Surnames: SWARTHOUT DAWSON BUTLER

----Source: HUMBIRD ENTERPRISE (Humbird, Clark County, Wis.) 04/17/1915

Swarthout, Richard B. (2 Dec 1862 - 14 Apr 1915)

Richard B. Swarthout, for eight years past, editor and publisher of the Fairchild Observer, died Wednesday morning at 2:30 at his room in the Gladstone Hotel. Mrs. Swarthout was on her way home from Hillsboro, Texas, where she had been staying for several weeks with her daughter Mrs. Butler, and did not arrive until Wednesday evening. Acute indigestion was the cause of his death.

Mr. Swarthout was one of the best known newspapermen in this part of the state. He was a member of the county board and was also engaged in the real estate and fire insurance business. To Mr. Swarthout's efforts on the county board was due the erection of the Eau Claire Tuberculosis Sanitarium.

Richard B. Swarthout was a native of Illinois, born at Paw Paw, Dec. 2, 1862. He attended the common schools and assisted in the farm work. In 1876 he began to learn the printers' trade at his home town, and a few years later started out in the world for himself. During the years of 1879 and 1880 he worked in Chicago, and then spent some time on the road. In 1884 he located at Caldwell, Kan., where he published a paper until 1891. He then returned to Chicago and was employed on the Chicago Tribune until 1905, and in 1907 he moved to Fairchild and purchased the Observer until the time of his death.

On Feb. 16, 1887, he married Henrietta Dawson of Caldwell, Kansas, who with one daughter survives. There only son, Orville, was killed in Washington about a year ago. Mr. Swarthout was a member of the Masonic Lodge at Fairchild, and was a beneficial member of the Farmers Life Insurance Association of this village.