Brief Excerpts from
"A History of the Swander Family"

Written by Rev. John I. Swander, D.D. (1899)

From the Introduction
The Seneca Advertiser, which for 60 years has been the “pioneer newspaper” of “the Sandusky Country”, in its issue of March 25, 1899, gives editorially the following testimony: “It is doubtful if there ever was a family in Seneca County whose name has been more prominent and respected than that of the Swander family. Whenever one of the older members of this already highly respected family dies, memories of the days when all in and about Tiffin was a comparative wilderness, are brought prominently forward. All of the older members of the family have passed into the great beyond. They fought life’s battle well, and won. They left memories of deeds well performed and the best the rising generation can do is to profit by the good examples which their ancestors ever spread broadcast.”

From Chapter I, The Swander Family-From Its Beginning To 1775
Our family is illustrious for its age. It rooted its primitive fibers in the earliest centuries of the world’s great history. It has, therefore, always been one of the first families of the Earth. It was included in that great promise which Jehovah made to Abraham, “that in his posterity should all the families of the Earth be blessed.” This is probably why so many lads and lassies have always been so anxious to marry into the Swander family. Very Well! It is to their credit that they know a good thing when they see it; and it shows great wisdom on their part to seek to be thus engrafted upon the branch of renown.

In the eighth chapter of Genesis we read that the raven left the Ark to return no more, while the dove came back into the ark. Why was this? The correctness of the answer is manifest in the fact that the Swanders were in the Ark, and the pure dove wanted to get in for good society, while the raven, that dirty bird, sought the society of the other fellows whose carcasses were found floating upon the putrid bosom of Antediluvian desolation.

The Swander family is prolific and numerous. Very early in its history it began to hear and heed the command of Almighty God: “Increase, multiply and replenish the Earth.” For this reason, already 4,000 years ago, our ancestors left Asia and marched into Europe to find place for their posterity. And, when, in the course of time, Switzerland became too densely populated to leave room for the Swander multiplication table, Frederick came to this country and became the father of a great people, now numbering not less than 20,000 souls with a tincture of Swander blood in their veins.

From Chapter 2, John Swander’s Branch Of The Family
On the nineteenth day of June, 1776, just fifteen days before the Declaration of American Independence, the first child was born to Jacob and Barbara Swander. But, the light of that otherwise happy home was obscured with a cloud of domestic anxiety. The tocsin of the Revolutionary War had already sounded through the colonies, and Jacob Swander, like Putnum, had left the furrow for the field. Not that he loved his family less, but he loved his country with a patriots’ devotion. Therefore, when his first-begotten was brought into the family circle, there was no father present to bid him welcome. It was during Washington’s encampment at White Marsh, in the Fall of 1777, when many of his soldiers were without shoes, and when the frozen ground was marked with their bloody foot-prints, that Jacob received a brief furlow to visit his family, affording little John an opportunity to see his patriotic father upon his first return from the army. The writer frequently heard his father, Thomas Swander, and his Uncle Edward relate the fact (well authenticated by the most reliable family tradition) that, after the Revolutionary War, their grandfather Jacob came home from the patriotic and victorious army with his pockets full of depreciated Continental currency, stacked his musket behind the door of his humble yet happy home, and embraced his family in the joy of a domestic reunion and the glory of National freedom.

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