William SWIGER

                   Name from obit of Polly Swiger

Name: Swiger, William
County: Union
Death Date: 28 Jan 1928
Certificate: 27

1880 Census, see notes of his father Nathan Swiger

1900 Union Co., Oregon Census Precinct 1, Page 12B  Ancestry image 25
Swiger, William                      Oct 18...      35  married 18   NE
Milda                        wife                            37                        IL
Willis                         son       Aug 1883   16                        OR  NE  TX
Earnest E.                  son       July 1887   12                         OR  NE  TX
Lloyd M.                    son      Apr 1892     8                         OR  NE  TX
Earl Vernon                son      Dec 1895    4                         OR  NE   IL
Snivley, Gertrude      dau      Apr 1888   12                        OR  OH  IL
     ?               ?               son      Aug 1889  10                        OR  OH  IL

The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811-1911, Volume III.
S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1912.
Joseph Gaston, editor.
Page 459

William Swiger, a farmer and dairyman of Union county, has been actively identified with agricultural interests in this state for almost a quarter of a century and has won a gratifying measure of success in this connection.  His birth occurred in Sarpy county, Nebraska, on the 10th of October, 1860, his parents being Nathan and Polly (Wilkinson) Swiger.  The father was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, on the 6th of January, 1830, while the mother was a native of Jackson county, that state.  John Swiger, the paternal grandfather of our subject, removed from Pennsylvania to Ohio in early manhood, settling in Muskingum county of the latter state.  Subsequently he took up his abode in Illinois, where he spent the remainder of his life, passing away in La Salle county about 1850.  Nathan Swiger, the father of William Swiger, was married in Illinois and in 1858 or 1859 removed to Nebraska, locating in Richardson county, where he remained until 1864.  In that year he joined a party journeying westward with ox teams, and all along the road others fell in with the train, some being bound for Montana.  They experienced no trouble with the Indians, and Mr. Swiger eventually reached the Grande Ronde valley, where he remained until 1865.  In that year he removed to the Willamette valley, where he continued to reside until the fall of 1869, when he returned to the Grande Ronde valley and located in High valley, Union county.  There he made his home until the spring of 1889, when he sold out to his son, William, and purchased property from H. P. Stewart on Little creek, three miles east of Union, where he spent the remainder of his life, passing away in May, 1890.  Throughout his active business career he had been successfully engaged in the pursuits of stock raising and farming.  Unto him and his wife were born seven children, four of whom still survive.
	William Swiger, who was the fourth in order of birth in his fathers family, spent his boyhood days in the Willamette and Grande Ronde valleys.  In 1889, when a young man of twenty-nine years, he started out as an agriculturist on his own account.  At the time of the division of the home farm, comprising nearly six hundred acres, the homestead fell to his share.  The creek and two small branches run through the property, so that the land is well supplied with water.  Mr. Swiger gave his attention principally to stock-raising during his earlier business career but has recently taken up dairying, which is proving a profitable source of income to him.
	Mr. Swiger has been twice married.  On the 18th of October, 1882, he wedded Miss Laura M. Crosby, her father being James Crosby, who was a native of Ohio and came to Oregon in 1880.  Unto them were born the following children:  Willis V., who is now a student in a medical college at San Francisco;  Ernest E., a resident of Oregon;  and Lloyd M., who makes his home in West Berkeley, California.  The wife and mother was called to her final rest in 1891 and in November of the following year Mr. Swiger was again married, his second union being with Mrs. Milda Snivley, who came to this state in 1882.  Earl Vernon, the only child of this marriage, is still at home.
	At the polls Mr. Swiger casts his ballot in support of the men and measures of the democratic party.  The cause of education has ever found in him a stanch champion and for the past eighteen years he has served in the capacity of school clerk.  Fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World.  Practically his entire life has been spent in the northwest and he is therefore thoroughly familiar with its history and growth, which has always been to him a source of justifiable pride.