Third Iowa Cavalry Reenactors Inc
Honorary Member-Alan R Davis
Thank you for submitting the Bio of
WESLEY FLETCHER SWIFT
Co. E, 3 Iowa Cavalry
By
Allen R. Davis
(3rd Great Grandson)
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esley Fletcher Swift was born December 20, 1846 near Columbia, Boone County, Missouri to Henry Swift and his second wife, Assenith [various spellings of this name including Acenath] Selby. His grandfather, Henry Swift, was an Englishman who reportedly lived to the age of 101 years. Wesley’s father had been married previously to Mary McRae and that union produced one son, Martin Edward Swift. Mary Swift died giving birth to Martin on September 11, 1825. Henry later married Assenith Selby on July 8, 1830, and to this union were born Charity Ann (1833), Amanda M (1835), James (1839), Henry Milton (1842), Wesley (1846) and Joshua Thomas (1852). The 1850 U.S. Census shows Wesley (listed as Fletcher) living in District 8, Boone County, Missouri with his parents and his siblings, Charity, Amanda, Milton and James. The census lists their father Henry’s occupation as stonemason. Henry Swift died in 1856 when Wesley was 10 years old. The 1860 U.S. Census shows Wesley living in Cedar Township, Boone County, Missouri along with his mother, Acenath, and his brothers, Henry M. and Joshua T. The family’s real estate was valued at $600 and their personal estate at $350. The next year the Civil War broke out and Wesley’s older brother, Henry Milton Swift, enlisted in Co. E, 11th Iowa Infantry. He died on June 23, 1862 after the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. He was buried in Monterey Cemetery, Tennessee, but later his body was moved to the Shiloh National Cemetery where he is buried in Section D or A (records indicate both sections), grave number 882. His brother, James Swift, enlisted as a private in Co. K, 1st Arkansas Cavalry (USA) in 1863 and survived the war. His half-brother, Martin Edward Swift was a Captain in Co. G, 61st Enrolled Missouri Militia (E.M.M.).
Wesley
and his family must have received news of Henry Milton Swift’s death and
perhaps that factored into his decision to answer the call from President
Lincoln for more troops to fight the war. When he enlisted in Co. E, 3 Iowa
Cavalry on August 1, 1862, he was only 15 years, 7 months of age. He served
from the time of his enlistment until the regiment mustered out of service on
August 9, 1865. In later life, Wesley said that he was one of the
youngest, and the smallest, man in the regiment and came to be known as the
“baby of the regiment.” Wesley reported that he initially served under General
Steele in the taking of Little Rock, Arkansas and later under General Wilson in
Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. Under the command of General Vandever, Wesley
accompanied Captain Spencer in the pursuit of Confederate Major General
Marmaduke beginning April 25, 1863. Of course, this excursion proved futile as
Major General Marmaduke had the distinction of being captured October 25, 1864 by JamesDunlavy, a Private
in Co. D, 3 Iowa Cavalry.
Wesley
re-enlisted as a Veteran on January 1, 1864 for three years or the duration of
the war, and received a promotion to full bugler March 1, 1864. 
Wesley was severely
wounded June 7, 1864 during an engagement near Ripley, Mississippi. The Union
troops, commanded by General John Sturgis, retreated from Brice’s Cross Roads
(Gun Town) after tangling with an inferior number of Confederates under the
command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was shot through the leg, just
above the knee and spent the rest of June and July 1864 in Overton Hospital,
Memphis, Tennessee. He later reported that he spent five months in the hospital
as a result of this wound, although his muster roll cards indicate June and
July 1864. According to the official regimental records, Wesley was the only
man wounded at Ripley, Mississippi on June 7, 1864. After rejoining his unit,
he continued to serve in Co. E, 3 Iowa Cavalry, being mustered out August 9,
1865 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Following the war, Wesley returned to Boone County, Missouri. He married Joan Elizabeth “Lizzy” Dillion August 12, 1866 both being 19 years of age. To this union were born three girls, Amanda (1868), Sarah (1870) and another who died and whose name is unknown. The 1870 U.S. Census, enumerated on August 24, 1870, shows Wesley and Lizzy living in Cedar Township, Boone County, Missouri along with their daughter, Amanda. Wesley’s occupation is listed as farmer and his personal estate is valued at $100. The couple’s daughter, Sarah, was born later in 1870. Lizzy died while the family lived in Missouri between the time of Sarah’s birth in 1870 and Wesley’s marriage to his second wife in 1876. The couple had a third daughter who died apparently in infancy, so it is possible that Lizzy died in childbirth with this daughter. While on a trip to Cooke County, Texas to visit one of his sisters, Wesley met Lucretia Ann Gabriel. They wed September 29, 1876 in Cooke County, Texas. The 1880 U.S. Census finds Wesley and Lucretia in Precint 3, Cooke County, Texas with Wesley’s daughters, Amanda [listed as Amand] and Sarah. The union of Wesley and Lucretia produced six children: John Wesley (1877-1879), Cora Maud (1882), my 2nd great grandfather, Theodore Joshaway and his twin Thaddeus Fletcher (who died within a month of their birth in 1884), Agnes Lourinda (1888) and Susannah Wesley (1893). Wesley became an Ordained minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1889 while still living in Cooke County, Texas. Before the birth of their youngest child, Susannah, Wesley and Lucretia moved their family to Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, in 1889. While in the Indian Territory he preached to the Chickasaw Indians through an interpreter for many years. He also helped establish a church in Oak Grove. Luther B. Hill, in A History of the State of Oklahoma, Vol. 1, described Wesley as a “pleasant and forcible speaker, earnest in the presentation of truth”. He stated that Wesley was a staunch prohibitionist. The Indian Territory combined with Oklahoma Territory to form the state of Oklahoma in 1907. I was proud to have Wesley and Lucretia Swift documented as a First Family of the Twin Territories on January 15, 2011. Wesley’s daughter, Susannah “Susie” (Swift) Martin provided the following information in the family history Every Gabriel, Come Blow Your Horn, which stated in part:
My Mother, Loucretia Ann Gabriel, was born in Arkansas July 19, 1852 and moved to Crosse Timbers in Texas when she was 12 years old. She had two brothers, Joshua and John Gabriel, and a sister, Mary. Mother saw the wild buffalo by the thousands and lots of other wild animals. She saw one man that the Indians had scalped.
My father, Wesley Fletcher Swift, was born December 20, 1846 in Missouri. He served in the Third Iowa Cavalry in the Civil War. He came to Texas to visit his sister, met my Mother and they were married September 26, 1876 at her home by Abraham Morrow. Mother was living in Cooke County, Texas. Six children were born to this union – three boys and three girls. Two boys passed on in infancy; one boy and three girls lived to be grown and married. All were born in Texas, except the youngest and she was born near Raisville, Indian Territory – that’s me, the only one left and I am 81 years young!
I do not know why my parents left Texas unless, like the old cow, “the grass was greener across the river.” We lived between McMillan and Durwood, Indian Territory.
When we moved to Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma (Indian Territory) in December of 1900, my Father was an ordained Methodist minister having been ordained in 1889 in Texas. He was a strict parent. He and a minister named Berry organized our home church at a school house in 1901. In 1903 they started to build a church in the country and it is called Oak Grove. Dad and Mother are buried in the cemetery. He preached to the Chickasaw Indians through an interpretor [sic].
The 3 Iowa Cavalry held a reunion in Centerville, IA in 1888. It is unknown whether Wesley attended the reunion, but if he did, he would be one of the younger looking men in the picture below. I have a full-sized copy of this photograph, courtesy of the 3 Iowa Cavalry reenactors. He lived in Cooke County, Texas at the time and this was the year prior to his ordination to the ministry and his moving the family to Indian Territory. Wesley applied for a pension for his Civil War service on March 14, 1889. The timing of his pension application is interesting. Perhaps he made the application to help subsidize his family after they moved to Indian Territory. The 1900 U.S. Census record shows that Wesley and Lucretia lived in Township 5, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory with their children, Theodore, Agnes and Susanna. Wesley was a farmer by occupation. Luther Hill wrote, “…in 1900 he located on his present homestead in Moore township. He bought improved land and twelve dollars and a half an acre, and in the meantime he has placed the land under an excellent state of cultivation, has planted a good orchard and has made the farm one of the valuable ones of the township. His land is well watered and very fertile.” He became a Mason and was a charter member of the Adel Lodge before transferring his membership to the Wanette Lodge.
I
have not found a record for Wesley for the 1920 U.S. Census. Lucretia died May
12, 1923 in Asher, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma and is buried in the Oak Grove
Cemetery. By the time of the 1930 U.S. Census, Wesley lived in Rider, Mayes
County, Oklahoma in the home of his son, my 2nd Great Grandfather,
Theodore J. Swift and his wife Laura (Milburn). The census taker enumerated the
census in Rider on April 23, 1930. Also living in the home at the time were
nine of Wesley’s grandchildren including Vera Viola (Swift) Johnson (my great
grandmother) and her two children, two year old Barbara Jean Johnson (my
grandmother) and infant, Mildred Louise Johnson. Wesley Fletcher Swift died at the age of 83,
June 10, 1930 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Asher, Oklahoma next to his
wife, Lucretia.
3 Iowa Cavalry Reunion, Centerville, IA 1888. Photograph by Wales, Centerville, IA and "presented” by Gen. John W. Noble, St. Louis, MO. The white stripes in the flag say "August 1861 Third Iowa Cavalry August 1865" and then lists each battle the 3rd participated in during the war.
3 Iowa Regimental Flag
Alan R Davis
Honorary Member-Richard Welton
Thank you for submitting the Bio of Jacob Tyron