A few weeks ago, one of our Facebook followers asked if this column had ever done anything on Elisha B. Swift, whose house still stands on Plank Road in Cambria. Since neither he, his family nor his home had been covered before, this would be an interesting new topic.
Elisha Barlow Swift may not be a well-known name in Niagara County today, but in the late 19th century, he was one of the county’s most prominent men and was involved in several different enterprises in the area. He was born on February 4, 1823, in Henrietta in Monroe County to Henry and Dorcas Sherwood Swift. The couple moved to Niagara County with their six children in 1844 and settled on a farm in Cambria on the west side of Plank Road between Lower Mountain and Van Dusen Roads. In 1850, Swift married Adaline Follett Brown, originally from Rhode Island, and moved to a farm on Bear Ridge Road just north of Prichard’s Bridge in the town of Pendleton. The 1852 Niagara County map shows Swift owned property on both sides of the road and today there are two old houses still standing in that vicinity, but it is not known if one was the home the Swifts may have occupied. In 1855, the Swifts relocated to the village of Lockport, where Elisha Swift engaged in the grocery business with his brother, Moses G., at 22 Main Street (approximately where Papa Leo’s parking lot is now). He later went into partnership with David Crosby at the same location in about 1868. During most of this time, the Swifts lived on Spalding Street near the corner of Locust Street. After nearly 20 years as a grocer, Swift made the decision to take up farming again and bought property on Plank Road in the town of Cambria, where his widowed mother and his brother Orrin also had their homes. He built a house which is depicted in the 1878 History of Niagara County.
Although Elisha Swift established a working farm and orchard on his new property, he immediately dove into many other local activities. One of the first endeavors was his appointment as official census taker for the town of Cambria for the 1875 New York State Census. He was a member of the Democratic Party and attended many local, state and national caucuses and conventions. Swift was one of the founding members of the Niagara County Pioneer Association in 1877, and until his death in 1903, was usually one of the featured speakers at the annual Pioneer Picnic held every August in the Pine Grove at Olcott. He also served as a juror on many cases in the county. Both Mr. and Mrs. Swift were prominent members of the Cambria Congregational Church, which is still in operation on Lower Mountain and Cambria Roads.
A setback for the Swifts occurred on October 9, 1881, when his home on Plank Road was destroyed in a fire. Swift had just left for the Democratic State Convention in Albany. His mother and two other relatives discovered the fire when they went to the house. Finding it locked, they entered the house through the outside cellar door and heard the crackling of flames in the kitchen. They began moving furniture from the front of the house outside. Neighbors began arriving to help. Not finding the hired man on the property, a search of the still burning house was made and he was found sleeping in a second-floor bedroom. After his rescue, knowing the house could not be saved, efforts turned toward ensuring that the barn and outbuildings did not also catch fire. Mrs. Adaline Swift finally returned from visiting a neighbor and Elisha Swift came home the next day. The house was considered a total loss. Swift’s mother, Dorcas, died two days later, but none of the notices in the newspapers mention that her death was in any way connected to the fire. She was 87 years old and perhaps was unable to stand the shock of the event. A new house was built, which, looking at the illustration in the 1878 book, is almost identical to the original. The rebuilt house is still standing on Plank Road.
Swift continued his interest in agriculture and assisted in the organization of the Niagara County Farmers’ Club in 1886. He was also a member of the Niagara County Agricultural Society and in 1887 he proposed a resolution that no alcoholic beverages be sold on the Fairgrounds property. The resolution was in response to a petition presented to the Society by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. The resolution passed. At one of the Farmers’ Club meetings, Swift made a rather unusual statement: “A man could make a living on a 100-acre farm if he didn’t ride a bicycle.” He was also a judge at a Century Club debate in which the topic was “Resolved, that Man is Woman’s Superior.” Three men spoke in favor of the statement while three women argued against it. Swift and two other judges (one man, one woman) voted in favor of the women.
On Oct. 17, 1890, Adaline Swift passed away of an undisclosed illness. She was 61 years and they had been married for 40 years. The couple had no children. Two years later, Swift, at age 69, married Ella May Traviss, age 23. The nearly 50-year age gap did create a mild scandal but the Swifts rose above it and he did not give up any involvement in the many organizations in which he was a member. Three children were born to this second marriage: Elisha Barlow, Jr., Milo Traviss and Ella Marie. Born in the 1890s, Elisha Jr. and Ella Marie both lived into the 1990s.
Even into his 70s, Swift remained active with all of his agricultural, political and civic interests. In 1902, a year before he passed away, in an editorial in the Lockport Journal, he encouraged farmers not to lose faith even when it appeared their fruit orchards weren’t coming along as they had hoped. One of his last projects, and the one he was best remembered for later, was his authorship of the “History of Cambria” and other contributions in the 1902 Souvenir History of Niagara County published by the Pioneer Association.
Not long after this publication came out, Elisha Barlow Swift died of Bright’s Disease on March 24, 1903, at his home on Plank Road in Cambria at the age of 80. He left a 33-year-old widow and three children under the age of 10. He was buried in the family plot in Glenwood Cemetery with his first wife, and was later joined by his second wife, two of his children, several siblings and many other relatives as well.