| Notes |
- The following biography is provided by Miriam Robbins. See http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kidmiff/daniel_swears.htm for more information on this family.
Daniel Swears, III was born 7 April 1777 in Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and was baptized there at First Church on 18 May 1777. His parents were Daniel Zwears, II (a Revolutionary War veteran who fought as a member of the Green Mountain Boys for Vermont) and Abigail Willard; he was their third child. His siblings were: Hannah Zwears (Mrs. Thomas Betterley, Jr.) (b. 1773); Lois Zwears (Mrs. Darius Mann, Sr.) (b. 1774); Benjamin Zwears, Sr. (b. 1779); Peter Zwears (b. 1783) and Henry Zwears, Sr. (1785 - 1863).
By the time Daniel was 13 years old, his family had moved to Dummerston, Windham County, Vermont, where his mother's brother Henry Willard also resided. Daniel married Mary [surname unknown] probably c. 1796. They had at least three children: Rhoda Sweers (Mrs. Jeremiah F. York, I) (1797 - 1876); Daniel Sweers, IV (1803 - 1873); and Manley Sweers (1808 - 1894). It is possible they had a daughter named Ruth Sweers, who may have been married to Freeman Wood of New York. Daniel and his family were living in Sandgate Township, Bennington County, Vermont when the 1800 Federal Census was taken.
It is known that Rhoda, Daniel, Jr. and Manley were all born in Vermont. Manley's obituary states he was born in "Wooster, Vermont". There is a Worcester (pronounced "Wooster") located in Washington County, Vermont, which is probably the correct location. A fire in 1816 destroyed the town's records, so there is no other known documentation to show the Swears family's residence there. In May 1809, Daniel, Sr. and Mary moved their family to what is now Chippewa, Welland County, Ontario, Canada, near the Chippewa Creek. It is likely that the family moved at the same time as (or to be near) Daniel, Sr.'s brother Peter, who is known to have settled in Chippewa. Family history makes mention several times of an brother of Daniel's who lived in Canada.
When the War of 1812 broke out between the United States and Great Britain, the British army in Canada was going to press (forcibly draft) Daniel into the army, so he escaped to New York State. At this time the Battle of Chippewa (a.k.a. the Battle of Black Rock) was in progress, and Daniel's wife Mary and their children later recalled seeing the British go up to battle in the morning and returning in the afternoon, carrying the wounded in ox-carts. Not long after, the children's uncle (probably Peter Zwears) went to a Captain Cummings and told him the situation of Daniel's family. The captain allowed Mary Swears to go down to the [Niagara?] river to flag some boats, which came and carried the family across to the U.S. side. There they joined Daniel and then proceeded to what is now the Town of Clarence, Erie County, New York, where Daniel left them in the care of a wealthy man named Mr. Beeman. This man was probably Colonel Beeman, a local pioneer and leader of the community. Daniel's uncle Jacob had served in the Revolutionary War under a Captain Beeman in Massachusetts, and it is possible that this was the same man (or at least a relative).
Daniel enlisted and served as a private in the American army in Chapens' Company of the New York Militia. When the war ended, he returned home, and soon after the family moved to Hunt's Hollow in the Town of Gorham, Ontario County, New York, where his daughter Rhoda married Jeremiah F. York, I, another War of 1812 veteran. In 1819, Daniel and his family moved back to the Town of Clarence, where they lived for many years. In the winter of 1835 - 1836, Daniel's sons Daniel, Jr. and Manley set out through Canada to Michigan and bought land in Section 26 of Atlas Township, Genesee County. Daniel and Mary followed their sons the next spring and lived there until their deaths, Daniel dying between 1840 and 1850; Mary in 1860. Both were buried in the Sweers Family Burial Ground on Manley's farm.
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1777 - Aft 1840 (> 64 years)
