Back in June of this year I wrote a post about James Swann and his house but I never addressed this question - Who was James Swann? In short, he was a husband, a father, a Piscataway Indian, and an entrepreneur. He owned a lot in Port Tobacco and a 30-acre farm outside of the town known as “May Day.” In addition to his farm, he sold fish that he bought from a supplier, operated a tavern in the town, and eventually opened an oyster house. He was a busy man.
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Port Tobacco in 2017. Looking South toward the Potomac River. Swann's home and oyster house were at the far end of the village overlooking the south end of the pond. Photograph by Captain David Kelly |
James was born in 1808 or 1809.[i] I don’t know who his parents were but there were a number of Swann families living in Durham Parish and in the Allens Fresh District around Port Tobacco. Most of the Swanns in the 1850 census are listed as mulatto. The census from 1850 up through 1900 had three ways of identifying people, as white, black, or mulatto. The latter group included individuals who were Indians as well as people of mixed heritage. For the latter their ancestors were often a mixture of African American, Anglo American, and Indian individuals. Many of the Swann families living in Charles County today are Native Americans. James Swann is always identified in the historic documents as a free man of color or as a mulatto, not as black and not as a Negro. Over the summer, several members of the Swann family contacted me to say that James was a Piscataway.
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Alana, Ben, and Steve working inside the Swann House Foundations 16 September 2023 |
James
was married, and his first wife Susan was, like him, identified as mulatto in
the 1850 census. Susan was born circa 1810. They had at least two daughters,
Mary who was born in about 1835 and Martha, born in about 1840. The 1840 census
lists two young girls in the household who were born between 1830 and 1840.
Martha’s age is given in the 1870 census as 29 and as 35 in the 1880 census.[ii]
The first census places her birth in 1840 or 1841 and the second in 1845.
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Section of the 1850 Census for Port Tobacco |
The 1840 census indicates that even though Swann did not yet own property in the village of Port Tobacco, he and his family were living there. His neighbors included Peregrine Davis, Francis Wills, Margaret Bailey, Elijah W. Day, Joseph Hutton, Lyne Shackleford, William Ferguson, and George Clements, all of whom were residents and business owners in the village. Swann bought the property where he and his family were living by buying out two families that owned the land. The first purchase was in 1843 from the Sheriburn family and the second from the Graham family in 1846.[iii]
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All that's left of Swann's home and Oyster House today is a stone foundation on the edge of the village of Port Tobacco The flags mark the area of our excavation this summer. |
By 1850, James Swann was running a tavern from the house. In February of that year he began to advertise fresh fish for sale from Mr. Mankin’s fishery in the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser. He also advertised fresh fish for sale in the same paper during the late winter months of 1854.[iv]
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Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser. 27 February 1850, page 3. |
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| 1850 Census Schedule 2 - Slave Inhabitants Port Tobacco, Maryland |
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Maryland Independent. 2 February 1883. |
By 1860, James and Susan’s daughter Mary was married to William Smith and she was the mother of a young daughter named Mary Ida. William was a barber and the family lived in Washington, D.C.[vii] Martha’s whereabouts are unknown and James’s wife Susan was probably dead.
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"A Barber's Shop at Richmond, Virginia" The Illustrated London News 9 March 1861 |
It is around 1860 that James, who was in his early 50s, decided to take a second wife. The new wife was 25 years old and her name was Sallie. The 1850 and 1860 census list her as mulatto. Three pieces of information lead me to believe that her last name was Dyson. First, in 1900, Sallie’s 11-year-old niece Jennie Dyson was a resident of Sallie’s household. Secondly, there is a Sallie Dyson listed in the household of Amanda Dyson on the 1850 and 1860 census. Sallie was probably Amanda’s daughter, but the census does not give family relationships until 1880. Sallie’s eldest daughter by James Swann was named Amanda. And finally, the 1860 census places the Dyson family home near Thompkinsville, which is about 5 miles from Shiloh Methodist Church where Sallie is buried.[viii]
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Maryland Independent. 2 June 1911, page 3 |
James
had a second family with Sallie. The 1870 census lists five children, but only
gives their first initials, not their full names. Later documents enable us to
fill in most of their names: John William (born 1861), Amanda Evelyn, known as
Lena (born 1863), a daughter (first initial is an H, who was born 1864 or 1865),
and Jannette, known as Jennie (born 1867). The fifth “child” was James’s
daughter Martha by his first wife Susan, her age is given as 29.[ix]
A document filed during the June 1875 Term of the Orphans Court of Charles
County states that James Swann died “...intestate leaving four children living
to wit. Martha S. Swann, John William Swann, Amanda E. Swann, and Jannette
Swann of which the three last named are minors under twenty one years of age,
and two grand children the children of a deceased daughter Mary A. Smith viz.
Mary Ida Smith and [Eva] Smith residing in the district of Columbia, also
infants under twenty one years of age. Also leaving a widow Sallie M Swann.”[x]
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Still Life with Fish and Oysters Alexander Adriaenssen, 1649 Philadelphia Museum of Art |
In 1870, the census indicates that James Swann was “keeping a restaurant” located in the building where the family resided. The family had a live-in domestic servant 12-year-old Lena Short (who is listed as black) and three boarders, J.A. Mason a 29-year-old barber, C.H. Jones (age 20) who was a hostler, and Gustavus Chase (age 34), who was a fisherman. The latter is of interest as Swann ran an oyster house and Chase may have been his supplier, if not an actual partner. Mason was listed as black and Jones and Chase as mulattos. All the Swanns were listed as mulatto. [xi]
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Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser 10 April 1862, page 3 |
J.A. Mason (whose first name was James) would remain a close family friend, serving as a guardian for Eva Smith in the settlement of her grandfather’s estate and later as an administrator of Martha Swann’s estate.[xii] He also fathered a child with Sallie Swann after James died. George Washington Swann, known as “Buster”, appears on the 1880 census as one of the Swann children. He was 4 years old when that census was enumerated. Other documents give his date of birth as between 1870 and 1875. His social security application lists his father as James A. Mason. When James Mason died in July 1904, he left $100 to Sallie Swann and one quarter of the residue of his property “...to my natural son, George W. Swann...”[xiii]
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George Washington Swann's World War I Draft Registration |
The 1870 census was enumerated on July 21st. Just over five months later, on 2 January 1871, James Swann died due to complications from pneumonia.[xiv] Sallie was left to raise their three surviving children – John, Amanda, and Jennie – who were all under the age of ten and she also had a business to run. Martha continued to live with her step-mother after her father’s death and contributed to the household income through her salary as a teacher. I’ll leave the story of the Swann family here and will tell the rest of the story about Sallie’s life after James in another post.
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Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser. 6 January 1871, page 2. |
[i] 1850 United States Census, Allen's Fresh District,
Charles County, Maryland, 15 July 1850, page 220A. 1870 United States Census,
District 2, Charles County, Maryland, 21 July 1870, page 58.
[ii] 1840 United States Census, 2nd
election District, Charles County, Maryland, page 183. 1870 United
States Census, District 2, Charles County, Maryland, 21 July 1870, page 58. 1880
United States Census, Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, 28 June 1880,
page 56D.
[iii] Charles County Land Records, Liber JB no. 25, folio
276 and Liber WM no.2, folio 29.
[iv] 1850 United States Census, Allen’s Fresh District,
Charles County, Maryland, 15 July 1850, page 220A. “Fresh Fish.” Port Tobacco Times and Charles County
Advertiser. 27 February 1850. Vol. VI, No. 43, page 3. “Fresh Fish.” Port Tobacco Times and Charles County
Advertiser. 16 March 1854. Vol. X, No. 46, page 3.
[v] 1850 United States Census, Schedule 2 - Slave Inhabitants,
Allen's Fresh District, Charles County, Maryland, 15 July 1850, page 167
[vi] Deaths. Maryland
Independent. 2 February 1883. Vol. VIII, no. 32, page 3.
[vii] Charles County Orphans Court Proceedings 1873-1876,
pages 466-467. 1870 United States Census, 5th Ward, City of Washington,
District of Columbia, 3 June 1870, page 8. 1880 United States Census, 167
Bridge Street, Georgetown, Washington, District of Columbia, 7 June 1880, page
18.
[viii] 1860 United States Census, Allen’s Fresh District,
Charles County, Maryland, 19 June 1860, page 8. 1900 United States Census, Port
Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, 6 June 1900, page 5A. “Death.” Maryland Independent. 2 June 1911. Vol.
XXI, no. 22, page 3.
[ix]
1870 United States Census, District 2, Charles
County, Maryland, 21 July 1870, page 58. Obituary for Amanda Swann. Evening Star, No. 30,608. 18 February
1928, page 7.
[x]
Charles County Orphans Court Proceedings
1873-1876, pages 466-467, 519-520.
[xi]
1870 United States Census, District 2, Charles
County, Maryland, 21 July 1870, page 58.
[xii]
Charles County Orphans Court Proceedings
1873-1876, pages 519-520. Charles County Orphans Court Proceedings 1882-1885,
pages 626-628.
[xiii] United States Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, Ancestry.com. 1880 United States Census, Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, 28 June 1880, page 56D. 1900 United States Census, Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, 6 June 1900, page 5A. George Washington Swann’s World War I Draft Registration gives his date of birth as 4 July 1875. He checked “Negro” as his race on the card, although he had the option to check Indian. Local Board for Division Number 11, District of Columbia. Serial Number 2377, Order Number 1236. George’s grave marker in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Washington, District of Columbia, gives his year of birth as 1870. Charles County Orphans County Wills Vol. CHP no. 19, folio 227.
[xiv] Obituary for James Swann. Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser. 6 January 1871. Vol. XXVII, No. 36, page 2.
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