My Genealogy Hound

A. R. Swann, farmer and stock raiser, was born in Jefferson County, September 24, 1843, the son of John and Sarah (Anstell) Swann. The father, a farmer, of English stock, was born in 1796, and died April 20, 1887, a farmer of this, his native county. The mother, a native of Jefferson County, of English lineage also, was born in 1808, and still lives with our subject. Their four daughters were deceased in infancy. Our subject, the youngest of four sons, grew up in rural life, and when about seventeen years of age enlisted in the Confederate Army, Company A, Capt. Bradford, of Brazelton’s battalion, and as escort with Y. C. Humes when the war closed. He was at Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Perryville, Kenesaw Mountain and New Hope. He returned to his native county, and in 1866 began farming and trading, but after ten years of this he has been more devoted to stock raising and feeding. He now owns about 3,200 acres of land in Jefferson County, and cultivates about 1,300, all lying in three farms on both sides of the French Broad River, whose bottom lands embrace about 1,000 acres of his land. Strange to say, these possessions grew from a borrowed capital of $25, at the close the war. His present home, his first real estate, was bought in 1876. June 16, 1881, he married Fannie, a daughter of Jesse Burnett, of Cocke County. Janey, Jessie and James are their children, born on the following respective dates: June 27, 1882; October 14, 1884, and November 19, 1886. He and his wife are Baptists.