John Marcus Swift, M.D.

The youngest son of Marcus Swift, was born in Nankin, Feb. 11, 1832. In his childhood to, say his thirteenth year, his school opportunities were superior to those of his older brothers, because of the gradual improvement the schools had undergone. As the pioneers became able, better schoolhouses were built and better teachers employed; and their necessities did not compel so much absenteeism from school.

But, at the age when youth should secure its best achievements in mental discipline, he was developing his muscle by holding the plow and tending and gathering the crops. The necessities of his profession took his father from home much of the time. His older brothers were seeking their fortunes elsewhere, and the larger part of the farm work devolved upon him from his early youth. With him it was a contest between study and work. He had a taste for the former, and stern necessity bound him to the latter. His efforts to compromise the matter by taking his book to the field met with indifferent success. Before his majority, with the reluctant consent of his father, he determined to go to school. For a little time he attended the college at Leoni. At the age of 18 he commenced the study of medicine, and continued it in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated in 1854. In 1852 he married Miss Emily B. Barker, at Grand Rapids, and in June of the next year, and previous to his graduation, he located in the village of Northville. He brought his wife and all his effects in a one horse wagon, owning neither horse nor wagon.

After his graduation he settled down to business, having neither horse, buggy nor money, and heavily in debt. Success under these conditions could only be won by close application and hard work. In a letter to the writer, before this sketch was conceived, he said, "I was forced to put forth all my energies, physical and mental, to gain and hold a creditable and living place. I have no hesitation in saying that, during the first, say thirty years of my career after leaving home, I did the work and sustained the strain of 50 years as ordinarily employed." And now, after 36 years of successful business, he controls a more lucrative practice, and a more commanding influence than ever before.

In 1867 he was thrown from his carriage and received injuries that permanently crippled his arm and shoulder. This, for a few years, induced him to engage in mercantile pursuits, but his medical practice and study was never fully interrupted.

Besides his first college degree, in 1854, he received a degree from Rush Medical College of Chicago, in 1864, as a recognition of his original contributions to medical science, particularly to a dissertation on diphtheria. He also became a member of the American Medical Association; of the State Medical Society; of Wayne County Medical Society; and of several other medical societies, besides being honorary member of Sydenham Medical Society of London, England, and a councillor of Detroit Medical College.

Besides his own family, he had the care of his brother Orson’s two children, left orphans in their childhood, on whom he bestowed a father’s love and a father’s care, till both were happily settled in their own homes.

As a business man, the doctor seems to have been unusually fortunate. His business investments have been quite uniformly successful. He might have been rich but for the fact that his munificent charities, public and private, have absorbed a full moiety of his accumulations.

The doctor was elected to the popular branch of the legislature, in the exciting election of 1864, and was the only republican elected in Wayne county. The Detroit Free Press called him the "Lone star of abolitionism," and the "Only blot on the escutcheons of Wayne county." At the close of his term of service he declined a renomination.

In 1876 he was appointed, by Gov. Bagley, one of the commissioners to plan and locate the State house of correction.

In early life the doctor gave enthusiastic attention to vocal music, and he has done much to promote that science, being himself a fine singer, and mingling much in society.

Since 1884 he has labored under a cloud of sorrow, brought upon him by the death of an idolized daughter, his only child, Mary E., wife of Geo. A. Milne, of Fall River, Mass. The affliction overwhelmed and threatened for a time to crush him. But time, and the vigor and strength of his manhood, it is believed, are bringing him safely through.

His early religious associations were with the Wesleyan Methodists. In 1876 he united with the Presbyterians on condition that the right of private judgment on certain dogmas that did not receive his credence, be conceded to him. In theology he is liberal and charitable. In his opinions of public topics he is independent and outspoken. In society he is affable. He speaks well in public, and, on occasion, supplies the vacant pulpit of his own and neighboring churches with lay sermons. He often responds to invitations to lecture upon scientific topics, politics, temperance, and upon miscellaneous public occasions of various kinds, to which his culture and versatility adapt him. And to his influence is attributable much of the financial, religious and intellectual condition of the community where he has so long resided. He is a close student, and finds in his library some of the most valued and intimate friends.

In person he is under six feet but broad and heavy, and all his movements partake of a strong nervous temperament.

Transcribed by Pat Dettloff

Html by Deb

6/16/00

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