Father’s Birth & Marriages

Father may have been born in a wagon or pos­si­bly in a tem­po­rary shel­ter as he first saw the light of day 26 days after their arrival in Vermont-Astoria, Illi­nois coun­try. That is lit­tle time to locate land, legally acquire it, cut, peel, and notch trees, then to erect a cabin with the logs. Any­way he was born Novem­ber 8, 1854, the first child of Abra­ham and Matilda Bryan Switzer. He was one of four sons and one daugh­ter, who grew up in Illi­nois, much of the time on the farm 2 1/2 miles north­west of Bar­dolph and 8 miles north­east of Macomb. It was in the Mt. Solon school dis­trict, which was named for the town in Vir­ginia, near where they lived. He was named George Abra­ham, the fourth Abra­ham Switzer in con­sec­u­tive nam­ing. The name has since died out amongst the Switzer families.

Father and Net­tie Booth of Bar­dolph were mar­ried in 1881. Three chil­dren were born to this union, William Howard, Stella and Ralph Booth Switzer. Tuber­cu­lo­sis was inher­ent in the Booth fam­ily and father’s wife died of it when Howard was 8, Stella 6 and Ralph was 4. Father had moved his fam­ily to Cal­i­for­nia in an attempt to off­set the dis­ease when it became appar­ent she had it. He worked on a house mov­ing gang there but returned to Illi­nois before her pass­ing as she was not being ben­e­fited by the dry cli­mate. Her mother, Grandma Booth, cared for the chil­dren until Minnabel’s mother and mine became the sec­ond Mrs. George Switzer.

On March 23, 1892 Clara Belle Eastin and father were mar­ried on her 34th birth­day. She had been engaged to Charles Booth, a brother of father’s first wife but he died of tuber­cu­lo­sis as did his sis­ter, Net­tie, so Miss Eastin, a bereaved fiancee, and father, a like­wise bereaved wid­ower, were on com­mon ground and mar­ried. Of the five chil­dren who were born to them, the eldest was still-born because mother was injured try­ing to close a heavy gate which the hogs had pushed open.

Two sis­ters died in infancy, after I was born, of cholera infan­tum which claimed many infants’ lives then. Their names were Grace and Win­nie. I was born August 7, 1895 and Minnabel Octo­ber 7, 1901, both on the home farm. I can remem­ber the day she was born in the front bed­room with two neigh­bor ladies in atten­dance. Mid­wife duties were expected of many women then sim­ply as neigh­bor­li­ness. Mother was in atten­dance to Mrs. J. R. Dou­glas many times as she was Mrs. D’s clos­est neigh­bor. She had 11 children.

Next: Lives of Howard, Stella, Ralph & Minna