An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D., The
Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, IL., 1893

HON. JAMES G. SWAN, one of the most distinguished pioneers of the Northwest, was
born in Medford, Massachusetts, January 11, 1818. The American progenitor of the
name of Swan emigrated from England to New England about 1680 and purchased a
large tract of land in the vicinity of Charlestown and Boston, where the name
has been honorably represented in the development of that section. The battle of
Bunker Hill was fought upon their possessions, and Major Samuel Swan was one of
the heroes of Ticonderoga, occupying positions of trust and responsibility.
Governor Bowdoin of Massachusetts, in approving of Major Swan's support, said:
The several expeditions in which you have been engaged reflect, credit upon the
parties who compose them." As Quartermaster General, Major Swam was connected
with the State militia up to 1806, and very prominent in the city, county and
State Government. In 1795 he was appointed by General George Washington as
Deputy Collector of Revenue for the county of Middlesex. The Swan family were
prominently connected with the mercantile, shipping and interior affair's of
Massachusetts. The parents of our subject were Captain Samuel and Margaret
(Tufts) Swan. Captain Swan was a seafaring man and lost his life in a wreck off
Minot's Ledge, Boston harbor, in 1823. The mother was a native of Medford,
Massachusetts, and was of ancient and honored lineage. James U. Swan, concerning
whose life this sketch makes treatment, paused his preparatory educational work
at Medford until he attained his fifteenth year, when he went to Boston, and, as
a clerk, became connected with the establishment of a ship-chandler. When
twenty-one years of age he engaged in the same line of business for himself and
continued up to 1849, then sold out, and on the ship "Rob Roy" embarked for San
Francisco, via Cape Horn, arriving in 1850. In 1852 he came to Shoalwater Bay,
then a part of Oregon, and engaged in the oyster business, shipping to San
Francisco. In 1856 he went to Washington, District of Columbia, and became
private secretary to Governor Isaac I. Stevens, delegate to Congress. While
there Mr. Swan made the acquaintance of Professors Baird and Henry, of the
Smithsonian Institution, which circumstance led up to his later efficient work
for that institution. In 1857, while visiting his brother in Montgomery,
Alabama, Mr. Swan wrote a book entitled "The Northwest Coast, or Four Years in
Washington Territory," which was published by Harper Brothers. In 1858 he
returned to the Territory and settled in Port Townsend. In 1860 he became
connected with the trading port at Neah Bay, and in 1862 was appointed teacher
on the Indian Reservation by Henry A. Webster, Indian Agent. He continued their
incumbency for four years. While there he wrote the history of the Cape Flattery
Indians, which was published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1869. In 1866 Mr.
Swan returned to Port Townsend and was elected Justice of the Peace, and engaged
in the practice of admiralty law, which he had studied in Boston prior to 1849,
under the preceptorship of Peleg W. Chandler, an eminent admiralty lawyer. In
1871 he was elected Probate Judge of Jefferson county and continued in that
office about seven years, and has since retained the title of Judge. In 1875, on
the revenue cutter "Wolcott," he made a special cruise to Alaska to secure
Indian manufactures and relics for the collection in natural history and
ethnology at the Centennial Exposition. In 1878 he was appointed Inspector of
Customs at Neal Bay and served four years. In 1883, by special request from the
Smithsonian Institution, he went to Queen Charlotte's islands and made a
collection of antiquities and modern manufactures of the Haida Indians, which
collection forms the preponderance of the ethnological material in the National
Museum from the region about Dixon entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound. He has
been a collaborator of the Smithsonian Institution since 1856, with the founding
of that collection. In the Smithsonian report of 1883, Spencer F. Baird,
Secretary, wrote as follows: "The most important research prosecuted under the
auspices of the Smithsonian Institution was that by Mr. James G. Swan in the
Queen Charlotte Islands. For more than a quarter of a century his contributions
have been most noteworthy. To him we owe very extensive collections illustrating
the life and work of the Indians on Puget Sound, as also everything relating to
the fisheries of that region, whether prosecuted by the savage or white man." As
Assistant United States Fish Commissioner, Judge Swan has made a study of the
fish and sea food of the Pacific, has written much valuable information upon the
subject, and his collection of aboriginal fishing instruments at the National
Museum has attracted great attention. Judge Swan has served as United States
Fish Commissioner for fifteen years. He is Hawaiian Consul at Port Townsend,
Commissioner for the State of Oregon, United States Commissioner, practitioner
of admiralty law, and an active member of the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce.
He was married in Boston in 1841, to Miss Matilda W. Loring, who died in 1863,
leaving two children: Charles H., a prominent hydraulic, sanitary and civil
engineer of Boston; and Ellen Matilda Swan, who also resides in that city. Judge
Swan has resided in Washington through its whole Territorial existence, and is a
respected and valued citizen of the State.

Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in January 2004 by Jeffrey L. Elmer

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Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.