Sharon Swisher writes:
My name is Sharon Swisher.
I am married to Gordon
Swisher. My
father-in-law, Alonzo
Ray Swisher, was born to Alonzo (Lon) Swisher and Ida
Hume (or De Hume). They lived in DeWitt county, Illinois
around Wapella and
Clinton. My father-in-law (Ray..he hates the name Alonzo)
had one brother who
died, Roy; and another brother, Jay, who lived in Loves
Park and Rockford,
Illinois. Jay married a woman named Clara. They had a
daughter, Darlene
Swisher who married a man named
Jerry Estabrook. They also lived in Loves
Park, Illinois. My father-in-law has no idea of where the
family came from.
He knows no one beyond his father. He did say three miles
east of Wapella,
Illinois there was a
settlement named Swisher. In
that vicinity, there was
also a Swisher
school, Swisher hill, and a man named "Liar"
Swisher.
My husband, Gordon Ray, was born to Alonzo Ray and Kathel Kimmel,
on March 6,
1931. We married on June 15, 1960 in Rockford, Illinois.
I was Sharon Cline.
We had three boys and a girl: Gregory Ray (married to
Danielle Bacardi
Rodriguez), Shawn Lance, Jeramy Todd, and April Leigh (married to
John (Jay)
Riggs. April gave us an addition to the Riggs/Swisher
family this past July
21...Kianna Raye.
We moved here to Colorado...Teller County...near Cripple
Creek...in 1969.
Everyone here asked us if we were related to the Swishers who
ranched in the
Florissant, Colorado (Park county) area in the 1940's.
There was a large
Swisher ranch and an equally large family. At present
there are approximately
eight Swishers listed in the Denver 1997 phone book. I
believe there are also
some Swishers in Canon City, CO. We would like to know the
origin of the Swishers
in general and our branch in particular.
4/29/98 Sharon writes to add some details:
Just passing on some new information on the Illinois Swisher's for
you.
Regarding the settlement of Swisher in DeWitt County, Harp Township, "Some of
the earliest stores were located in the area on the road south of Swisher Hill
known as 'Smoky Row'. It was quite a thriving little community in the early
1870's. There was a saw and grist mill run by the Wilsons, Williams and
Williamsons, a blacksmith run by the Walker Brothers, and a grocery run by the
Lucases, Millers and Curls. A 1918 atlas shows some of the Walker family
opened a cobbler and blacksmith there. These all closed by 1920 and all that
remained open was the Swisher School.
School District #20...Swisher School. faced the north on a plot where the
roads met on Isaac Swisher's land in the southeast corner of Section 1( I
believe this was in Harp Township. It was at first a frame building till a
new one was built in 1915. This building was sold, moved and used as a garage
when the district joined Farmer City in 1947. When the school districts were
organized and there were two schools two miles a part, the school east of
Leman was named for the Swisher family and gradually the arear became known as
Swisher (listed as an Illinois ghost town, now.)
Jonathan Swisher lived across the road from the school. The G. B. Leman and
Isaac Swisher families arrived in Harp township, section 1 in 1836. Other
families and friends followed. The area became known as Swisher but was
originally called the Lemen Settlement. There was also a Swisher Hill bridge
built nearby. South of the settlement (about 1/2 mile there was an early
burial ground which is now nearly obliterated. It was called Lemen Cemetery."
Thought this might be of interest to put out to your other Swishers
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