Kentucke Pioneers
As the United States moved into the 19th century the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the Pacific in November of 1805, after surviving a bitter winter by eating wild roots. Louisiana is admitted to the Union as the 18th state in 1812. And, The New York Stock Exchange opens in 1825, trading shares in canal, turnpike, mining, and gaslighting companies. Some industrial corporations will appear on the exchange in 1831, but few appear for another 40 years.
Neri Swetnam was born November 20, 1777 north of the Rappahannick River in Culpeper County, Virginia. Neri married Mildred Cross on Christmas Day, 1803. He was a landowner and farmer. The first six of Neri and Mildred’s eight children were born in Virginia. In 1818 or 1819, Neri moved his family and one slave from Culpeper County, Virginia to Lawrence County, Kentucky on Upper Blaine Creek, Where he took over an immense boundary of land. This was early in the history of this land called Kentucke and most new immigrants settled in the fertile Blue Grass region of the state. Neri and his family moved to the much harsher eastern Coal region. It is possible that this was because the land had been granted to his father John for his service to his country, however most land grants were also made in the Blue Grass region of the Territory. He and his family were some of the first settlers in that part of the country. When he first arrived in the territory, he filed an affidavit, as was required by local law, stating he had removed from Virginia and brought with him one Negro woman named Villet and did not bring her with any intent to sell her.
There are stories handed down from some members of the family that say Neri’s father in law, a wealthy Virginian, wasn’t overly pleased with his daughter’s choice of a mate so he gave the couple some slaves and told them to go make their living elsewhere. They very possibly brought the first slaves to Lawrence County, Kentucky. It is suggested that Neri settled at Blaine, Kentucky, because of the abundance of bear, deer, and buffalo which were common to the area at that time.
“The House on the Hill”, built with yellow poplar log, some put together with wooden pegs. The home he built was just north of where the cross-roads on Blaine would later be established. The house, built in 1802, is still standing and in use, it is a two story log dwelling that had been weather boarded. This house was not the first he built on Blaine Creek. He built the first house too close to the creek, and when it flooded he had to recover most of logs and used them to build his home on higher grounds. Neri and Mildred had two other children born to them on Blaine.
On January 24, 1827, provisions were made for a road from West Liberty to Louisa and $500 appropriated in 1831. One year and then again three years later, the assembly gave $1000 in state warrants to improve the road from Louisa to the Beaver Iron Works in Bath County by way of West Liberty. The same act called for $1000 for a route from Prestonburg to the Little Sandy Salt Works, via Swetnam’s. The two roads created a major junction on Blaine.
As the years passed, the Swetnam home become a stop over point due to their farm being on a cross-road between Louisa and West Liberty and from Grayson to Paintsville, Kentucky. Their home became the social hub of the area. Lawyers, politicians and other learned men traveling would stop and when people of the area would find out that Neri had company, they would come from miles around to listen to the travelers speeches and learn the latest news. It is said that President Monroe was one of the notable that Neri and Mildred had entertained.
Neri and his wife are written of in the book The Big Sandy Valley, by William Ely;
“Their home was the resting place of the Methodist preachers, for they were ardent Methodists. It was the stopping place for most of the great lawyers and statesmen who so frequently, in an early day, passed by the Swetnam neighborhood on the road from Louisa to West Liberty, and from the interior of the State to the Sandy country.
Mr. Swetnam and wife, in their day, often entertained Judge French, Leander Cox, Richard Menifee, John M. McConnell, Watt Andrews, Judge James M. Rice, and other noted men. Although Mr. Swetnam was a strong Henry Clay Wig, he always said that he liked Judge Rice, of his own county, better than any of the great men who stopped with him. Rice was much younger than he, and his jolly, ardent nature, as well as the great talents of the judge, won the love of his heart.
Mr. Swetnam had a servant named “Bill,” who used to attend the elections with gingerbread, to sell for his own profit, and was sharp enough to cry it off as “Rice-cakes”, if Rice was a candidate, knowing that Master Rice was very liberal to the blacks,...”
Neri Swetnam was considered a well to do man in the area. As early as 1820, the initial tax records of the county assessed him to be worth six hundred dollars. He was a Methodist, Republican and a prominent citizen of Lawrence County. The passage above suggests that he had at least one more slave named Bill. Neri and the other slave owners in the area freed their slaves prior to the Civil War and remained loyal to the Union. His Freed slaves, having only a first name, took the Swetnam name upon receiving their freedom. Neri Swetnam died January 7, 1862.
Mildred (Cross) Swetnam, wife of Neri Swetnam, was born May 20, 1778, north of the Rappahannick River in Culpeper County, Virginia. She was the daughter of James and Bersheba (Greenleaf) Cross, also of Culpeper County. Bersheba was a daughter of John Greenleaf, who migrated from Massachusetts in the 1750’s and settled in Frederick County, Virginia. His name is found in a list of vestrymen in Parishen in Frederick County, 1764 to 1780. The father of James Cross, name not known, was kidnapped, at the age of twelve, in Liverpool, England and brought to America. Have no record that he was sold into bondage, nor held for ransom. The Cross family belonged to the Landed Gentry, and one theory is, he was an only heir to an estate and some unscrupulous relatives had him kidnapped. He became a ribbon manufacturer and Virginia planter. Mildred Swetnam died on July 20, 1860.
Issue of Neri and Mildred Swetnam
Neri Swetnam (1777 - 1862) + Mildred Cross (1778 - 1860)
1. Louisa Ann Eliza Swetnam (1805 - 1877) + Robert Walter
2. Clayborne L. Swetnam (1807 - 1898) + Derece Wellman (1847 - 1896)
3. Zepheniah F. Swetnam (1809 - ) + Charlotte Burgess
4. John James Swetnam (1811 - 1898) + Rebecca Osborne (1820 - 1864)
*2nd Wife of John James Swetnam: + Clarinda Elkin Moore (1838 - 1914)
5. Neri F. Swetnam (1813 - 1892 ) + Rena Patrick (1833 - 1920)
6. Elzaphen (Elzy) M. Swetnam (1816 - ) + Cynthia Preston
7. Hamilton S. Swetnam (1818 - ) + Mary J. Williams
8. Pauline Elizabeth Swetnam (1821 - 1912) + John Preston Osborn (1815 - 1900)
William Swetnam, born in 1788, also in Culpeper County, Virginia. William was probably a brother of Neri Swetnam, but there is no definite record of this. It is also possible that he was a cousin to Neri. William moved to Kenton County, Kentucky in 1812. It is not known who William’s wife was, he did however have one son, named Dr. John Jimison Swetnam. William Swetnam died in 1845. It is believed that the descendants of William Swetnam are now in Covington, West Virginia.
Captain William Swetnam, first born to Thomas and Frances Swetnam, was born May 23, 1770. He migrated from Virginia to Bath County, Kentucky, possible due to his fathers death in South Carolina. William married Martha Thompson. William was a first cousin of Neri Swetnam, also a great-grandfather of Ben M. Arnold, who married Mary Alice Swetnam, and also of Namie Belle Jones, who married Robert Richmond Swetnam. Captain William Swetnam died October 30, 1841.
Martha Thompson, wife of Captain William Swetnam, was born October of 1779, to William and Nancy Thompson. She was the granddaughter of Joseph T. and Elizabeth Thompson who migrated from Virginia to Bath County, Kentucky.
There is a Swetnam family graveyard, overgrown and unkempt, located in the Bath County, Kentucky, on the edge of the White Oak Creek north of Owingsville, Kentucky. Captain William, Martha, her parents, and many of William and Martha’s children are buried there. It is interesting to note, that there are also Swetnams buried at the cemetery in nearby Owingsville. Apparently those with enough money were buried in the cemetery, the rest were buried on the family property.
Issue of William and Martha Swetnam
William Swetnam (1770 - 1841) + Martha Thompson (1779 - 1856)
1. Thomas T. Swetnam (1799 - )
2. Joseph T. Swetnam (1800 - 1886) + Mary Atchison (1818 - 1851)
3. John B. Swetnam (1802 - )
4. Nancy Swetnam (1804 - )
5. Elizabeth Swetnam (1807 - )
6. Polly (Mary Ann) Swetnam (1809 - ) + John Cole Tackett
7. Trinvilla Swetnam (1812 - 1879)
8. Fanny Call Swetnam (1814 - )
9. Jenetta C. Swetnam (1816 - )
Dr. Levi Swetnam was born in 1785 on a farm between Fredericksburg and Falmouth, Virginia. He married Fanny Roane, and was a Surgeon in the War of 1812. Dr. Levi was a first cousin of Neri Swetnam. Dr. Levi died in 1838.
Issue of Dr. Levi and Fanny Swetnam
Levi Swetnam (1785 - 1838) + Fanny Roane
1. Thomas Levi Swetnam (1830 - ) + Katura Taylor White
2. Sarah Ann Eliza Swetnam + Wood Ford Timberlake
3. Lucy Frances Swetnam + John Hickerson
4. John Alex Swetnam + Elizabeth Keith Ford
