Obediah Swayze

Vermillion County, 2010 (Omnedon, Wikimedia Commons).

The last post, 10 May 2017, told of the “discovery” that Rev. Richard Wright was married twice. His first wife (married 2 Jun 1840 in Vermillion County, Indiana) was Malinda Ann Swayze, born to Obediah and Lydia Swayze between 1821 and 1825.

Obediah (the spelling in most records) and Lydia, natives of New Jersey, were among the mass of settlers who poured into Indiana in the early 1800s. In 1820 Obediah appeared in the Vigo County, Indiana, census. Then in 1830, he was found in the census for Helt Twp in  Vermillion County, Indiana. It is likely he and Lydia never moved, for a portion of Vigo County, formed in 1818, became Parke County in 1821, and part of Parke County became Vermillion County in 1824.

Helt Twp, red (Omnedon,
Wikimedia Commons).

Immediately north of today’s Vigo County, Vermillion County occupies a narrow strip (at most, 10 miles wide) bounded on the west by the Indiana/Illinois state line and on the east by the Wabash River. Named after Daniel Helt, an early pioneer who settled there in 1818, Helt Twp is one of five Vermillion County townships laid out in a line from north to south. A 1913 history claims that “In the winter of 1817-18 came Obadiah Swayze, who occupied, as a ‘squatter,’ one of the three cabins just built by the Helts.” The “squatter” Obediah soon became a well-off landowner, acquiring large amounts of Helt Twp farmland – 320 acres in 1819 (SW¼ S27 T15N R9W and NE¼ S27 T15N R9W), 80 acres in 1825 (E½ NW¼ S21 T15N R9W), 126 acres in 1839 (N½ S26 T15N R9W), and 68 acres in 1840 (N½ S½ W S28 T15N R9W).

Portion of map of Vermillion County, Indiana, James Tarrance, 1872 (Library of Congress). Red boundaries show land once owned by Obediah Swayze, 80 acres of which was owned by Richard Wesley in 1872. Also shown is the location of Helts Prairie Cemetery, resting place of the Swayzes. We'll hear about Summit Grove in a future post.

But to whom would Obediah’s wealth go when he passed on, as he did in 1871? His wife, Lydia, died around 1859 or 1860 and was buried in Helts Prairie Cemetery along with his daughter, Malinda, who died by 1844, and his two sons, both apparently dying unmarried and prior to Obediah’s death. Only one descendant remained – Obediah’s grandson, Richard Wesley Wright, the subject of a future post.