JAMES A. SWINK

 The following bio was taken from page 401 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

Light filtering through a kitchen window sparkles on a glass pickle jar that once stood on a shelf in a county store at New Salem.  On a bookcase in the front room is displayed a cherished daguerreotype, the velvet case worn with much handling, the image within faint with the passage of time. The daguerreotype is a wedding portrait of a young and attractive couple who married December 2, 1852, in Madison County, Tennessee.  James Alexander and Sarah Ann Mays Swink in a few short years were pioneers in Rusk County and prospering in their new home.  Here were born to them eleven children: Mary, Virginia Tennessee, William Gay, Laura, Peter J., Lorey Etta, Neal, Rufus, Dollie, Jim and Sallie.

 There was sorrow as well as happiness for the Swinks.  Their first-born child died in infancy, as did their third daughter.  Two sons also did not survive.  William Gay died of illness at the age of sixteen, and Neal was shot.  Then in 1885, Sarah Ann died.  Her husband was left with four children at home, sons ages fifteen and nine and daughters eleven and six.

Four months after his first wife’s death, James married Sallie E. Ramey, age twenty-six.  Although James had children older than his second wife, all apparently went well.  Etta and Dollie, questioned in later years as to why they called their stepmother “ma,” replied in astonishment, “Well, Pa wanted us to!”

Two children, Jewel and Pink, were born to Sallie and James before James himself died in 1901.

 James died in 1901, and a family squabble over James’ money caused Sallie Ramey to leave East Texas with her two children.  The story goes that James had a fortune in gold.  After the funeral, when the gold couldn’t be found, Sallie accused both her stepsons and her brothers of robbing her.  This mysterious fortune, which was much talked about but never actually seen, could have been amassed in business.  James ran both a store and a saloon in New Salem.

 James kept his whiskey supply locked up in a shed or in the barn.  Boys are, of course, ingenious at finding ways of getting into trouble.  One day James discovered a tunnel dug under the wall of the shed - and also several inebriated youths, including his eldest son.

 Little survives of the nineteenth century store, other than the pickle jar - and memories.

 “I remember visiting Grandpa Swink’s store,” the late Annie Moore said while she was living at the Cushing Rest Home.  Her eyes twinkled as she added, “He always gave me candy.”

 Submitted by M.R. Buckner