Swift, William H.

Born: 1800-11-06 Taunton, Massachusetts

Died: 1879-04-07 New York, New York

William H. Swift, engineer and military officer, entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1813, and upon his graduation in 1819 received a commission as a second lieutenant of artillery. Swift remained in the U.S. Army for the next thirty years, undertaking surveying, mapping, engineering, and internal improvement assignments for the army and on loan from the army to private businesses. From 1838 he was a captain in the newly-organized topographical engineers of the army, and served as assistant to the chief of topographical engineers in Washington, DC, between 1844 and 1849. Swift assisted with the design and construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and served as president of the canal’s Board of Trustees for almost three decades beginning in 1845. Following his resignation from the army in 1849, he was president of several railroads, and acted as a director or business consultant for numerous firms, including as an advisor to Baring Brothers & Company. Swift was also trustee of the state bonds of the Illinois Central Railroad. He married Mary Stuart in 1825 and the pair had two children. Following the 1837 death of his first wife, Swift married Hannah W. Howard in 1844.

Paul David Nelson, “Swift, William Henry,” American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 21:211-12; Thomas M. Spaulding, “Swift, William Henry,” Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), 18:249-50; George W. Cullum, Biographical Sketch of Captain William H. Swift, of the Topographical Engineers, United States Army, 1832-1849 (New York: A. G. Sherwood, 1880); Joel Andrew Delano, comp., The genealogy, history, and alliances of the American house of Delano, 1621 to 1899, ed. by Mortimer Delano de Lannoy (New York, n.p., 1899), 492; Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1903), 1:941; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), South Ward, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA, 115; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 6, Boston, Suffolk County, MA, 2; Boston Evening Transcript (MA), 10 April 1879, 5:2.