Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-08-19
OBITUARY.
=. y. swIft, M. II.


BY DR. Il. d. HoLToN.
Tread before the windham County Medical Society At
Townshend Aug. 17th.l
DIR. f. j. Swift was born in Wilmington.
VI, Oct. %, 1888. He was the youngest of
four sons, being all the children born To Je-
hiel and Mary Haskell Swift His early ed
ucaton was such as could be obtained nj the
district school. He had, however, a great
desire to improve himself, which stimulated
him to study by himself out of school hours.
lie went to New York and was employed in
a Wholesale clock store. While there he was
thrown into the society of several physicians
who were boarding at the same house. From
this association grew the desire to study med.
ioine This he commenced doing under the
direction of Drs. j. II. Irwin and NJ. @. Tullv
OF New York city. In short time his father.
being iniirm with age, induced him to return
to Wilmington and enter the drug business
with him, and here he continued TO pursue
the study of his chosen profession with Drs
A. H. Pettee and j. II. Talbot as his precep-
tors, although he frequently visited and OBJ
tanned counsel of his medical friends in New
York. He attended medical lectures at the
Berkshire Medical College at Pittsfeld Mass.
where he was graduated in 1864. While at
college he won the respect and esteem of all
who knew him rs faithful, conscientious
student AT his graduation he won honors
- N"h'hb tho hiob BIlAb pThCllc0l ANATOMY.
thus leaving very handsome specimen of
his skill in that department in the college mu
scum. He did not believe that everything
had been learned when he graduated and re.
celved the coveted degree of doctor in medi-
cine, but continued to study and to keep pace
with the times in which he lived. He prao-
ticed his profession in Wilmington for 1G
years, where he died of pneumonia Feb. 23d,
1881, aged a years, months. He leaves a
wife, Fanny Ballou, youngest daughter of
Rev. Hosea +. Ballou, to whom he was mar
ried in 1862, and by whom he had eight chill
dren, six of whom survive to mourn the loss
OF kind fathers care and love. He did not
leave large amount of this worlds goods
but the poor will remember him as a kind
friend. His library was well filed and showed
the manner in which he spent his money.
He was a prominent member of the Masonic
fraternity, having been Master for five con-
secutive years of the Wilmington Lodge and
member of the Chapter at Brattleboro He
had travelled considerably in all parts of the
| United States, spending most of 1859 and
| 1860 in California and the West His indus
try, honorable dealing and courteous man
neT together with his recognised professional
| skill, made him one of the most successful
| practitioners of this county. He was devoted
to his profession, and, like all its devotees.
| placed the good of those who were the sub.
Jects of his care as first and foremost often
to the detriment not only Of his comfort, but
of his health and purse. faithful, firm
friend, an accommodating neighbor, desira-
BILE citizen, kind husband, loving father,
the good physician has passed away in the
prime OF his manhood when the experience
which only comes with years of practice was
ripening into that valuable, mature Judgment
which amounts to certainty. The memory of
his kind ministrations in the hour of suffer
ing will linger in the minds of many of the
good people of Wilmington and OF the ad-
| joining towns