann Bluney, 25
and Mary Canon, 30
His will was administered by his son, Wm. James and is
on file. Time of death according to a William Elliott Todd diary entry was
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