Biography of David J. Swarts, M. D., pages 
386/387/388/389.390. History of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. 
F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



In giving the life record of the late Dr. David Swarts, of 
Auburn, Indiana, it is believed that it will be an 
incentive to the young who may peruse it to lead nobler 
lives, have higher ambitions and accomplish more for their 
fellow-men,  for his life was ever led along a plane of 
high endeavor, always consistent with truth in its highest 
forms and ever in keeping with honorable principles. He has 
an altruistic spirit-and for a half century he put forth 
every effort in his power to alleviate suffering, so that 
his name deserves to go down in the history of his locality 
as one of its worthiest and most faithful and efficient 
physicians.  Thus, for many reasons, not the least of which 
is the fact that he was one of the patriotic sons of the 
North who, when the terrible tocsin of war sounded in the 
early sixties, unhesitatingly gave up the pleasures of home 
and the pursuit of a profitable profession to do what he 
could in behalf of the National Union, the biographer is 
glad to set forth the salient facts concerning his long, 
useful and honorable career. David J. Swarts was born near 
Jeromeville, Ashland county, Ohio, on June 30, 1832, and 
was a son of David and Catherine (Smith) Swarts. He 
remained on the farm with his parents until nineteen years 
of age, in the meantime securing the rudiments of his 
education in the common schools. He then became a student 
in Vermillion Academy, at Hayesville, Ohio, where he 
remained two and a half years. In 1856, having determined 
to make the practice of medicine his life work, he entered 
upon its study under the direction of Doctors Robinson and 
Firestone, of Wooster, Ohio, with whom he remained until 
the fall of 1858. He then entered the Ohio Medical College, 
at Cincinnati, where he was graduated in March, 1860, and 
later took a post-graduate course in the Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College, in New York City. He first located at 
Reedsburg, Ohio, but in November, 1860, removed to Auburn, 
Indiana, where his abilities were quickly recognized and he 
was soon in command of a large and remunerative patronage.  
His private professional career was interrupted, however, 
by the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion, which aroused 
his patriotic spirit and, in June, 1862, he enlisted as a 
private in Company A, One Hundred Regiment Indiana 
Volunteer Infantry. At the organization of the company he 
was elected and commissioned first lieutenant, in which 
capacity he served until the following October, when he 
resigned his commission in order to accept the commission 
of assistant surgeon of his regiment, and rendered most 
faithful and efficient service until the close of the war, 
being mustered out in June, 1865. He participated in most 
of the battles in which the Fifteenth Army Corps, under 
Gen. John A. Logan, engaged, including Pigeon Roost, 
Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, the siege of Atlanta, siege of 
Vicksburg, Mission Ridge, Black River, siege of Jackson, 
Lovejoy Station, Bentonville and many others of scarcely 
less importance. In his professional practice Doctor Swarts 
was numbered among the most successful in his section of 
the state, and was held in the highest regard among his 
professional colleagues. In 1862, prior to his enlistment, 
he has been employed as one of the county physicians, and 
in 1880 he was again appointed to that position, while he 
also rendered effective service as secretary of the county 
board of health. He was not only an able physician, but he 
was characterized by a profound human sympathy, which 
overleaped mere sentiment to become his actuating motive. 
Those who knew him well were unstinted in their praise of 
his kindly disposition and his superior ability. He was a 
member of the DeKalb County Medical Society, the Indiana 
State Medical Society, the Tri-State Medical Society and 
the American Medical Association. In the summer of 1900 
Doctor Swarts took a trip to Europe, his itinerary 
embracing England, Germany, Switzerland and France, 
visiting the Paris Exposition, while, professionally, he 
visited a number of the leading hospital of Europe.  Dr. 
David J. Swarts died on March 3, 1905, in Beaver county, 
Oklahoma, where he had entered a government claim on which 
he was staying to prove it up, but chiefly for the benefit 
of his failing health. His remains were brought back to 
Auburn for interment. His loss was deeply felt in this 
community, where so many of his active years had been 
passed, his death coming to many as a personal bereavement, 
for he had endeared himself to all who were numbered among 
his friends. On August 28, 1862, Dr. David Swarts was 
married to Vesta M. Ward, the daughter of Rev. Stephen 
Brown and Laura Ward, of Auburn, a sketch of whom appears 
elsewhere in this work.  She was born in Lorain county, 
Ohio, on April 26, 1841, and came to DeKalb county, 
Indiana, with her parents in 1842. She received her early 
education in the Auburn public schools, completing her 
studies at the Northeastern Indiana Academy, at Orland, 
Steuben county, in 1858. She then began teaching and from 
that time up to her marriage to Doctor Swarts she was 
identified with the educational interest of DeKalb county, 
eventually becoming superintendent of the Auburn schools. 
For a year during the early part  of the Civil war she 
taught school in Hicksville, Ohio, and in the great issue 
between the North and the South her loyalty inspired her to 
active efforts in behalf of the Union. She gave frequent 
talks and readings at meetings called for the enlistment of 
volunteers, and later while teaching in Auburn she had a 
class of thirty students who sang war campaign songs on 
such occasions. She still has in her possession several 
copies of these songs. In July, 1864, Mrs. Swarts, 
possessed with a deep consciousness of a call to duty, 
resigned her position in the Auburn schools and started for 
the Southland, her intention being to join her husband and 
assist him in his care for the sick and wounded soldiers. 
He was then located at Altoona Pass, Georgia. She called on 
Governor Morton and asked for a pass, which he readily gave 
her, but told her that communication was cut off by Hood's 
army, which was in Kentucky, and that she probably would 
not be able to get through for some time.  However, he gave 
her an order to report for service to Mrs. Annie 
Wittenmyer, of the Christian Commission, at Louisville, and 
there, on July 15th, she began he work as nurse in the Brown 
U. S. General Hospital. In October of the same year she was 
transferred to the Crittenden U. S. General Hospital, at 
Louisville, where she remained until March 27, 1865, when, 
being unfit for further duty on account of poor health, she 
was honorably discharges and returned to her home. Her 
experiences in this work were necessarily far from 
pleasant, but she devoted herself, heart and soul, to the 
work which she had offered herself and her record during 
that trying period was one of faithful and self-forgetting 
service for others. Only those who  have had actual 
experience on the battle field or in hospitals can fully 
realize how cheap human life is ofttimes held in time of 
war or of the awful carnage of battle.  In the Crimean war 
Florence Nightingale led her devoted band of nurses along a 
new route in the mitigation of the horrors of war, and her 
American sisters followed along the same merciful and 
loving way, the nurses of the Civil war were recruited from 
everyday life and Mrs. Swarts was justly proud of the 
commission which she held from the government,  for such 
commissions were not to be had for the mere asking. 
Referring to her experiences in those days, Mrs. Swarts, in 
one of her letters,  wrote as follows: "A circular sent out 
by the superintendent of nurses of the Sanitary Commission 
stated emphatically that all nurses are required to be very 
plain looking women, their dresses must be brown or black, 

with no bows, no curls or jewelry, and no hoop skirts.  I 
could have filled that bill of particulars perfectly, but 
was spared the inquisition, for Mrs. Wittenmyer, of the 
Christian Commission, to whom I reported for duty, was less 
exacting and my papers were duly signed by order of 
Secretary Stanton and the surgeon-general of the army."  
Again she wrote: "The army nurses know no North, no South, 
in their care for the sick and suffering."  In 1878 Mrs. 
Swarts decided to devote herself to the practice of 
medicine and, after studying for a while with her husband, 
she took special courses in medicine and surgery, and was 
admitted to the junior class of the department of medicine 
of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. And on March 
1, 1882, she graduated at the Ft. Wayne College of Medicine 
and received her degree. She immediately entered upon the 
active practice of her profession at Auburn and later took 
a post-graduate course at New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Vesta 
M. Swarts is a woman of high intellectual attainments, 
thoroughly demonstrated professional ability, and exalted 
personal character, so that she has at all times enjoyed 
the fullest measure of confidence and regard throughout the 
community where practically her entire life has been spent.  
To David J. and Vesta Swarts were born two children, 
namely: Harris J., on August 24, 1866, and Willard Ward, on 
July 14, 1872. Harris J. secured his educational training 
in the Auburn public schools and  then completed a thorough 
course in practical telegraphy, in which he became an 
expert. From 1884 he was employed in active railroad 
service as an operator and in 1892 he became a train 
dispatcher for the Illinois Central Railroad Company, being 
now located as a chief dispatcher at Freepost, Illinois. He 
has been a prudent manager of his private affairs and is 
the owner of valuable real estate at Auburn. He was one of 
the original incorporators of the Auburn Hardware Company, 
in which company he was a stockholder. On November 12, 
1888, he married Chloe S. Shoemaker, the daughter of A. 
Shoemaker, of Decatur, Illinois. To them were born two 
children, Mabel Vesta, born June 27, 1890, and Harold Ward, 
born May 4, 1894, the latter dying on October 28, 1896, and 
the former less than a week later, on November 2d, both 
deaths caused by malignant diphtheria. Dr. Willard Ward 
Swarts received his elementary education in the Auburn 
public schools, and during both his junior and senior years 
in high school was president of his class. He began to 
study of medicine under the direction of his parents, and 
then took the full course in the Ft. Wayne College of 
Medicine, after which he attended the Ohio Medical College, 
at Cincinnati, where he received his degree of Doctor of 
Medicine.  Soon afterwards he took two terms at the Post-
Graduate Medical School and Hospital at Chicago, after 
which he located at Poe, Allen county, Indiana, where he 
devoted himself to the general practice of medicine and 
surgery. Five and a half years later he removed to Auburn, 
where he has continued in the practice, with excellent 
results. He is an honorary member of the Ft. Wayne College 
of Medicine Alumni association, and while in Allen county 
he was a member of the Allen County Medical Society and was 
a charter member of the Ft. Wayne Academy of Medicine. He 
is now a member of the DeKalb County Medical Society, the 
Indiana Medical Society and the American Medical 
Association. He was appointed in January, 1914, as 
secretary of the Auburn city board of health, for a term of 
four years. On February 3, 1897, Dr. Willard Swarts married 
Nell Garside, the daughter of James W. Garside, of Edon, 
Williams county, Ohio, assistant cashier of the Edon 
Banking Company. To Dr. Swarts  and wife have been born two 
children, Irene, born March 7, 1891, and Ward Garside, born 
September 28, 1906.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com