Mary Louisa Swain 4th great aunt on RootsMagic tree

Mary Swain was born December 5, 1841 in Lake, Illinois. She was the third child of Benjamin and Polly Howard Swain. When Mary’s dad Benjamin died her mom Polly remarried and the family moved to Chickasaw, Iowa. In Chickasaw on March 10, 1858 Mary married John Butler of New York.

On August 12, 1862 Mary’s husband enlisted in the Civil War. On September 9, he joined the 27th Iowa Infantry Company G. On February 27, 1864 Mary’s brother William enlisted and March 21, William joined the 27th Iowa Infantry with his brother in law. William died in September of 1864 in Memphis, Tennessee at Fort Pickering. He is buried in the military cemetery that General Sherman established in 1862. Mary’s husband went on to become a Captain of the 27th Iowa Infantry Company G and mustered out August 8, 1865 four months after the end of the war.

After the war Mary, John and their children were living in Pleasant Grove Iowa in 1870, Mary kept house, John farmed. In 1880 the family was in Wadena, Minnesota near Mary half brothers, the Montgomerys. In 1900 Mary and family were in Lane, Oregon living on a farm in Richardson Township on the east edge of Oregon, near Siuslaw National Forest. Some of Mary’s Gaines family cousins were already in the area. Mary died in 1905, John in 1923 both are buried in Franklin Cemetery in Franklin, Lane County, Oregon.
Sources

• 1870, 1880 and 1900 US censuses at Ancestry.
• Iowa county marriages 1838-1934 database at FamilySearch
• Historic Memphis, Fort Pickering
• 1885 reunion, from the 27th Iowa RootsWeb site by Elaine Johnson
• Find a Grave, Mary’s memorial