Schwab Family, Siselen, Switzerland

I gave my Schwab line only brief mention in my introductory post, so I want to get back to them.  I confess that I have not given this line as much attention because it was so easy to achieve my initial goal of tracing this line back to Europe.  After all, my great-grandfather, Alexander Schwab, and his siblings were all born in Siselen, Switzerland.  Alex was born May 31, 1871.  My great-great-grandfather, John Jacob Schwab was born in Siselen in 1843 and his wife, Maria Schwab (no relation) was born there in 1838.  He emigrated in 1880 and stayed for a while with one of his brothers, John Frederick, who had come to the US in the 1870s and was living in Pennsylvania. In 1882, my great- grandfather Alex immigrated with a group from Siselen going to Germania, PA.  He and his brother, Fred, took a ship from Le Havre, France.  In 1883, the rest of John Jacob’s family came, staying in Renova, PA.  In 1888, they moved to Cameron, PA.

One generation further gets much more difficult without polishing up my German and is complicated by the fact that looking for John (or Johann) Schwab in Siselen is a little like looking for John Smith in the US.  The family kept good records, so I’m reasonably confident in the information they had stating that my great-great-great grandparents were John Benedict Schwab, born 1808, died 1875 and Elizabeth (possibly maiden name Schwab, but family records aren’t clear on this) from Siselen.  He was Der Salzmann, the government’s salt distributor, for his district and he ran a tavern. The family records offer no further details of the family prior to John Benedict.

I often wonder what drove the family’s decision to leave Switzerland.  About the time my great-great grandfather John Jacob was born, Switzerland adopted a federal constitution and the country was well on its way to becoming the prosperous country it is today.  On the other hand, what I found at swissworld.org pinpoints the timeframe and suggests a possible reason:           

Population growth and famine were two important factors which forced hundreds of thousands of Swiss to emigrate during the 19th century. In particular there were waves of emigration in 1816-7, 1845-55 and 1880-85.

As a result of new farming methods, fields were fenced off as private plots, where previously everyone in the community had been able to graze their animals on common land.  The arrival of the railways in the middle of the century meant that grain could be imported cheaply. As a result, farmers switched to more lucrative and less labour-intensive areas, like dairy farming. Thousands of landless labourers were forced to look for employment elsewhere, and migrated to the towns and their factories - or emigrated, often to America.

I know I’ll need to buckle down and work on Swiss sources at some point, but, uh, not today.  I have a sudden urge for some chocolate.

My Life Mostly in Cameron County, Part I

Well, I’ve transcribed almost everything.  But I do need to do some editing.  I found multiple drafts so I need to organize much of the information before I can post it.  I’ll retain my grandparents natural syntax and grammar because it’s essential to their story-telling style.

But I do have some ready.  Here’s Part One of:

My Life Mostly in Cameron County

Frances Schwab Murray, 1966

I am of Swiss, English, Scotch and Welsh descent.  My father, Alex Schwab was a full blood Swiss.  Mother’s father was Scotch and English, her mother English and Welsh.  My father was born in Siselen, Berne, Switzerland.  My mother was born in Canoe Run, Cameron County in 1876.  Dad was born in 1871.  They were married in Cameron, PA August 7, 1893.  I was born August 13, 1896 at Rathbun, PA, the second oldest as my sister, Jennette was born August 4, 1894.  Like Abe Lincoln, I was born in a log cabin, as Dad was working in the woods.  Back in 1923 or 1924 part of that cabin was still standing.  When I was 6 months old, my parents moved back to Cameron where my sister Margaret was born in 1898 and 35 years later I attended her at the birth of her youngest daughter, Jean. 

One of my first remembrances is of the dolls Uncle John had bought for Jennie and I.  China dolls, one dressed in red and the other in blue satin.  We had them in the go-cart and Margaret, who was just beginning to walk, pulled the dolls out of the cart.  Both were broken beyond repair and Jennie and I were heartbroken. 

When I was about 4 years old, while feeding the chickens, I fell on a sharp can I was carrying the feed in, cut my chin open and had a bad cut above my eye.  I sure did some yelling.  Aunt Esther and Winne Shearer helped Mom to care for the cuts.  I’ve still got the scar to show this happened.  It happened in the house where Margaret was born and now that house has long been torn down. 

Dad and Mom moved to Weedville.  It was there Nelson was born in 1900.  I remember the house and time very well.  Mom had no doctor, but great-grandmother Costello was her midwife.  Dad worked in the coal mines, timbering the tunnels.  Nelson was about 6 months old when they moved to Canoe Run in a house across from the coke oven.  We didn’t live there very long and moved across the creek to the little bungalow where Alice was born. 

When we lived across from the ovens, Dad had a lumbering job and Mom boarded the men.  They slept in the house next door to our house.  The three McKay boys worked for Dad.  They used to catch rattlesnakes. And sell them to carnivals and shows.  They had boxes with glass tops so you could see them.  One day they had nine in a couple of the boxes.  One of the old teamsters was afraid one of us kids might break the glass and get bitten so while all the men was at work he took an ax and as they crawled out, he killed them one by one.  There was a terrible row when the McKays got back that night.  Later years one of the McKay brothers was bit by a rattler and died. 

It was in the bungalow at the foot of the hollow that Dad woke me up, sometime during the night and said I have to get up and dress, go for a neighbor, Mrs. Cordright, who was also a midwife. Because my mother was awful sick and needed help.  I was afraid to go as it was about ½ mile from us, past the cemetery where the small pox victims were buried, and trees had grown up on all sides of the road.  But barefooted and in the dark, away I ran.  About halfway there I fell over something that I thought was human.  This made me run all the faster until I came to Mrs. Cordright’s house, opening the door, I fell headfirst inside.  Mrs. Cordright came out in the hall in a nightgown and cap with lighted lamp.  I thought my lungs would burst.  I couldn’t speak for sometime.  She hurried and dressed and with lighted lantern we went down the road only to meet her red and white heifer coming up the road.  That’s what I had fallen over.  I can laugh about it now, but believe me, I sure was one scared kid. 

NEXT WEEK:  Part Two of My Life Mostly in Cameron County-Frances Schwab Murray, 1966 

Swiss Family Schwab

So when did the genealogical research seed get planted?  It goes back to 1975.  I was in Venice, Italy on a semester abroad program and took a weekend trip Switzerland.  As part of that trip I wanted to stop in Siselen, near Berne.  I am one-eighth Swiss and knew my great-great grandparents, John and Mary Schwab, had emigrated from Siselen with their family in the late 1800s.  I went, not knowing much more than a few names of dead relatives.  Siselen is a small town and it took no time to locate the main cemetery.  I was startled to walk among the headstones and see so many with the last name Schwab and with such old dates.  Even at the time, I wished I had done more research so perhaps I would have been able to identify the graves of relatives—and, who knows, even meet a distant cousin.

The following year I asked my grandmother to record our genealogy for me.  And later I received notebooks of historical remembrances she wrote down for the family and for the Cameron County Historical Society.  I don’t know if she ever gave her notes to the Historical Society, but I do know I was grateful I had made the request.  That was the year my grandmother died.  Little did I know it would take me almost 35 years to follow-through.

The first phase of this blog will be my grandparents’ remembrances of Cameron County, Pennsylvania, where they spent most of their lives.  Much of it will be information the Historical Society, long-time residents and anyone who enjoys first person history would appreciate.  I will be transcribing their comments, grammar and all, with editing done only when absolutely necessary. 

After that, I’ll begin telling the stories of my research on specific family lines.  My goal when I started a year ago was to trace each line back to Europe.  If I complete that task, who knows, maybe I’ll make a trip back to Siselen with a little more knowledge.