Swetnams Across the Continent
As the Swetnams move into the modern age, so does the United States and World. In 1932 the average U. S. weekly wage falls to $17, down from $28 in 1929 causing “breadlines” to form in many cities. Some 1,616 U. S. banks fail, nearly 20,000 business firms go bankrupt, there are 21,000 suicides, and expenditures for food and tobacco fail $10 billion below 1929 levels. U. S. industrial production drops to one-third its 1929 total, and the U. S. Gross National Product (GNP) sinks to $41 billion, just over half its 1929 level. By that years end unemployment reaches between 15 and 17 million, 34 million Americans have no income of any kind, and Americans who do work average little more than $16 per week. in 1940 the fall of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, and Romania to the Germans leaves Britain dependent on U. S. aid to resist the Nazi attempt at world Domination.
Mary Melvina Swetnam, daughter of Milton Franklin and Lydia Swetnam, was born April 8, 1877 at Wilbur, Kentucky. Mary married John James Gambill, M. D., son of Leander C. and Arena (Boggs) Gambill. John James was born Februrary 23, 1874 at Baline, Kentucky, and practiced medicine with his twin brother Henry Harrison Gambill, who married Mary sister Lida May Swetnam on November 2, 1897. Lida May was born April 24, 1875 in Wilbur, Kentucky and died May 9, 1936. Mary died January 16, 1978. Both couples lived together in a home in Blaine, Kentucky, which is currently a Bed and Breakfast called the Gambill House. Mary and John had no children, Lida and Henry had two children.
Issue of Henry Harrison and Lida May Gambill
Henry Harrison Gambill + Lida May Gambill
1. Charles F. Gambill (1898 - )
2. Anna Louise Gambill (1909 - )
Milton Thomas Swetnam, third born to John and Alice Swetnam, was born January 17, 1884 on Georges Creek in Lawrence County, Kentucky near Louisa. Not much is known of Milton’s early life. The family moved to Myrtle in Johnson County in 1896. Mytle is present day White House and is situated on the Big Sandy River. When Milton was 17 years old, he was working on a packet which traveled up and down the river. He was receiving a dollar a day. They were on call for duty 24 hours a day, they would rest and sleep between landings. To be able to work on these boats, a man had to be able to carry a barrel of flour from the packet up the muddy river band to the fields high above the river. These barrels weighed 196 pounds. Milton’s career on the river ended when he came down with typhoid fever. He recovered from the fever at Myrtle and then went to work on the C & O Railroad that was being laid up the Big Sandy River Valley.
Milton had another close call with death when in a confrontation with the town bully in Myrtle. The bully pulled a thirty-eight and shot him two or three times. The incident occurred in a General Store. Being shot so enraged Milton that he picked up a piece of grill steel in the store and almost beat the bully to death. He carried one of the bullets in his back the rest of his life.
In 1902, Milton met Poppy Flannery while she was working in a hotel in White House. They were married in December the same year. This marriage produced seven children. The first child died an infant. Milton and his wife set up housekeeping on Little White House Creek in a two room house. He continued to work on the C & O Railroad and raised a crop on the land he rented.
In 1903, Milton and a man named John Hinkle took a train to Dingess and then walked across country to Holden, West Virginia. He took a job working in the mines that were just opening in the Holden area of Logan County. It was some time before he moved his family to Holden in 1904. Milton worked his way up and became the Superintendent over Number 3 and 4 Mines on the Whitman Creek. The company he worked for is the present day Island Creek Coal Company. He left Island Creek and took a Superintendents job for Georges Creek Coal Company at Ethel. In 1911, he left Logan County and moved the family to Huntington, West Virginia while he worked somewhere on the New River in a coal mine. In late 1911, he moved back to Kentucky on Chestnut Creek near White House and rented a farm and raised a crop. He also worked in a mine while in Johnson County.
In 1912, Milton’s father, John Willis, bought a farm in Rowan County, Kentucky on the Andy White Branch of Christie Creek. Milton took his family and took possession of the farm for his father while his father sold his buildings and business interests in White House. There were three houses on this farm. Milton farmed on this land up till around 1917. Milton had been practicing veterinarian medicine for years. He had worked with his father for years and had picked up a great deal about medicine. He had studied veterinarian medicine on his own and did well in practicing it. In 1917, the State of Kentucky passed a law requiring those practicing veterinarian medicine who had not graduated from an accredited school could not practice unless they could pass a competency examination. Milton brushed up on his books and took the examination. He passed it and was granted a Certificate of Competency in Veterinarian Medicine. After this, he was appointed the Rowan County Veterinarian and held this office for several years. He was paid fifty dollars a year by the county.
Milton went back into mining during the First World War. Fireclay Mines were being opened on Old House Creek and he took a mine foreman’s job there. He worked in the mines until 1925. He left the Fireclay Mines in Rowan County and came to Logan County, West Virginia and took a job in the coal mines. The mine was located at Monaville on Main Island Creek. He worked there a short while and returned to the farm in Rowan County.
On October 8, 1928, Milton was killed on Christie Creek in Rowan County, Kentucky and was buried at Georges Creek in Lawrence County, Kentucky. The accused Killer, Henry Fultz, was brought to trail but was never convicted. The family always thought a bad man by the name Lowrey Moore had actually been the killer. Lowrey Moore later shot his wife and his son, and finally had to be shot himself. If he was guilty of killing Milton, justice was served.
Milton was a Democrat, Mason, and Charter Member of the Knights of Phythais in Holden, West Virginia and a member of the Junior Order of American Mechanics in Rowan County, Kentucky. He was an avid gambler and liked women and whiskey. He also loved hunting. He was also a highly skilled blacksmith and wood worker. Poppy (Flannery) Swetnam, the wife of Milton Thomas Swetnam, was born March 10, 1882 on Beaver Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of James Melvin and Martha Flannery. Her parents separated in her early childhood. She was raised by her uncle Newton Flannery, who was a school teacher. While growing up in the mountains, she learned how to hunt and to appreciate the outdoors. Her uncle and cousins taught her to shoot with the best of men. It was also during this period of her life that she learned to mountain crafts and herbal remedies that were practiced at that time. she also became an accomplished banjo picker. she met Milton Thomas while she was working in a hotel in White House, Kentucky. After a brief courtship, they were married in December of 1902. They farmed in Johnson County, Kentucky for a while, then Milton came to Holden in Logan County, West Virginia and worked in the mines. During these years in Holden, Poppy continued to study and add to the knowledge that had been passed to her from her uncle. Milton and Poppy’s life were not without troubles and strife. Milton had lead a rough life before marriage and this carried over into his adult life. He abandoned his family in Huntington once and left them without funds to fend for themselves. Upon hearings this, John Willis sent after his daughter-in-law and grandchildren and had them to stay with him in White House where he was practicing medicine. Milton rejoined his family and shortly thereafter moved to a farm in Rowan County, Kentucky that his father had bought. This was in 1912. For the next twenty or so years she lived on the farm with her family. she went back to the kind of work she had done on her uncles farm before was married. She worked the gardens and field on the farm and it is said that she could handle a team of horses as well as anyone could. In October of 1928 Milton was killed, leaving her with four children still at home. The next years were hard indeed, for the depression was just around the corner. Before the depression things had been unbearably tight, but during it, it was impossible for her. The boys who were still home went to a C. C. C. camp and worked until they were old enough to find other employment. While the family was farming she demonstrated how progressive she was, she experimented with growing cotton and peanuts on the farm. this was the first of this type of crop in Rowan County. She stayed on the farm for some time before coming to West Virginia. She moved to Holden and maintained a household with her son Charles. She moved to Roderfield in McDowell when Charles married. By this time she was getting on in years. She maintained a household by herself until her early eighties. She then spent the next year or so living with her children. Her mind began to fail her. When it became obvious that she was going to require constant care she went to the Masonic home in Kentucky. She spent the last years of her life there. Poppy died November 14, 1971 and was buried in Jeffersonville, Kentucky outside of Louisville.
Issue of Milton and Poppy Swetnam
Milton Thomas Swetnam (1884 - 1928) + Poppy Flannery (1882 - 1971)
1. Dixie Swetnam (1902 - 1903)
2. John Swetnam (1904 - ) + Letha Caroline Mays (1905 - )
3. Alice Louise (Traxie) Swetnam (1908 - )
4. Herbert Swetnam (1910 - )
5. Hobert Swetnam (1913 - )
6. Gordon Swetnam (1920 - )
7. Charles Swetnam (1924 - )
Sidney P. Osborn’s, son of Neri F. and Marilla W. Osborn, was introduction into the political life of his native state at an early age. When just 15 years old, he served as a page in the territorial legislature - a post sought by virtually every boy in the territory. In 1903, four years later, he graduated from what is now Phoenix Union High School. Immediately thereafter, at the age of 19, he was “back in politics” again, this time as secretary to the Honorable J. F. Wilson, congressional delegate of the Territory of Arizona. He left this post and, at the age of 24, was working as a reporter on the old Arizona Sun. Then, when President Taft signed the enabling act making it possible for the territory to draw up a constitution and become a state, he campaigned for a seat in the constitutional convention. He won the seat and became the group’s youngest member, in 1910. After the constitutional convention, he campaigned for the position of secretary of state. He easily won the election and was installed in office Feb. 14, 1912, as Arizona officially became a state. He held the office for three terms. In serving as Arizona’s first secretary of state, at the age of 26, he had the distinction of being the youngest man to hold such an office in the United States. While serving as secretary of state, he made the first of three unsuccessful bids for the governorship - in 1918. He was roundly trounced in the primary by the fiery Fred Colter.
Governor Osborn then dropped from the political limelight until 1924. During those intervening years he attempted farming but met disaster in the depression of 1921. The second of Sidney Osborn’s three unsuccessful attempts to win the governorship came in 1924. Entering late in the race, he lost to G. W. P. Hunt.
Sidney P. Osborn The following year, he took over active ownership of Dunbar’s Weekly, a political newspaper which he edited and managed until the early years of this decade. He busied himself almost exclusively with newspaper work until 1932, when he again plunged into political activities. At that time, he became chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, a post he held until August 13, 1934, when he resigned to press his campaign for the senatorship. He was appointed to the office of internal revenue collector by the late President Roosevelt on the recommendation of Sen. H. F. Ashurst and Sen. Carl Hayden in mid 1933. He took office on July 3, succeeding Fred A. Goodell. On July 31, 1934, Osborn filed for the senatorship in a campaign against Sen. Ashurst. In his campaign, he resigned his post as chairman of the Democratic party in Arizona and, as a consequence of his campaign, was asked to resign as revenue collector. He was defeated in September 1934. He attempted, unsuccessful, once more for the governorship of Arizona in 1936. He ran again in 1940, and was finally successful in winning the governorship of Arizona. Through three subsequent elections - in 1942, 1944, and 1946 - he had virtually no opposition in the race for the governorship. In 1944 he carried all but 12 of the state’s 442 election precincts.
Sidney died on May 25, 1948, while still in office, after fighting a two year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a mysterious disease which doctors at the time knew the name and little more. The governor was a past exalted ruler of Elks Lodge 335, Phoenix, and held memberships in the Knights of Phythias and Odd Fellows Lodge. He also attended the Methodist church.
