Bio: Swift, Elijah (1881)

Contact: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Swift, Jenkins, Bliss, Evans

----Source: History of Northern Wisconsin (Eau Claire County, Wis.) 1881, page 334

ELIJAH SWIFT, Eau Claire, is a son of Oliver C. and Eliza R. (Jenkins) Swift, both deceased. He was born in Falmouth, Mass., Nov. 19, 1831, and prepared for college at Andover, graduating from Harvard in the class of 1852. In July, 1862, he enlisted in the 38th Mass. I.; he was first lieutenant and quarter-master, and was on special service most of the time in engineer's and quarter-master's departments. He was captured by the Rebels near Port Hudson in 1864, and retaken after one month's imprisonment, and was mustered out at Boston in July or August, 1865. After spending one year with his father he came to Oshkosh, and since December, 1870, has been a resident of Eau Claire. He was married in Willoughby, Ohio, Sept. 28, 1869, to Mrs. Myra J. Bliss, a daughter of Jeremiah Evans, one of the pioneers of Geauga Co., Ohio. Mrs. Swift died in Florida, Feb. 27, 1881, leaving three children — Eliza Robinson, Oliver Franklin and Elijah Kent, and one son by her former marriage, Carlton Munn Bliss, who is now a student at Beloit College.