Benoni Swearingen
Born in Swawneetown, Gallatin Co. Illinois
January 14, 1835
Died, at family homestead on Indian Creek
Near Happy Camp, Ca. July 18, 1923
Benoni was the youngest of five
children born to Thomas Van Swearingen and wife, Penina Walston Van
Swearingen. The family moved across the Mississippi River and he grew
up and attended schools in Missouri.
He came west in 1852 with an emigrant train of
pioneers and 500 head of cattle via the Overland Route through Utah and
Nevada. Benoni and two other men left the wagon train in Carson City,
Nevada and came over the pass by foot and got lost in a snowstorm and
had to eat their dogs in order to survive. When they finally arrived in
Placerville, they were still carrying one dog ham.
After arriving in California, he spent some time in
central and southern parts of the state and herded sheep in the area
that is now Los Angeles.
Benoni arrived in Northern California in 1855 and
made his way to Happy Camp by way of Callahan and Scott Valley. In
April of that year reached what was then known as Indian Town, a mining
settlement of about 500 inhabitants along the banks of Indian Creek
near the Oregon border.
At Indian Town he met and married Mrs. Elizabeth
(Gilbert) Ball, Sept. 7, 1856. Their marriage license records show
that
Indian Town was in the county of Klamath at that time and John R.
Prindle, Justice of the Peace of the district, performed the
marriage. Mrs. Ball had crossed the plains in 1852 from Indiana
with her first husband who died along with an infant son of cholera on
the way. They were traveling the Oregon Trail route, but had one son
with her when she arrived in Happy Camp from Oregon. That son, Billy,
passed away later at the age of 12 and is buried in the cemetery in
Happy Camp.
The couple first lived at Muc-a-Muc flat where there
was extensive mining, but moved to Indian Town where they later
homesteaded in 1892. The couple had eight children: Mary Elizabeth,
born Feb. 19, 1861; Thomas Jefferson, born Jan. 22, 1863; Samuel Clark,
born April 25, 1865, died Jan. 15, 1900, mining cave-in at Oak Hollow
mine; Benoni Jr., born Dec. 19, 1868; John Milton, born March 12, 1870;
Gilbert, born Dec. 23, 1871, died in 1938; Alice, born January 16,
1876; Elbert Barnett, born April 24, 1878, died in 1955 and buried
at
Weed.
Besides farming the ranch, Benoni had a mail
contract carrying mail from Happy Camp (then in Del Norte Co.) to
Waldo, Oregon, one such contract was an item reported in a newspaper of
the times, Feb. 23, 1882:”contract to B.S.Swearingen, for $840.” He was
also interested in local politics and was elected Del Norte Co.
Supervisor while Happy Camp was still a part of that county.
Benoni suffered a severe stroke in August of 1919
that left him paralyzed and bed-ridden for four years prior to is
death. He was buried in the family plot on a hill on the ranch beside
the grave of his wife who died in April 1911 and those of his family
who preceded him.
In 1894, the Family Register of Gerret van Sweringen
and Descendants was published in Washington D. C., in Dec. of that
year. The “van” and the addition of “a” into the Sweringen name was
probably during the lifetime of Thomas who grew up in an
English-speaking community. The following information was taken from
that register:--
Our immigrant Ancestor: Gerret van Sweringen
was born in Beemssterdam, Holland in 1636. He married Barbarah de
Barrette of Vallenciennes, France in 1659. They had four children:
Elizabeth, Zacharies, and Thomas before she died in 1670. He had a
second marriage to Mary Smith of St. Marys, Md. And they had six more
children.
Thomas was born about 1665 in St. Marys. He
had a wife, Jane and lived in Somerset County where he died in 1710.
They had four sons: Thomas, Van, Samuel, and John.
John was born in Somerset Co. about 1702
and had four sons, including Thomas and several daughters.
Thomas was born about 1730, married
twice and had more than 20 children including William.
William was born in Maryland about 1770 and married first
Sallie Rae and next Rebecca Vaughn and lived in Kentucky and Cole
County, Mo. They had 6 sons including Thomas Van; and three daughters.
Thomas Van married Penina Walston. They
had five children, Sarah, Nancy, Mary, Thomas Van, and Benoni.
Benoni
was born Jan. 14, 1835 in Shawneetown, Ill., married Elizabeth
(Gilbert) Ball at Indian Town, Del Norte Co., near Happy Camp, CA.
