Manuscript Collection 1451

Newly built home of Dr. Charles Swift, Elkins, 1912.

About the Collection

The Swift Family Papers were donated to Special Collections by Ellen Compton on March 1, 2002. The papers consist of photographs, photograph albums, a scrapbook, correspondence, professional and financial records, genealogical records, and recorded interviews. The material was created or collected by Dr. Charles Eugene Swift of Goshen and Elkins, Arkansas, and by members of his immediate family, especially his son Joseph Maxwell Swift, and by other descendants.

The papers include photographs of individuals (ca. 1870-1977), their homes, schools, and activities. Of special note are two albums that portray in photographs the life of Joe Swift, his rural boyhood, pictures of his military experiences, and his homecoming to Elkins. A scrapbook kept by Joe Swift complements the albums with programs, clippings, and other documents. In addition there is correspondence that describes the activities of the Swift family, which came to include Anna Swift's brother, Dr. George Risley and her nurse/companion, Milly West. There are, in addition, financial records, writings by family members and friends (poems, essays), obituaries, death notices, certificates, membership cards, and clippings. Some of the documents are connected to the Benjamin F. Little family.

Twelve cassette tapes record extensive interviews with six of Dr. Swift's children and family friends. The tapes were made in 1976-1977 and in 1988. Subjects covered are: life in Goshen and Elkins, Dr. Swift's practice and character, and biographical information. Two interviews are with Mildred Counts West (Milly), companion of Dr. Swift's mother, Anna. Milly describes family life in Drake's Creek, Madison County in the early twentieth century. Brief biographies of members of the family, as well as Milly West, accompany the tapes.

Processed by Ellen Compton, Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas, April 2002.

Contents of the Collection (nine boxes)

Series l. Swift Family Records. Boxes 1-4.

Subseries 1. Correspondence
Subseries 2. Genealogical Material
Subseries 3. Financial Records
Subseries 4. Certificates and Licenses
Subseries 5. Taped Interviews

Series 2. Images and Scrapbooks. Boxes 5-8

Subseries 1. Individual Photographs
Subseries 2. Photograph Albums and Scrapbook

Oversize Material: Box 9

Series l. Swift Family Records, Boxes 1-4
This series contains handwritten and printed records and sound recordings of the family. Subseries l consists of correspondence. While not extensive, it spans five generations beginning with a letter to Anna Risley on her marriage to Edwin E. Swift in 1873. The majority of the letters are dated between 1918 and 1947. They include a few letters from Carl Swift written during World War II, and letters discussing his death on an air mission in the Pacific. Several letters are from Anna Swift in Elkins. A distinct group of letters is from Dr. Swift to Buena Vista McKinnon in the 1920s. Subseries 2 contains genealogical information including obituaries, death notices, and memorial booklets pertaining to the Benjamin Little, Risley, and Stanley families. The financial records in Subseries 3 include receipts for purchases from Guisinger's Music Store in Fayetteville and the settlement of the estate of Mrs. E.C. Little (Mrs. Benjamin Little). The certificates and licenses in Subseries 4 include a record of apple brandy distillation, Dr. Swift's Arkansas Medical License, and permits for selling opium and tobacco at the drugstore in Elkins. The recorded interviews in Subseries 5 were conducted by Ellen Compton in 1976, 1977, and 1988. They contain details about life in Goshen and Elkins, memories of Dr. Swift, his mother Anna, and his uncle George. They also present biographical information about the interviewees and others. The children of Dr. Swift who participated are: Edna Swift Putman, Sid Swift, Jack Swift, Joe Swift and Janelle Swift Brashears. Others are: Grace Swift (widow of Lloyd), family friends Myra and Earl Stokenbury, Frank Brashears, Glenn Stokenbury, Fannie Carrigan and Jesse Pollock. The interviews with Milly West were done to meet a requirement for a course at the Arkansas Folk Center and contain some information about Ozark word usage and songs as well as rural life in the early twentieth century.

Subseries 1. Correspondence
The correspondence is primarily among family members and is sometimes on postal cards. There are letters from Carl, Joe, and Leslie Charles Swift during World War II. Letters from the 1970s are from Risley/Stanley descendants.

Box 1
1. 1873
2. 1909
3. 1900-1910 (postal cards)
4. Ca. 1900-1910
5. 1911-1918
6. 1920-1925
7. 1926-1927
8. 1927-1930 (Swift/McKinnon)
9. 1930-1936
10. 1942-1944 (Carl Swift)
11. 1936-1947 (Joe Swift)
12. 1943-1944 (Leslie Charles Swift)
13. 1936-1947
14. 1976-1977

Subseries 2. Genealogical material
The items include: biographical sketches, census records, poems and essays, genealogy charts, obituaries, death notices, memorial booklets and clippings.

Box 2
1. Swift family
2. Stanley/Risley families
3. Little/Pitkin families
4. Edna Swift Putman's birthday record book
5. Obituaries, death notices, memorial booklets, clippings
6. Family writings (poems and essays)
7. Recipes
8. Buena Vista McKinnon's writings (articles on the death of Dr. Swift in 1931 and a description of Razorback Hall on the University of Arkansas campus in 1936)
9. Clippings

Subseries 3. Financial records
The material includes documents that reflect the slender financial resources of the family, purchases from musical supplies to an automobile, real estate and tax documents.

Box 3
1. Taxes, 1910-1925
2. Insurance, 1910-1940
3. Purchases, 1906-1929 (includes Guisinger Music Store purchases) 4. Real estate, 1902-1910
5. Loans, 1903-1924
6. Savings books, ca. 1912-1930
7. Savings books, 1913-1914
8. Canceled checks, 1913-1914
9. Canceled checks, 1930
10. Canceled checks, 1931
11. Check stubs, 1920s
12. Deposit slips, 1924-1943
13. Bank statements, 1930-1931
14. Mrs. E.C. Little estate, 1911

Subseries 4. Documents
The material includes school reports, certificates and permits, and a few military records.

Box 4
1. Certificates and receipts (Elkins drugstore)
2. Membership and business cards
3. School reports and programs
4. Military records and mementoes
5. Masonic medallion and wallet

Subseries 5. Recorded interviews
12 cassette tapes with interviews of surviving children of Dr. Swift and with friends. Sound is frequently uneven. The interviewer is Dr. Swift's great-grandaughter, Ellen Compton. The tapes were made in Fayetteville and also in Bentonville during a family reunion.

Box 4 (con't)
1. Tape 1 Side A: Edna Swift Putman, Myrl Swift Sharp, Grace Carrigan Swift. Bentonville, May 15, 1977
Tape 1 Side B: Jack Swift, Sid Swift, Eddie Putman, Myrl Sharp, Janelle Swift Brashears, Joe Swift, Milly West. Bentonville, May 15, 1977

2. Tape 2 Side A: Continuation of Tape 1 Side B. May 15, 1977 Tape 2 Side B: Janelle Swift Brashears. Fayetteville, May 18, 1977

3. Tape 3 Side A Janelle Swift Brashears. Fayetteville, May 18, 1977 Tape 3 Side B Blank tape

4. Tape 4 Side A Leslie Custer (Sid) Swift. Bentonville, May 15, 1977 Tape 4 Side B Edwin Lee (Jack) Swift. Bentonville, May 15, 1977

5. Tape 5 Side A Edna (Eddie) Putman, Myrl Sharp. Bentonville, May 22, 1977 Tape 5 Side B Eddie and Myrl. Bentonville, May 22, 1977

6. Tape 6 Side A Earl Stokenbury, Myra Stokenbury, Glenn Stokenbury. Fayetteville, September 16, 1976 Tape 6 Side B Blank tape

7. Tape 7 Side A November 24, 1977 Tape 7 Side B Frank Brashears reciting a poem frequently recited by Dr. Swift. Fayetteville, November 24, 1977

8. Tape 8 Side A Frank Brashears, Earl Stokenbury, Glenn Stokenbury, Joe Swift. Fayetteville, November 24 and 25, 1977 Tape 8 Side B Continuation of same group. Fayetteville, November 25, 1977

9. Tape 9 Side A Janelle Brashears, Joe Swift. Bentonville, October 15, 1988 Tape 9 Side B Continuation of Janelle and Joe, Bentonville, October 15, 1988

10. Tape 10 Side A Fannie Carrigan and Jessie Pollack. Fayetteville, December 16, 1976 Tape 10 Side B Blank tape

11. Tape 11 Side A Milly Counts West. Bentonville, summer, 1976 Tape 11 Side B Milly West. Bentonville, summer, 1976

12. Tape 12 Side A Milly West and Eddie Putman. Bentonville, summer, 1976. Note: the women sing songs and discuss games and word usage Tape 12 Side B Blank tape

Series 2. Images, Photograph Albums, Scrapbook (Boxes 5-8)
The images in this series portray family members, their homes and activities. The albums and scrapbook were kept by Joe Swift and illustrate his life in Elkins and the in the Army during World War II. A later set of photographs kept by Joe document the activities of "Morefun, Inc.," a Bentonville deer camp group that camped in the Boston Mountains every fall, 1950s-1970s.

Subseries 1. Individual Photographs
Box 5
1. Anna Maria Risley Swift, ca. 1860-1938-images 1-20
2. Anna Maria Risley Swift, 1950s-images 1-9
3. Alexia Stanley Risley, ca. 1878-images 1-2
4. George Mark Risley, Dora Risley, Ruth Risley, ca. 1880-1936-images 1-8
5. Stanley Family, ca. 1870s-images 1-17
6. Stanley Family, ca. 1870s-images 1-11
7. Wesley Swift, Edwin Swift, Fuller Swift, ca. 1878-1885-images 1-3 8. Charles Edwin Swift, ca. 1876-1892-images 1-7 (includes photographs made by Watton, Grabill, and Mrs. Young)
9. Swift Family at Goshen, ca. 1892-1909-images 1-42
10. Swift Family at Elkins, ca. 1910-1925-images 1-41
11. Swift Family trip to Pea Ridge, ca. 1915-images 1-7
12. Lissie Swift in Bentonville, ca. 1950-images 1-4
13. Little, Sweetser, Woolsey Families, ca. 1895-1930-images 1-16

Box 6
1. Edna Swift Putman, ca. 1895-1975-images 1-28
2. Lloyd Swift and Family, ca. 1895-1955-images 1-22
3. Leslie Custer (Sid) Swift and Family, ca. 1897-1955-images1-34
4. Edwin Lee (Jack) Swift and Family, ca. 1910-1980-images 1-21
5. Myrl Swift Sharp and Family, ca. 1918-1982-images 1-18
6. Janelle Swift Brashears and Family, ca. 1913-1975-images 1-36
7. Carl Benjamin Swift, ca. 1910-1944-images 1-76
8. Joseph Maxwell (Joe) Swift and Family, ca. 1911-1975-images 1-49

Box 7
1. Joe Swift and friends at deer camp, ca. 1960-1980-images 1-62
2. Wylmah Holmesly, Marion Lewis, Florence White (friends of Joe Swift), ca. 1918-1996-images 1-15
3. Swift Family Groups, ca. 1910-1966-images 1-20
4. University of Arkansas, 1930s-images 1-5
5. Schools at Goshen and Elkins, ca. 1908-1912-images 1-10
6. Mrs. Gilliland, nurse, ca. 1918-images 1-4 (1 Grabill photograph) 7. Swift Family friends at Goshen and Elkins, ca. 1908-1980-images 1-23 8. Swift Family friends at Goshen, Elkins, elsewhere, ca. 1877-1930-images 1-18
9. Miscellaneous and unidentified, ca. 1920-1930-images 1-14
10. Negatives

Subseries 2. Photograph Albums and Scrapbook
Box 8
1. Joe Swift. Photograph Album 1, ca. 1911-1944 - 437 images
2. Joe Swift. Photograph Album 2, ca. 1944-1946 - 462 images
3. Joe Swift. Scrapbook, ca. 1920-1945 - 268 images and items. 16 items that were laid in were removed to Box 4

Box 9 Oversize Material
1. Arkansas license to practice medicine. C.E. Swift, 1903
2. Obstetrics certificate, Vanderbilt University. E.E. Swift, 1889
3. Art works by Joe Swift, ca. 1937
4. Portrait of Lt. Joseph Swift made by John Cooper, London, 1945
5. Portraits of Adeline Swift and Jack Swift, 1949
6. Photograph by Grabill. "Staunton No. 386 Baptist Ford June 13-19. Building erected in 1870" (Group of men in Masonic dress in front of log structure) n.d. for photograph
7. Swift Family Portrait. Fayetteville, May, 1977. Photograph by Drew Kilgore
8. Arkansas license to gauge brandy from fruit, B.H. Little, Washington County, 1876.