Individual Details

Mathias SWEGLE

(1797 - 28 September 1861)

Events

Birth1797, Morris, New Jersey
Marriage9 July 1818Ringwood, Hunterdon, New Jersey - Sarah Elizabeth VANNETTA
Note18291st settler - Fairview, Fulton, Illinois
Census1830, Fulton, Illinois
Land1838Public Domain purchase - , Fulton, Illinois
Census1840Twp. 8N3E - , Fulton, Illinois
Residence1848took Oregon Trail to Northwest - Oregon
Death28 September 1861, Marion, Oregon
BurialPioneer Cemetery, Salem, Marion, Oregon

Families

SpouseSarah Elizabeth VANNETTA (1794 - 1866)
FatherJohn SWEGLE (1769 - 1845)
MotherHannah COLEMAN (1769 - 1845)
SiblingBenjamin SWEGLE (1795 - 1844)
SiblingJohn SWEGLE (1799 - 1876)
SiblingDaniel SWEGLE (1801 - 1871)
SiblingElizabeth SWEGLE (1804 - 1861)
SiblingSarah SWEGLE (1807 - )
SiblingMercy SWEGLE (1810 - )
SiblingNancy SWEGLE (1813 - 1870)

Notes

Note

Matthias Swegle was the first settler to locate in this beautiful township (Fairview). He came from New Jersey and settled at the head of Swegle creek in 1829. He was a very large man and of but little education. He attended school here after he located in the township. He was a pupil of Mr. Morris when he weighed 340 pounds. When he first started to school his oldest child was 22 years old. He was in the spelling class with his younger children and would take his place among the little fellows as they stood up to spell. He attended school about three months. He was a generous, public-spirited man, and as Peter Pumyea's house was the house of the average Jerseyman, so was Mattias Swegle's that of the itinerant Methodist persuasion. He made a wooden cannon during the Black Hawk war to frighten the Indians with. He was the first Justice of the Peace.

Land

Mathias Swegle
1838 8N 3E N2SE 8
1840 8N 3E SE1/4; E2SW; SWSW all Section 9

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/results/default.aspx?searchCriteria=type=patent|st=IL|cty=057|ln=swegle|sp=true|sw=true|sadv=false

Census

Matthias Swegle (near John Swegle, and Benjn Swegle)
Males:
1 10-15
1 15-20
1 40-50

Females:
2 5-10
1 10-15
1 40-50

Residence

While most of the earliest American-born Swegles ultimately put down roots in Illinois or a Midwestern state nearby, one family, that of Mathias Swegle, ended up in Oregon Territory prior to 1850. Mathias, who had moved from New Jersey to sparsely populated Fulton County, Illinois in the late 1820s, decided to cast his lot with other travelers who were headed for the Pacific Northwest in the spring of 1848. Accompanying him on the journey were sons Charles and Mathias and daughters Eliza, Elizabeth and Sarah.
When gold was discovered in California Territory in January 1848, many of the wagons that otherwise would have proceeded on toward Oregon Territory turned and instead went to California, so it is estimated that fewer than 1,000 people arrived in Oregon from the Midwest in 1848. But the six Swegles were among these emigrants. Three captains, Capt. Charles Miller, Capt. Bolivar Walker and Joseph Watts, had charge of the wagon trains, seeing to it that they safely negotiated any number of potential dangers within what was still very much "Indian country" at the time.
Contributor's note: some of the information included in this story was obtained from the site www.oregonpioneers.com/1848.htm, which was compiled by Stephenie Flora.

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/18901299/person/19614323589/storyx/157521fa-75ed-4a23-a655-f455375a74c5?src=search

Endnotes

1. Year: 1860; Census Place: Salem, Marion, Oregon; Roll: M653_1056; Page: 415; Image: 81; Family History Library Film: 805056.

2. Deats, Hiram e., Hunterdon County, New Jersey Marriages 1795-1875, http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&new=1&MSAV=1&gss=angs-c&gsln=swegle&msbdy=1769&msbpn__ftp=New+Jersey%2c+USA&msbpn=33&msbpn_PInfo=5-%7c0%7c1652393%7c0%7c2%7c3244%7c33%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c&msgpn__ftp=New+Jersey%2c+USA&msgpn=33&msgpn_PInfo=5-.

3. "New Jersey, County Marriages, 1682-1956," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VW5L-CN8 : 12 December 2014), Mathias Swegle and Sarah Vannetta, 09 Jul 1818; citing Hunterdon, New Jersey, New Jersey State Archives, Trenton; FHL microfilm 818,212..

4. "New Jersey, County Marriages, 1682-1956," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VW5J-5HZ : 12 December 2014), Matthias Swegle and Sarah Vannetta, 09 Jul 1818; citing Hunterdon, New Jersey, New Jersey State Archives, Trenton; FHL microfilm 806,998..

5. Chas. C. Chapman, History of Fulton County, Illinois, 1879 (reprint, n.p.: n.p., 1879.).

6. History of Fulton Co IL in Spoon River Country 1818-1968.

7. 1830; Census Place: Fulton, Illinois; Series: M19; Roll: 24; Page: 258; Family History Library Film: 0007649.

8. 1830; Census Place: Fulton, Illinois; Series: M19; Roll: 24; Page: 258; Family History Library Film: 0007649.

9. Ancestry.com.