Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1912-03-15
A. NJ. SWAIN.

Albert N Swain, who died in his home
in the village of Bellows Falls last Sat-
urday evening, aged SO years and
months, was the oldest survivor Of the
Vermont men of the last generation who
served the state and made honorable
names for themselves in the profession
Of journalism and the work Of newspaper
making and newspaper publishing. He
was contemporary with Joseph Poland Of
Montpelier, G.. A. Tuttle of Rutland G.
G. Benedict of Burlington Luther o.
Greene of Woodstock, Charles NJ. Stone
of st. Johnsbury, Albert Clarke of st.
Adams, and a long list of other news
paper men less well known in the state
at large
Mr. Swain was born in Reading on the
18th of July, 1928. He learned the
printers trade in the Office of the Ver-
mont Journal at Windsor, and it was
doubtless true of him as of so many
others of his time that the most vauab BILE
part of his education was gained while
thus employed. In 1855 and 1856 he
was associated with o. H. Platt in
editing the Vermont Republican, which
was printed in Brattleboro and published
simultaneously from Brattleboro, Bellows
Falls and Ludlow. In the latter year he
established the Bellows Falls Times, the
first number appearing on the 9Th of
August.
Under the local and political conditions
which then prevailed the appearance Of
the Times with its sound moral tone and
staunch support of Republican and anti
slavery principles, and later of the cause
of the Union, was gladly welcomed by
the people of Rockingham and its con-
tiguous territory For the next 32 years,
until Oct. list, 1883, Mr.. Swain devoted
| his energies to the publication of the
Times with unfiagging ZEAL with high
professional ideals, and with deserved
, success. He put his genial, broad minded
personality into his paper and it was
through this medium and his unusual
faculty for stating opinions and principles
in short and pointed paragraphs that its
influence was felt, rather than through
extended editorial discussion.
If we mistake not Mr.. Swain was one
of the original members of the original
Vermont Press association and its first
president, and he was the last survivor
of those members. 1t would be an
omission against which Mr.. Swain him.
self would be the first to protest If we
neglected to say that, during all his years
as editor and publisher, Mrs. Swain, who
was a daughter of Brattleboro and a
woman of exceptional graces of mind and
person, was his constant and invaluable
assistant and CO. worker.
OF Mr.. SWANS services in both
branches of the Legislature, and of the
many useful semi-pubc services which
| he performed for his fellow townsmen,
due mention is made in the sketch of his
| life which appears in our Bellows Falls
! correspondence. Our purpose here is only
to recognize the high and enduring
| qualities of his manhood There can be
no doubt that the service which he most
enjoyed during the long years of his
| green old age, after he dropped the
burdens of active life, was that which
he performed in founding and steadily
befriending and helping to develop and
upbuild the Rockingham free public Ii
| brary.
| His was a life filled with the joy of
useful work, of many friendships, and of
overfowing goodwill, rewarded with the
esteem and affectionate regard of all who
| knew him.