JOHN C. SWARTLEY

JOHN C. SWARTLEY was born in Franconia township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1865, and is a son of Jacob S. and Elizabeth (Cassel) Swartley, both of whom are descendants of early German settlers in that locality of the Mennonite faith.

John Schwardley, the pioneer ancestor of the subject of this sketch, was born in Eppingen, in Necker, grand duchy of Baden, Germany, in the year 1754. At the age of eighteen years, accompanied by his younger brothers, Jacob and Philip, he emigrated to Pennsylvania, arriving in Philadelphia September 30, 1772, in the ship, “Minerva.” Captain James Johnston, from Rotterdam. He soon after found a home among his compatriots in Franconia township, where he married Magdalena Rosenberger, born December 18, 1759, daughter of the Rev. Henry Rosenberger, Mennonite minister at Franconia, and grand daughter of Henry Rosenberger, the pioneer ancestor of the Rosenberger family, who had taken up a large tract of land in Franconia in 1728. Rev. Henry Rosenberger was born December 2, 1725, and died in 1809. He married in 1745 Barbara Oberholtzer, born in 1726, died February 3, 1765, daughter of Jacob and Barbara Oberholtzer, (or Overholt), who were early settlers in Bedminster township, Bucks county, where Jacob purchased land in 1749. Rev. Henry and Barbara (Oberholtzer) Rosenberger were the parents of eight children, five of whom survived and left descendants, viz: Anna, who married (first) Michael Leatherman and (second) John Loux, both of Bedminster; Elizabeth, married Mark Fretz; Barbara, married Daniel Rickert; all of Bucks county; Magdalena; above named; and Sarah, who married Philip Schwardley, the youngest brother of John Schwardley, above named. John and Magdalena Schwardley lived and died on a portion of the Rosenberger homestead in Franconia, still in the tenure of their descendants, and were the parents of nine children, viz: John, Jacob, Samuel, Abraham, Joseph, Henry, Philip R., Elizabeth and Mary.

Philip R. Swartley, son of John and Magdalena, was born on the old homestead in Franconia, January 2, 1795, and died there July 30, 1880. He married Annie C. Shoemaker, and their son Jacob S. Swartley, born in 1821, died 1867, was the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born and reared on the old homestead in Franconia, and followed farming and milling during the brief period of his manhood. His wife, Elizabeth Cassel, was a descendant of the early German settlers on the Skippack, who have left numerous descendants of the name in Bucks and Montgomery counties and elsewhere. She is still living in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

John C. Swartley, the subject of this sketch, left an orphan at the age of two years, was reared in the family of his maternal uncle, Abraham F. Delp, in the township of New Britain, Bucks county, and acquired his elementary education in the public schools of that township. He entered the First state normal school at Millersville in 1885, and graduated in 1888. For the next two years he was principal of the North Wales high schools, in Montgomery county. In 1890 he entered the law department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1893, in the meantime reading law in the office of Henry Lear, Esq., at Doylestown. He was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in June, 1893, and in August of the same year to the bar of Bucks county, and at once began the practice of his profession at the county seat. Soon after admission to the bar he became active and influential in political circles, and served for three years as chairman of the Republican county committee. In the fall of 1897 he was elected to the office of district attorney for the term of three years, and filled that position with ability. He has always been active in the councils of his party, and has served as delegate to state and congressional conventions. He was appointed January 1, 1903, assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a position which he still fills. In 1903 he formed a co-partnership at law with Wesley Bunting. Esq., and the firm have a good practice in the several courts of Bucks county.

Mr. Swartley was married on October 24, 1900, to Agnes Darlington, daughter of the late Henry T. and Susan Darlington, of Doylestown, and this union has been blessed with two children—John C. Jr., and Margaret Darlington.

A sketch of the career and ancestry of Mrs. Swartley’s distinguished father, Henry T. Darlington, will be found in this volume.)

Text taken from pages 85-86 of:

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of BucksCounty, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: the Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] volume III

Transcribed July 2000 by Earl Goodman of PA as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html

Published April 2000 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/