SWIM, HENRY (1855 LIVING 1922)

SWIM, HENRY, sawmill owner, general merchant, and hotel proprietor; b. Doaktown, 28 Jan 1855, s/o Robert Swim and Elizabeth Hill; m. 1st, 1880, Margaret Jane Robinson, d/o Robert D. Robinson and Mary R. Mountain, of Doaktown, and 2nd, 1894, Isabella (Hovey) O'Donnell, of Ludlow parish; living in 1922.

Henry Swim had an involvement in his father's business from an early age and, as elsewhere noted, became a partner in the lumber and merchandising firm of Swim & Son. In 1883 he was named postmaster at Doaktown, the office being conducted in conjunction with the family store. When his father sold his interest in Swim & Son in 1893, Henry Swim's share remained intact, and he thus became a partner of the purchaser, his cousin Francis D. Swim, in what was originally known as Swim & Co., and later as H. & F. D. Swim.

In the years that followed, H. & F. D. Swim engaged in lumbering and lumber manufacturing and construction work. In 1896 they built a new sawmill and sash and door factory at Doaktown. This was lost to fire a year later, and although they carried no insurance, they soon rebuilt the sawmill on a larger scale than before. They had extensive timber limits, and in the winter of 1898 had a portable mill set up on Muzzerall Brook, where they were sawing spool bars from birch logs. In 1899 they had a contract to build a bridge across Mill Brook at Nelson's Hollow. Their steam sawmill was running full-time at Doaktown in the summer of 1900. They had taken over operation of the former Robert Swim sash and door factory and were also signing contracts for the construction of buildings. It was said that they displayed a "progressive spirit," and their business flourished until 1909, at which time the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent.

Meanwhile, in 1893-94, a new "Swim hotel" was erected at Doaktown. The facts concerning its financing and construction remain obscure, but in December 1894 it was reported as rumor in the Miramichi Advance that Henry Swim and his wife were planning to take over management of "the Aberdeen Hotel," as indeed they did. The Aberdeen was "a three-storey, Klondike-style hotel, false-fronted, with many verandahs and balconies decorated with spool railings." The structure outlasted Swim himself but was consumed in a sensational fire in 1925.

When H. & F. D. Swim was dissolved in 1909 the sawmill and sash and door factory were among the assets which were transferred to Henry Swim. The mill was no longer operational in 1917, when he sold it to James Holmes. He kept the sash and door factory. He also had a store and continued to conduct the Doaktown post office until 1921. In his later years he was a tax collector in Blissfield parish. In May 1922 he was charged with misappropriating tax funds, but when it was determined that he was no longer mentally competent he was not brought to trial. It was said that he had become disoriented and would wander away from home. In June 1922, in the midst of his financial and health problems, the woodworking factory burned to the ground, and early in October he disappeared. Nothing more is known except that "1922" is engraved on his tombstone as his year of death, and his "estate" was reported to be $5,000 in debt in 1923.

Swim and his first wife, Margaret Jane Robinson, had three daughters. Robert H. Swim, the partner of Robert S. Russell in the lumber firm of Russell & Swim, was a son of the second marriage.