Parents

Son of George MCSWAIN & Catherine WEATHERS.

Life History

Notes

• Francis was the first of the family of North Carolina McSwains tosettle in Arkansas County.  I found him in Prairie Township in 1870,while his mother Katy (Catherine) and his other brothers and sisterNancy are in Giles County, Tennessee, for the 1870 census.  (This isalso where the Butler family lived before some of them also showed upin Prairie Township of Arkansas County.)
  
  Francis is single and living alone in a separate household, but nextdoor to cousins John F and Mary G McSwain, both also born in NorthCarolina.  They are shown with a Post Office of St. Charles, but bothJohn and Francis are shown as farmers.  They probably were livingsouth of St Charles, the nearest post office.  This is where the wholeMcSwain clan later settled, near Ethel.  Ethel later got its own postoffice.  Both St Charles and Ethel are in Prairie Township.
  
  1870 Federal Census, Arkansas County, Arkansas, 4 July, PrairieTownship, PO St Charles, page 15, Hse/Fam #119
  McSwane, Framcis 22 M W Farmer $No Real Estate $220 Personal Estate NC(b abt 1848)
  
  1870 Federal Census, Arkansas County, Arkansas, 4 July, PrairieTownship, PO St Charles, page 15, Hse/Fam #118
  McSwane, John F 30 M W Farm Laborer $No Real Estate $140 PersonalEstate NC (b abt 1840)
  McSwane, Mary 26 F W Keeping House NC (b abt 1844)
  McSwane, George F 9mos  b Oct 1869 M W Tennessee
  
  Also nearby, next door to John and Mary, is another cousin, VirgilWeathers.
  
  1870 Federal Census, Arkansas County, Arkansas, 4 July, PrairieTownship, PO St Charles, page 15, Hse/Fam #117
  Wethers, Virgil 30 M W Farmer $160 Personal Estate b SC (b abt 1840)
  Wethers, Sarah 26 F W Keeping House b NC (b abt 1844)
  Wethers, George W 4 M W b Tennessee (b abt 1866)
  
  George and his family are still reported in or near St. Charles, stillin Prairie Township, in 1880, when Katy, Francis and the whole family(less father George who died before they moved to Tennessee) are a bitfarther south near Ethel, in the same Prairie Township or ArkansasCounty.
  
  John and Mary moved to St Charles only a few months before the censusin July of 1870.  Their son John F is reported as born in Tennessee inOctober 1869.  (Birth months of those less than one year old areincluded in this census.)  So they had to move from Tennessee betweenOctober 1869 and July 1870.  I expect that they were living near Katyand the family in Giles County, Tennessee, where John was born, thenFrancis moved with them to Arkansas, likely in the Spring of 1870,after the winter.
  
  John F's son, George F, later moved to Texas, where other McSwains ofthe Carolina clan also moved directly or from Arkansas.

Sources

• 1. 1860 Federal Census, Cleveland County, North Carolina
  • 6 August, p 54, Hse/Fam #385
• 2. 1870 Federal Census, Arkansas County, Arkansas
  • 4 July, Prairie Township, PO St Charles, page 15, Hse/Fam #119
• 3. 1850 Federal Census, Cleveland County, North Carolina
  • 4 September, p 31, Hse/Fam #584
• 4. 1850 Federal Census, Cleveland County, North Carolina
  • p 31, Hse/Fam #587