Born 5 June 1840, died 5 March 1919, on Thacker’s Creek, Blount County - farmer, potter, leathersmith, blacksmith, Confederate soldier, and Justice of the Peace. His family’s land and name are directly tied to the real Swann Covered Bridge, originally slated to be called the Joy Bridge and renamed in the family’s honor at a November 1933 dedication dinner. His son, Thomas Clark Swann, also became Justice of the Peace and farmed the same land; Thomas’s widow, Lula Swann, signed over the right-of-way for the bridge in 1933.
Appears in: Graves Gap Cemetery.
Notable descendants:
- Joseph Henry Swann (1861-1924), Coleman Jordan Swann (1865-1935), William Travis Swann (1867-1886), James Houston Swann (1869-1948), Theodacia Prudence “Docie” Swann Dutton (1871-1918), Thomas Clark Swann (1873-1930), Julius Herbert Swann (1875-1944), George Luther Swann Sr (1877-1950), Hannah A Swann Gilliam (1879-1955), Rhoda Louella Jane Swann Hardin (1881-1953), Alla Dee Swann (1886-1886), Carrie Lee Swann Masters (1886-1942), William Seary Swann (1888-1958) - his documented children, confirmed via Find a Grave.
- Grandchildren: 57 documented across 11 of these lines, the great majority born after 1850 - the generation this project’s pre-1850 cemetery research systematically missed. Selected: Ross B. Swann (1884-1939); Rosa Bell Swann Hayes (1889-1988); Rhoda Jane Angeline “Rodey” Swann Price Crowe (1892-1958); Robert E. L. Swann (1892-1954); Emmett Eugene Swann (1894-1956); Lathamous F. Swann (1896-1957); Emma Bell Swann Jones (1890-1928); Henry Louis Swann (1897-1959); Earnest L. Swann (1901-1907); Susie Valine Dutton Davis (1901-1967); Ludie Mae Dutton Green (1906-1978). Because the list runs to 57 names, the full grandchild list is recorded in the vault research note rather than here.
His pottery survives - or did. Swann made the urns used as grave markers at Graves Gap Cemetery and at Oak Grove Cemetery near Bangor; most of those at Graves Gap have since been destroyed by mowing. At the jug factory, hay was used to pad the ware against damage. He entered Confederate service in July 1862 at Blount Springs and appears as a corporal in Lewis’ Battalion Cavalry, and on the January 1919 Blount County Confederate pension list. His father was Edward Swan(n), who married three times.